One Year Ago

It's hard to believe one year ago today I flew into Anchorage for my 4 1/2 month journey through Alaska. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but it has.

The sad thing is I'm not going back this year to tour with my tour directing friends. I'm embarking on a new journey with new guests through the rest of the West.

The great thing is I made friends when I was in Alaska that I will have for the remainder of my days. For that, I'm truly grateful.

There's no place like home

I'm back in Missouri, and I'm glad to be back. After a long, and out-of-the-way trip from Anchorage to Kansas City, I was greeted at the airport by Mom, Levi and Wyatt. It was so great to see them all! When I got home, much to my surprise, I had a house full of family and friends waiting. It was wonderful to see everyone! No matter if Missouri is hotter now than I've experienced all summer, family and friends make it worth it.



The following day I got quite a surprise as well. I had an interview for a substitute teaching position. When I pulled out of my driveway, I heard a loud pop. I ran over a bolt in my drive, so I called AAA and the tow man followed me to the filling station to have my tire plugged. I ended up having my interview on Wednesday, and I'm now on the sub list.



When I left Alaska, the termination dust or first snow had fallen on the mountain tops and fall had nearly ended.



Here's the front of the wonderful Cordova Square Apartments where I spent my time while in Anchorage in a cozy one bedroom/two bath with 14 of my other dear tour directors! I'm loving having my house to myself!

Pretty rainbows

After having my camera for a couple years, I've figured out that the little movie camera icon on it means it has a video function. Here's a brief video of rainbows as we were making our last ride into Anchorage on Sept. 16.

Sherry, Eric, me, Janis, Jamie and Diane at the Princess Lodge
Fall colors are amazing in Denali!
Sockeye salmon swimming upstream near Portage Lake
Massive kite flying at Delaney Park in Anchorage
Statendam ship's Lido Deck. The roof opens up to reveal the mountains and have the open air around the pool.

The days are numbered! I head home Sept. 17, and I'm very excited. I just ended a tour and have one more remaining. My next tour picks up on the ship Sunday, ends Thursday, I do an exit interview Friday, deadhead home on Saturday from Fairbanks and fly home at 2 a.m. on the 17th.

My last tour was interesting. I had nice enough people, but they ere all pooped out from the ship. I had a guy helicoptered to Anchorage because of cardiac issues, and then I had a few others get sick through out the stay ...

I can't wait to see you all!

Scared spitless ... but alive!

Everyone knows how amazingly graceful I am ... Also, my family knows what happened when I learned to ride a bike ... (I couldn't steer the stupd thing) Well, two other tour directors, Scott and Diane, decided they were going to rent scooters from the Harley store in Denali. How hard could it be, right?

We went to the bike store, got a brief lesson, and were told that anyone could ride these things. We began on the George Parks Highway toward the park. It was incredibly scary since there were very fast cars, and we were only going 30-40 miles per hour. I was last in line and when I began to turn into the park, I was trying to slow down and turn. My feet touched the ground and my legs flew about, but I kept control of the scooter. It seemed that my scooter had stiff steering and veered to the left.

We went 13 miles into the park, stopping at Savage River, just before public vehicles can't go any further. Mt. McKinley was out and very beautiful during the ride. After we got out of the park, we went toward Cantwell, but didn't find much. We turned around after the McKinely Villages. We then drove back toward the Chalets, drove up the switchbacks toward the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain to the Grand Denali Lodge. Again with the massive curves/turns, braking and accelerating ... not my forte.

It was about 9 p.m. at this point - we started at 5:30 - and we decided to drive up the steep hill to the Crow's Nest restaurant for a wonderful bleu cheese burger. This hill has major speed bumps and ditches that nearly made me bottom out.

We got back on the road around a quarter till 10 p.m. and decided to drive out to a bridge where the train crosses. We went there and drove back. On the way back my scooters balance got worse, and it's actually getting dark here. We had to where our sunglasses for protection, so it was getting hard to see.

After gripping the handles of my scooter for dear life for five hours, I was done. I gladly turned in my key, felt good about overcoming a fear and not becooming a grease spot on the pavement. Celebrate the small victories!

P.S. I have no clue why this is underlining everything!

People are Leaving!

A lot of the tour directors are beginning to go home so they can start school. This makes it hard because it gets me thinking about home. I miss you all very much and I can't wait to see you.

Levi, Wyatt and Chase - I'm sending big hugs and kisses your way! Mwaaa!

My 28th birthday was spent in Denali on the Tundra Wilderness Tour. It was great! I lost count on how many bears I saw. I know it was over a dozen. One of the bears was in a river bed feeding on a caribou carcass. I don't have pictures of it because I could only see it through binoculars.











Don't I look older here? I'm 28 ... closer and closer to the dreaded 30 ...










This caribou got close to the bus. The antlers on this thing were massive and it still had its velvet on.




This is the Sourdough Cabins the tour directors stay at while working in Denali. They have two double beds, a shower that spits water and gets more on the floor of the bathroom that the person in the shower. And the water smells like sulfur. Other than that, they're great. The water is my only complaint there. It's almost like I'm at summer camp when I stay there.

I took a motor coach up to Denali while deadheading to Fairbanks, and on the way we stopped in Talkeetna for a potty break. This is the town the television program Northern Exposure was based off of. The show began taping here, but the actors complained that it was too cold so they moved production down to Roslyn, Wash. It is a tiny, quirky town! They have all kinds of odd festivals that go on including the Moose Dropping, Mountain Momma and Wilderness Woman festivals to name a few. (I tried uploading the pic, but the connection is too slow ...)

Update ... I wrote this a couple days ago in Fairbanks. I arrived in Denali around noon, and my day is now complete. My tour - a tour 16 - is going well. It goes to prove my theory that land first people are happier!

Turn and Burn

Today I'm "turn and burning." I dropped off my latest tour at the ship at noon and immediately boarded the ship to pick up the next group. The tour I just finished was another Alyeska tour. I didn't do as well in tips as I should have, but I had a family of 11 from England. The English are great people, but they are not accustomed to tipping.

I had a great group of people. At Hotel Alyeska is the 7 Glaciers restaurant, which is on the top of Mt. Alyeska, and is rated four diamonds by AAA. You have to take a Gondala-style tram to get to the top, which is fun. A group of my guests had asked if I had ever eaten there, and I told them I hadn't since it was a bit out of my price range, but many of my guests come back with rave reviews. These fine folks invited me to go with them since I had helped them out with a number of items. It was a lot of fun, and the food was great. I would've taken pictures of all the food, not just the dessert, but I think that would have been a bit odd for the hosts. The dessert is a devil's food cake with chocolate mousse and ice cream on top. There was a thin chocolate crisp layer around the edge with gold stenciling, along with the chocolate spoon with stenciling. Divine is the one word to describe it. My meal was a great goat cheese/arugala salad with pecan crusted halibut with curry sauce. Yummy!

This is another great view on the pathway from the Hotel Alyeska into Girdwood. There were also a number of paragliders, and I failed to take a picture of them. I was too much in awe of what they were doing. I even had the chance to see how they took off on the top of Mt. Alyeska. It's safe to say that I'm too much of a chicken. Cockle doodle doo!

This is a huge mushroom that I found along the path in Girdwood. And a beautiful flower.

Poor, poor Roslyn at Alyeska. The poor girl had four sick people on her tour, and she didn't get a break!

This is the front of the train when it was coming in last week in Denali. The front of the train is the Alaska Railroad, and the McKinley Explorer cars are owned by Holland America. The top is glass domed and holds 88 guests. The ground level is the dining compartment and serves 44.

Land first ... Cruise later

If you ever decide to go on a cruise and land tour, please, for my sake, go on the land portion first. This is a lesson I learn time and time again when I pick people up off the ship. When people have been pampered on a cruise ship, then they go on the land tour, especially to places like Prudhoe Bay, they are quite cranky. Those that go on the land first have no idea how cushy the ship will be and are geared up and excited for their vacation.

My Alyeska tour went wonderfully. The people were great and the accomadations were amazing! This is the only place that we get to stay in the same hotel as the guests. Check out the cushy beds. There's also a great pool, hot tub, spa and workout room. Girdwood is the town Hotel Alyeska is in, and it has a population of about 3,000, but the town consists of a few restaurants, a post office and a book store. It's definitely a place where you take advantage of its beauty.




This is a view on the walk from the hotel into Girdwood. Gorgeous!









Here I am doing a meet and greet at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks. Doesn't this look like the tour director you would want to tour with?!










Here I am by the river in Denali. There were a couple curious foxes near by and I managed to get a few pictures. I would say they got within 10 feet of me.

Right now I'm on a "Tour 20." This tour is a really nice tour for the guests and myself. I met my 39 guests in Fairbanks and the following day we rode the train to Denali. That afternoon they could do optional excursions or soak up the scenery. Today they all went on the eight-hour Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali National Park. They didn't go on the same tours, so I was sending people off for three hours, and greeting them when they came back for four hours. I'm not complaining though, because I could never get tired of this place. Tomorrow we're heading to Anchorage and then we spend two days in Alyeska, which is a 4-diamond resort. I'm looking forward to the cushy beds and the swimming pool.

This afternoon I went down to the river with some others to watch the rafters go by. On our way through the woods, we came across a brown fox and a red fox. They were really close. I'll share the pix when I can.

Finding Fun in Fairbanks, Part II

I spent this morning following up on my resume. This isn't the best time since it seems that a number of people are taking a long holiday weekend.

This afternoon I went to the Museum of the North and the Botanical Gardens at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. If you get the chance, you should definitely check it out. The museum is architecturly beautiful and the exhibits are very nice. There are all kinds of animal, native indian and history exhibits. Also the art is wonderful.











Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks










Ceremonial Athabascan Indian dress made by Dixie Alexander and her daughter, Rita Prita. Rita does presentations everyday at the Riverboat Discovery on beadwork and Dixie's work is displayed in the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.




UAF Botanical Gardens















I'm trying to be artsy with my pictures. I thought the colors in the flowers were amazing!

Fairbanks must be where Cabbage Patch Kids are grown. These are HUGE!













View from the top of the hill where the museum sits. This is looking toward Fairbanks, across the ag test grounds. UAF is known for its agricultural studies, especially for artic agriculture.











I failed to post this yesterday from the July 4 party. Nothing says, "God Bless America," like a man wrapped in a $.99 tablecloth eating potato chips ... Jeff, Juli and Melissa need help ...

Finding Fun in Fairbanks

Unfortunately, I have two longer breaks (4 days) broken up by my one short tour. My tour ended, and much to my joy, the family of ten left. Alaska is not a vacation spot for young, energy-filled children.

Anyway, during my break, I decided to stay in Fairbanks. I'm never here long enough to see the other sites besides the Riverboat Discovery and the Gold Dredge. These last few days I've played tourist.

Tuesday I went to the Alaska Art Gallery, wondered around downtown, went to the ice museum and Chena Hot Springs. Wednesday I went to Pioneer Park for July 5 festivities, then I worked for a few hours at the Westmark and that evening Holland America through a party for all the staff. It was a lot of fun. Today I'm briefing and debriefing for my next tour and getting all that prepared. I also plan to follow up with my resume today. Tomorrow I will go to the Museum of the North and Botanical Gardens at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

The past few days have been really hot in Fairbanks - I would say mid-80s to mid-90s. Actually the past couple weeks have been unusually warm all over Alaska. Many guests come with parkas, not prepared for short-sleeve weather ....

Fairbanks is known as the Golden Heart City because of it's locale and the gold rush that took place here. This picture was taken at Golden Heart Square, and it's a sculpture of Alaska's first family. The family does not have any ethnic origin because there are a number of different "first nations" or native people in Alaska.

This is the tent for the ice museum at Chena Hot Springs. The first rendition was made entirely of ice, but it only lasted through the winter, not the summer months. Now they've constructed this tent to hold the ice bar, sculptures and rooms.

Dustin is quite surprised about having an ice bed ... No one stays in the rooms, but in the first ice hotel, it was an option. It's safe to say that this was a bone-chilling experience.

I took a stab at being a little Eskimo girl, but I don't think I would make it. Oddly enough, the igloo was a bit warmer inside.

Two knights were jousting in one of the sculptures.

One of the ice sculptures.

On the way to the Chena Hot Springs - there is actually a hot spring pool there that we used - we saw a bull moose. This is the first bull moose I've seen here.

Ten hours driving = Denali

This morning I picked up 37 guests from the ship in Seward. I could tell from the start that this tour would be different than my others. First, the group has been on vacation for seven days, and second, they've been pampered the entire time.

Everyone seems great, but not extremely excited about the tour. In addition there is a family of ten traveling together that is causing some guests to be upset. Combined, the family has six children undr the age of 11. The problem isn't so much the kids, but the parents that let them run wild. I'm fraid this is something I will have to address shortly for the sake of the other passengrs. The worst part is the parents don't act much better.

Tomorrow they're all off on the tundra wilderness tour, so I'll see if any guests report to me concerned about the situation.

Photo Updates

I just walked to Wal-Mart to get my photos on CD ... I will try to do better about posting ... I promise!

Here I am after a flightseeing trip around Mt. McKinley. This was a spiritual experience to say the least. The plane sat six people, and I was in the co-pilot seat. We were within six miles of Mt. McKinley and one mile of Mt. Hunter. You could see mountains, valleys and glaciers for miles upon miles.

These are all views from the plane. You can't tell me that God didn't have a hand in this!

Isn't Mt. McKinley spectacular?!




















The McKinley Chalets - This is where most of our guests stay while in Denali. This is only the lobby which has a gift shop, coffee shop and the Nenana Grill in it. Behind is the Cafe and then the "cabins" where the guests stay. The accomodations are much like individual motel buildings.

Can't you tell? This is the Top of the World ... or at least according to the Anchorage Marriott.



Anne Marie and Melissa (roommates) and Janis all sit at the Top of the World. The Marriott had a familiarization party for Holland America employees where we got free food and drink. You gotta love the free food; it costs too much to buy it up here.



Janis, Juli and I decide to try out a hat shop in the mall to pass the time. I hate taking pictures with pretty people! I need to learn how to take a good photograph before the end of tour. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Step 1: Lose the Dr. Seuss hat ...

This picture is for Wyatt. I get to ride this very long train when I'm on tour from Anchorage to Denali and again from Denali to Fairbanks, for a total of 12 hours. The train car I ride in has a glass domed ceiling and then we eat breakfast, dinner and supper underneath in the dining car.





On my tour run to Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse, AK, our first stop outside of Fairbanks is Joy, AK. All it is is a gift shop with refreshments and "old school" outhouses. If you get in the wrong stall, the run off proves disastorous. Good think I had the smarts to put my feet up ...





Standing in line in Joy, AK.










Our lunch stop is at the Yukon River Camp. You can see that our bus has seen better days. The Dalton Highway is rough and dirt 80 percent of the 499 miles up to Prudhoe Bay. The River Camp had great food, but it's a bit rough. They sell "bearly" worn clothing there. A couple years ago, a bear and its cub decided to hibernate in the gift shop, using the inventory for its nest. What a great marketing ploy!




The Trans-Alaska pipeline. The pipeline is laid in a zig-zag pattern to help with movement when earthquakes hit. The pipeline also sits - not bolted down - on vertical support members that are covered in Teflon to help the pipeline move and shift with the earth. It also helps with the earths movement and settling due to permafrost.









This is the Arctic Circle. I was a bit disappointed; there was a dotted line or anything at the stop. It was only the sign.

Welcome to Coldfoot, AK, and our accomadations for the evening. There is running water, but the walls are paper thin, the shower is tiny, and you're lucky if the water is warm. Oh, and did I mention there are only twin beds, no T.V.s and no alarm clocks. Enjoy!

P.S. Because there were no alarm clocks and did morning knocks beginning at 5:30 a.m. ...





Our lunch stop is spectacular on the way to Prudhoe. It's Galbrith Lake. We pack a lunch and sit out on the rocks and soak up the beauty and the sun.









Migrating caribou are a common sight from Coldfoot to Prudhoe. We had a number of caribou in the road along the way. I'm still waiting for musk oxen.






Our accomodations improved once we got to Deadhorse. We went from a double wide trailor to a Morton building. The food here is spectacular since they feed all the oil workers. This is still a working camp, but we do have the luxury of a 9" t.v., alarm clock and laundry facilities.



I did the Polar Bear Plunge in the Arctic Ocean! I really only went up to my waist, but it was like liquid ice. I got in and out so fast that my picture couldn't get taken. Some of my guests got a good shot of me going in and out. I'll have to post those once they're sent to me. One guest told me if Michael Jordan ran that fast, he never would have retired. I didn't run that fast because of the cold, but because I was in my bathing suit in front of a number of people!

Stay tuned for more posts ...