Vacation is Tiring!

Well, I guess technically this is not vacation, but sometimes it feels like it! I love working here!

This week was a good one. On Monday I had my first tour. I took about six people on the Portage Glacier Tour. I had never been on it myself, so it was a little interesting to do. First we went to the Begich, Boggs Visitors' Center, in Portage, and gave the guests about an hour there to visit and eat and learn about the lake and the glacier. Then we took them to the Ptarmigan, on which we sailed across the lake to the glacier. There was a lot of ice on the lake still, so we could not get closer than about a mile from the glacier. It was really neat to see the glacier though. That voyage was about an hour long, and then we went to the Alyeska ski resort. I got to ride the tram there, which is the first one I remember riding. It was sweet. It starts at about 250 feet above sea level, and ends at 2750 feet above sea level. The view from up there, on a clear day, is amazing. You can see the resort and ski area, but you can also see all of Glacier Valley and Turnagain Arm. It is rather incredible. After leaving the resort, I took the guests back to their hotels, arriving just about seven hours after we had departed. It was a fun day. We had a ship in town that day, the Coral Princess, but I actually did not go to it at all.

The middle of the week was pretty quiet. On Tuesday, I ended up running airport shuttles all afternoon. I drove between the airport and the downtown hotels eleven times. There was a moose grazing or sleeping right next to the road on the airport property for almost the whole afternoon, which everyone thought was great.

On Wednesday I got to drive for a trip I had been wanting to do. There was an employees' flightseeing tour, which I had wanted to go do, but did not want to ask for the day off, so I decided not to do it. Well, I got assigned to be the driver for that. I got to go, and get paid for it! It was great! We went over to Lake Hood, and took off in a floatplane. That was an interesting experience. he plane feels different when it is taking off and landing, because it rocks on the lake, even while it is moving very fast. It was a sweet trip. I was glad I did not sign up for it, because I got to go anyways!

Thursday was my day off, because I requested it. Karen and Mom arrived into Whittier on the Alaska Marine Highway. They were about an hour late. Whittier looked rather strange without a cruise ship there! I picked them up at the ship, and then we drove to Seward. We visited the Alaska Sea Life Center there, and looked around town a bit. I showed them some of the places I go, including the ship dock. On the way out of Seward, we stopped at Exit Glacier, and went hiking for a little, out to the edge of the glacier. It was huge! And we got to stand on it, that was sweet! That was a fun little adventure, and a pretty easy hike. We were trying to go on the Portage Glacier Cruise, but that did not work out. We did not get back in time for the last sailing. We stopped at Alyeska, even though it was cloudy, and did the tram there again. It actually cleared for a few minutes while we were at the top. That was very nice. From there, we went back to Anchorage, and I showed them around town a little. I showed them downtown and also Lake Hood, and then dropped them off at their hotel.

Friday was another ship day. The M/S Ryndam was in Seward. I guess it was a pretty quiet ship day though, because I only did evening rail arrivals. I drove people from the train station to the Westmark hotel. I had most of the day to hang out downtown with Mom and Karen. We walked around downtown for several hours and saw the sights there. Later in the afternoon we went out to Earthquake Park. That was an interesting place. You can still see areas there where large chunks of the earth broke off and fell into the Cook Inlet.

Yesterday was a busy day. We had the Diamond Princess in Whittier again. She had come in from Vancouver. I went to Whittier early in the morning to pick up guests and bring them downtown. Basically I ran around all day, driving people wherever they needed to go. In the late afternoon, I headed back to Whittier with people boarding the ship. When I got back to Whittier, they asked me to stay for a while, so I could drive the McKinley Express train employees home. I stayed there for about two hours, and helped on the dock and in the terminal. That was a little crazy because I really had no idea what was going on, having never been trained there! It was fun though, and a little bit of a change. There was a little bit of a mix up with who was picking up which rail employees, so I ended up getting the Denali Express employees, and then heading over to Portage for the McKinley Express employees. It turned out that the person who was supposed to get the Denali Express employees thought she was getting the McKinley Express emplyoees, so she was waiting in Portage when I got there. Rather than wait there with her, I just headed back to Anchorage. I dropped them off at the railroad yard, and then waited for the southbound train from Fairbanks and Denali. I waited on that thing for a while, as they sat in the crossing, hrowing switches and finally uncoupling the cruise cars. From there, I headed back to the coach yard, and called it a day, 15 hours after starting! It was a long and tiring day, but it was fun. I like this job.

Today I am working in the afternoon, doing airport shutles, but I do get to go to church before I go to work, which is really nice! The M/S Statendam is in Seward today, but I will not likely make it down there. That is fine with me though, I'll stay in town. If I go down there, today will be at least 15 hours long too.