Who are you? who? WHO? who? WHO?

Sarah, Abby, Shari, Nathan, Kayce and Liz

There are several departments up here at the Skagway Division of Holland America/Princess-Alaska/Yukon:

Management/Business
Dispatch
Driver Guides
Dock Reps
Sales and Service
Luggage Crew
Wash Crew
Mechanics
and temporary folk like
Tour Directors
Highway Driver Guides

There are over 100 local (not temporary folk), so a bio of everyone would be time prohibitive and exceedingly boring to most people. But that doesn't mean that there aren't a slew of interesting people in the other departments. I have to say I've rarely worked in a place where I can honestly say that I like everybody. Sure, there are people I'd rather spend more time with than others. But there is no one I would want to avoid 100% of the time. And that's an excellent thing.

So who do I work with? The above photo is our entire department here in Skagway. The company recruits from a few places and gets other employees by word of mouth or randomly. So you find that there are clumps of people from certain places: central Florida, Utah and Bellingham, WA.

Sarah is 20 years old from Orlando and attends the University of Central Florida. UCF has a hospitality industry department. No surprise since it IS Orlando, home of the Mouse. I probably know Sarah the least, only because she works part time for our department. Other times she works for the coffee shop in their bakery and bakes yummy treats. Part of the curriculum at UCF is to get a paying job that counts towards college credits as long as it has a connection to the hospitality industry. She is smart, hard-working and very pretty although she'll pooh-pooh that last part. What shines in her is her strong connection to her faith.

Before arriving, she made a connection with a local family who have adopted her for the summer. She does live at the Westmark with the rest of us. But this family has embraced her and given her the opportunity to be more in tune with local full-time life than most of us here get a chance to see. Since she is from a large family, this connection has helped her get over her initial homesickness. Sarah also feels we here should have more community, so she has posted notices that she will cook breakfast for anyone who is interested for a mere $6. They are so yummy and definitely give us a chance to break bread together. She is a delight and will be leaving in mid/late-August to be home before school starts. She will be missed. Sarah hopes to be a wedding planner and she will be splendid at that.

Next in our photo is Abby. Wow! What to say about Abby? First, she's our manager and just had her birthday, so is now 26. She is also the only other married person in our department. Her husband, Trent, works as a dispatcher. They have been working for HAP-AY for several years in various positions so have a great knowledge of the company. They are also two of the most likable people up here. She is good to work for and with, soft-spoken, very attractive and has a way of being both outgoing and private at the same time. When we first all met she asked us to say a little about ourselves including something unusual. Her "unusual" thing was a fascination for a wide variety of make-up. True to form, a couple of times a week something arrives in the mail that she has purchased online and often it is make-up. Somehow she always manages whatever colors she mixes to look fabulous. Not that she isn't already naturally attractive!

She and Trent have a Mormon upbringing and are a great couple. They spent the last winter traveling around promoting the company all over the U.S. driving in one of the luxury coaches that the Cruisetours use. Last summer here in Skagway, they spearheaded a group of people to...ghost hunt. Yup, they got that funky equipment like they use on that t.v. show and investigated spooky places around Skagway...of which several exist. So it is said. So, she's very interesting and surprising.

Then there's me, but it's my blog and enough about me. Some of my co-workers, though not all, call me "Mom." Many of you who know me from ages back know how funny THAT is!

Next is our Nathan. Nathan turned 20 just at the beginning of our season up here. Our fashionista, he is young, bold, opinionated, generous, fabulous, sassy, infuriating, kind and entertaining. Gotta love him! He can't be bothered with the trivial. He'll go out of his way to help you out if he likes you, but does not suffer fools gladly. He has a spirit of entitlement than makes you say, "Who the hell do you think you are" on the one hand. And on the other hand, makes you envy his lack of inhibition for going for whatever....whether for himself or for those he cares about. He has a "can do" attitude, like naturally this will all be as he wants it to be. And if it doesn't, well then, he just can't be bothered. I would love to be that fearless.

Nathan also goes to UCF. So he and Sarah will be leaving at about the same time. I've questioned him if hospitality is really where he wants to be. I've yet to get a straight answer to that question. And that's just fine because at 20 you shouldn't have all the answers. A lot of life will go out of our department when he leaves. Nathan's got presence.

Kayce is 24...25? Yikes! I don't remember. Sorry, Kayce! She is our TOKen Alaskan and the pun is intended because she lives in Tok, Alaska. Yes, there is a Tok. Tok rhymes with coke. Tok exists as an overnighting place along the Alaskan highway and that's really about it. She has also been with HAP-AY for a few years in various capacities. She was a trolley driver up in Denali last year, so Mike worked with her last year.

While she doesn't have Nathan's flamboyance (thank goodness....the department isn't big enough for two), she shares Nathan's characteristics of kindness and generosity. If she has it to give in terms of her time or goods, she will always share with you. She has a beautiful smile and a vast knowledge about Alaska. Sometimes she can be very defensive of her state. We had a lively conversation early on about why more Alaskans aren't hired by the seasonal companies. Being from here, hunting and fishing for winter provisions is not unknown to her. Talk about fearless! Her dream is to go to culinary school and become a chef...owning her own bistro. She will be wonderful at that.

And finally, there's Liz who is 19...ok she'll be 20 at the end of this month. This spring she logged onto coolworks.com looking for summer work and found this. So, she wasn't recruited. She didn't know anyone up here. She stepped outside of her routine and all that was known and just...went. Again, fearless! I wish I'd been that fearless when I was their ages. Yeesh! She is from the Chicago area and is majoring in film...looking to produce films in her future.

She is smart, funny, cute and very authentic. She can laugh with others and at herself. Liz is on the cusp of great things in her life. She is focused on her future. I really like that Liz and Sarah are focused on what they're doing, their future and who they are. If it had been me at their age I would have been all about seeking true love. I admire their focus.

(oops...pause...listening to Pandora and "I'm Gonna Be 500 Miles" is on...so gotta stop and bop....damn....the song's over now...pooh)

So basically what I'm saying is how much I admire my young co-workers for doing what they're doing, what they're up to and what they're working towards. For the first time in my life I'm finding myself envying being young. I've never thought much about going back and wanting to do something over. My life has been what it is and I'm pretty ok with all that's come before. I've lived a lot more of life than many choose to. But for the very first time, I look at what they're doing and that they have so much more time to grow, experience, live, and have adventure. And this is all from the perspective of being young.

Yes, I've still got time and space for adventure and growth. No doubt about it. But I also have a lot more life behind me. My eyes are older. My take on things cannot be as fresh and new. My points of reference are current to my life, yet history to theirs. Really old movies are in the 1980's. They don't really know about going all the way to the gate to meet people at the airport. And many more moments that arise where I am reminded that while I inhabit this time, I also hold the memories of other eras.

And soon it will be time to go...back...to what? Definitely I look forward to seeing all my Arizona family. I miss them all very much. I don't look forward to an unlikable routine. So, it will be a goal to find a winter routine that I will like....whatever that might be. Hopefully it will include a good nursing job and a lot of time spent with those we love.

Mike's been very active and suffering from two broken fingers and some trauma to his hand...possibly a tendon or ligament. And he's on the volley ball team. Gotta love him! And I hear his team is comprised of four of the shorter people who work for HAP-AY. Also, it's Safety Week here in Skagway and that means pep rallies, games and our monthly bbq. I'm looking forward to the bbq....as always. It's all about the food. ; )

Another item ticked off on the Bucket List...

Sometimes things go on your Bucket List and you don't even know that they're on it. If you don't have a Bucket List...of things you want to see or do before you "kick the bucket"...sit down now. Write it down. You will be amazed how many of them will get done in the not distant future once they're written.

For us, we took an overnight backpacking trip to do something that neither one of us had ever done. At this point, we have a hard time finding things that one of us hasn't already done, seen or accomplished that the other one wants to do. For us, it was to visit and walk on a glacier...together...for the very first time for both of us!

Now when you cruise to here you can book two different trips in Skagway through Holland America. One is called Dog Sledding and Glacier Landing. That costs $519 per person. The other one is called Glacier Discovery by Helicopter. That costs $299 per person. Glacier Discovery is a helicopter flight and glacier landing. The other one also includes a visit to a musher's camp located up on the glacier and riding in a dog sled. If you weigh 250 lbs. or more for either trip there is a 50% surcharge. A wee bit above our budget and this particular company offers NO discounts, let alone a comp'ed tour for locals or those who help book their trips.

Obviously, we did not take either of those trips. We visited Laughton Glacier in the very best way...we earned it. There is actually a day excursion that you can buy on some cruise ships and walk with about 18 other people to the glacier and back. No thanks. For anyone travelling to the glaciers, the only way to access the trailhead is to take the train. It isn't accessible by road. There are actually two glacier trailheads that are available only by train here in the area. One is Denver Glacier at mile marker 5 on the train. Laughton Glacier trailhead is located at mile marker 14.

Sunday morning was cold and windy. Excitedly, we waited for our train. Mike jogged across the park to see which ship was in port while I watched a bald eagle riding the wind. So far, an excellent start to the day. The station masters are excellent at their job...keeping people in their groups by train car. That morning we were the only hikers boarding for Glacier Station. They put us in the first car behind the engines. It was a car all to ourselves and it had a cupola with room for two people. The conductor kindly gave us permission to sit up top.
Mike loved riding up there, but my seat wasn't bolted in as tightly and was bobbling a little too much and motion sickness was incipient. So I went back down to the regular seats. This was Mike's first time actually riding on the White Pass and Yukon Route RR, although he drops people off at both the Skagway and Fraser stations almost every day that he works.

We got dropped off and started up the trail. Along the way we passed 4 people catching the next train to Skagway. If there weren't any other people camping there, it would mean we would have the entire glacier area to ourselves! (And it turned out we did!)

The trail winds through woods along the Skagway River through Warm Pass Valley which seemed anything but warm. The trail is very easy the first two miles to a cabin that you can rent from the forest service. We decided to bring a tent and intended to sleep at (my choice) or on (Mike's choice) the glacier. Our brochure recommended we take the overlook trail to avoid impact on the trail from the cabin. Always wanting to be obedient, we chose that one.

Yuck.

We love rock scrambling and bouldering. It's one of the things we love most in our trips into the desert in Arizona. We do not love wet rocks. We do not love wet moraine. We do not like humping backpacks up wet moraine.

But trudge up the moraine we did. The valley that this glacier occupies shows stark evidence of how the glacier is receding. Sharp slopes of dirt and rock edged with lateral moraine. Eventually we neared the foot of the glacier having taken a diagonal approach to the valley floor as it sloped upward towards the glacier.

At first it doesn't seem like much: large brown boulder piles with some sheer blackened walls. All day the clouds stayed low and we didn't see the top of the mountains the glacier sat on until the next day.
We found a sandy spot with a very interesting cairn in it. It was the perfect spot to pitch a tent!

We shared a quick sandwich and left our packs at the site and headed towards the glacier...or at least towards the rocks. We could see one swoosh of bright white and brilliant blue with water flowing through it. That was where we headed...but how to get to it with a river in our way? We headed up the rocks on a hill. They were the most unsteady rocks we've every walked on and we realized that they were NOT sitting on any kind of bedrock, but on ice! Those barren slopes in front of Mike are nothing but ice with dirt on top of them at about a 70 degree angle. Still, this portion was too rocky to put on the crampons we'd brought with us. We looked left, right and ahead and finally figured a way over to the blue cascade and worked our way over to the left of the brilliant waterfall. Meantime we kept stopping to take a picture of every piece of blue ice we could see! And while the pictures jog our memories, they just don't show the intensity of that blue color.

Eventually we made our way over to the ice field and donned our crampons. Now I'm usually a little "concerned" about using new gear in the field that I've never tried out. Not only was I unfamiliar with their use, Mike had never worn crampons either. So this was new to both of us. How would they work? Would they go on easily? Will we have weird balance? Not just no, but hell no! You just slip these red rubber gizmos with chained spikes onto your boots. And voila! You are a mountain goat! All those years of paranoia in Connecticut about walking on ice....if I'd only had crampons! I love crampons! Maybe I should compose an Ode to Crampons! We were fleet- and sure-footed as we traversed all the ice fields. Thank you, Packer Expeditions for the loaners! It's good to be a local!

So the above picture is Mike beginning to build a little platform to put the camera on and use the timer to get a photo of both of us in front of the brilliant blue cascade. We enjoy hiking together and often in beautiful and varied scenery. And we frequently take photos of our little trips. How does Mike usually capture me hiking? With an intense, up close and personal, not with a wide-angled lens, but with a wide-angled capture of my butt. I just couldn't resist the opportunity to return the favor:

The cascade was amazing:

The black thing in the middle of the waterfall is a cluster of rocks caught up on an ice shelf. You can make out a pillar of ice with a cut-out to the ice wall. Mike threw some more rocks to try to get the rock cluster to fall. But in order to reach it, the rocks he threw had to be small and didn't have the weightt to knock the cluster off. We really didn't need to help the glacier. As we walked we could see rocks tumbling down off of the ice walls on the lower glacier.

It was fascinating to walk above the cascade onto the ice fields and watch how they changed the closer you got to the upper glacier. It went from boulders to fine rocks to medium rocks to large boulders poised on points of ice. As the sun would heat up the rocks sitting on the ice, small puddles would surround the rocks. Sometimes they were a couple of feet deep into the blue ice. More often, they were as if each rock was nestled in its own little pool of water. Everywhere were rivulets of flowing water. Yes, we were uber careful about crevasses.
There were ice caves and ripples of ice to walk over. Eventually we came to a part where the ice began to look like a pond looks as the ice is beginning to melt. We deemed it to be far enough and did not get quite all the way to where the flow was coming down the cliff. Still, being that near the upper glacier gave us an up close and personal look at the frozen ice age rivers. Up ahead we could see soccer-ball sized chunks of blue ice lying on the white snow where they had fallen from the frozen river above.
Compared to the valley it once occupied, the glacier is very much smaller than it had been. You hear about glaciers being a mile thick. In this area you know which mountains are higher than 5,000 feet because those are the crags and spikes above more rounded mountains that had sat beneath the glaciers. It isn't until you are in the presence of this incredible natural force that you can begin to get a glimmer of the size they must have been.

You can take this as a day trip, taking the 8 a.m. train and returning on the 3:30 train. I am so glad we did an overnight backpacking trip. It gave us an unhurried, leisurely time to explore at our (my) own pace. It drizzled on and off all day and remained cool and windy. Glorious!

We actually both slept fairly well in our little tent and enjoyed coffee in our tent before setting off. Just before we left camp, the sun broke through the clouds and showed us the top of the mountains above the upper glacier. The sun on the pure white snow at the mountaintop was positively blinding after so many cloudy days. We only had a moment to capture this one photo because the clouds moved back in at warp speed. Yes, it was so warp speed. Trust me.

OK, I do care about the impact on the environment. I also care about the impact on our knees...and care more for the knees than the environment. I am sorry, Gaia. So, we followed the trail along the river back to the cabin and avoided the moraine. If you don't like tent camping, the cabin is definitely a very viable alternative with bunks inside with a fire ring and bench outside.

We chose to leave and catch the 11:30 a.m. train instead of our scheduled 3:30 p.m. train. On our hike out, the day was warmer and drier than the previous day. We passed two separate couples...one doing a day hike and one couple planning to overnight at the cabin. And then we met two TOUR GROUPS! The tour guides carried monster packs with one person at the head and tail of a group of 20 people off the cruise ships. Yeesh. Not my style of hiking at all. But I applaud them for taking this tour because it is real. It is Alaska. It is a glacier. It's not a gift shop and there wasn't a shopping opportunity for 13 miles. Good for them! And how lucky am I that I get to live here and take all these trips as I wish all summer long! I am blessed!

We returned to the trailhead at the whistle stop with about 1-1/2 hours until our train would appear.
Mike wanted me to walk out onto the bridge...which, of course, I didn't want to...but did anyway. It was a time to relax and eat our other sandwich before taking the train back into town and take a shower. (Purists will note that the train is going in the wrong direction to be heading back to Skagway. It's just that going out of town is when we got the better train photo. Pfffft!)

And, of course, I took a whole bunch more flower photos. Maybe I'll make that my next task this afternoon...creating the file with just flowers of Alaska in it. Just for me.

We're at the midpoint of the summer for Mike and past the midpoint for me. My season ends about September 6 and his goes until the end of September. It is the time to think about what work lies ahead for me. Time to research, update the resume, submit applications, make calls and contacts. Too soon it will be time to leave these mountains. Did I mention it was 56, cloudy, windy and drizzly here while it was 109 and sunny in Peoria yesterday? Do I really have to say how happy I am to be here yet one more time?

Fourth of July (Part II)...mostly photos

Our steam train, decorated and awaiting the crowds...and yes, they ARE dressed for July 4th!

Me and Some Peeps Awaiting the Parade (L-R: Reegis, Bethany, Megan, Brayden, Matt, Jon, me and Brian)

Fire Jeep

Customs...asking for you to show ID

Red Onion Saloon

Super Hero Dogs
(Theme of the parade was "Heroes of the Past, Heroes of the Present"

Bear Raiding Garbage Can

Northern Native Americans...Tlingit?

National Park Service

Whitehorse, YT Pipers

Royal Canadian Mounted (ok, not mounted) Police

Ethan as Chock Man...he ran up and down the parade putting safety chocks around bicycles, park rangers, children, dogs, and random people

The HAP-AY Float: The float was a decorated coach with a driver in uniform and a few employees dressed and acting like tourists...walking in front of the bus without looking, stepping into the street to take photos without looking, carrying shopping bags, etc.

Happy HAP-AY Employees after the Big Win...we took Grand Prize for our float...$100!!!


The parade was one fun event. One band...just the pipers. There were a few more floats including the state champion Lady Panthers basketball team. Remember...there's one K-12 school in town and it had a graduating class of 9 kids. The parade is so short that the parade heads south on Broadway...then turns around and comes back up Broadway!

The rest of the day included a myriad of events including a dunk tank, tug of war, various food booths, arm wrestling, dessert/picnic basket auction, a duck race (we didn't win, but we did keep our Vegas themed duck) and the premium event of the day: the Egg Toss. Actually, Skagway holds the Guinness Book of World Records for longest egg toss. Participants start facing each other across the street and as participants are eliminated, the toss goes up and down the street and increasing distances until there is a champion. And this year, two women took the championship! Woohoooo!!!!

Egg Toss


The rest of the day was low key as Mike and I attended a geocaching event, enjoyed some chili at the Red Onion Saloon and recovered from all the weekend festivities.

Skagway has never had a geocaching event until this year. And this year there were three. There was a meet and greet on June 28th of mostly people coming off of a cruise ship prior to attending GeoWoodstock VIII in Washington state. Then the smallest event we've ever attended on July 4: 6 people. It lasted about 10 minutes.

Another event occurred on July 9...a flash mob event which was about 30 people and included people off a cruise ship who had just attended GeoWoodstock VIII. Good times.
There are still two caches at the edge of town we've yet to find and two that are slightly out of town. After that it's 14 miles down the Lynn Canal or 60 miles north of town for the next caches.

Upcoming...a blog about our adventure this past weekend.

Fourth of July--Part I

It has been one rainy, drizzly few weeks up here. And I am NOT complaining one bit. The tourists may complain. They may get fogged in. They might not have the best picture views because of low lying clouds. They may be cold and wet....but then packing a raincoat might have been a good idea. But I am LOVING it. It is not Phoenix. It is not 110 degrees. No complaints here.

Two years ago we spent the summer in Meeker, CO....another summer that I very much enjoyed. Small town life is just so very different from life in suburban sprawl. So before I extol the virtues of a holiday in small town life, let's have a moment of silence for the folks in the small Iowa town where the horses went nuts during the July 4th parade and injured several and killed one person. Not a good way to have a small town holiday.

_______________________

Did you take that moment? Good. Now it's on to how the 4th is celebrated up here. No horses will be harmed in the following story. In fact, there were no horses in the parade. The band was a group of Highlander pipers/drummers from Whitehorse, YT. That's right. The band. But I get ahead of myself.

My cold continues to linger on and I've hit the two week mark. Hopefully this is a corner towards good health that I see up ahead. So, I did not choose to spend much time outdoors watching Mike and the softball team. I went once when Mike wasn't playing and we only lost by 1 run. This past Monday we lost 14-0. I stayed in...it was still raining/drizzling and I still felt yucky.

With all the rain, there were rumors on Saturday that the July 3 fireworks were going to be cancelled. My co-worker said that's what she heard on the radio station ("the" radio station). However, they were cancelled in JUNEAU...not here. Also on July 3 was a company barbeque. They supplied and cooked all the meat. The rest was potluck. And was it a hoot.

It was held at the White House, one of the housing options for employees. They have a yard, volleyball net and firepit. A good time was had by all. It's interesting to make potluck stuff in the communal kitchen. It's then how you realize how many bowls, serving spoons, etc. you don't have. So, I stuck with the easy and went with ambrosia salad in a throwaway aluminum foil baking dish. Easy! And with this crowd, you can make something yucky...if it's homemade it will be eaten.

The drizzle was on and off all evening. Volleyball was on and off until it went off when the ball rolled into the street and was FLATTENED with a big ker-POW by a passing RV. Talk about funny. That was about one of the time one of the drunker participants tossed a beer bottle into the street...near our left rear wheel. Not so funny. A clean-up of shards prevented any tire mishaps...and we moved the pickup after that.

So we headed down to the fireworks. There were several of us heading down the street, one of whom was my fabulous co-worker, Nathan. Helen Keller might not guess that Nathan is gay, but she probably could figure it out, too. You gotta love Nathan because he is unabashedly who he is and that's how it should be. He lives in Orlando and has an Orlando sensibility.


So when two drunken yahoos called him a faggot, he gave them a "F--k you" back. Then began the jeering from the yahoos that went on and on, louder and louder from up to two blocks away. The group of us just kept walking towards the Red Onion where there had been dancing in the streets planned. (Street dancing cancelled due to weather and 3 of our group are under 21...so no entering the RO.) The yahoos kept jeering.

As we were standing on the corner deciding our next place to go, the yahoos arrived...continuing to jeer. My wonderful hero husband Mike told them to go pick on someone their own size. At this time, they shoved him and told him to mind his own business. You. Don't. Shove. Mike. I didn't see the shove, the next thing I saw was Mike turning to me as he said, "Shari, hold my glasses." And he got that puffed up look. My next words: "Michael. Michael!" Two other people saw the beginnings of trouble and hustled the two yahoos out of there. Good move.

Hate crimes continue to exist. There's is everything to being said about being who you are. There is also a lot to be said for watching your step:

You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger

In other words, you do watch yourself in certain neighborhoods and with certain crowds. Nathan is just getting that it isn't necessarily the best choice to mouth off to yahoos. So, Mike was ready to fight for Nathan's honor. Was quite the item of gossip for a day or two.

On to the fireworks. There was great discussion on which dock would be the best to view the display. We chose Broadway dock because it was shortest and easiest. It wasn't necessarily the best. The ferry was in, so the low fireworks towards the east were below our view, but the high eastern ones were visible...also the low central canal ones. The best part of the fireworks was the reverberating noise off the surrounding mountains. Now THAT was cool. The off-key national anthem being sung by drunk young people around us...not so cool to me, though Mike liked that.

And that's that for now because I'm blogging during some down time at work and I just got an "up time" task to do. More to come.......

Miscellany

It's been a fairly quiet week here in Alaska. Last Sunday, Mike and I went fishing up in Fraser. To be more precise, Mike went fishing and I went on the walk with him along the train tracks. He caught a few grayling and a lake trout. My excitement continues to be the scenery and the abundant flowers. Oh yeah, and moose and bear print, as well as scat for each animal. I'm easily amused. It was a sunny, blustery day and most enjoyable. My friend Liz says I should just make an album of all the different flowers that are up here. She's probably right, because I always have the camera pointed at a new bloom.


On our way back to Skagway, we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls to take a few photos. This particular parking spot is one that the coaches are not allowed to stop at, so it was great for Mike that we were able to stop for the photo ops: Mike against the Sawtooth Mountains, me next to the part of the falls above the road. The better view of the falls is from the train, below the highway. But that's not where we were. It also didn't hurt our day that we did a little geocaching.

Monday through Wednesday were work days. I'm usually off on Wednesdays, but Nathan's dad and sister were in town on Wednesday, so I worked his 11 a.m.-8 p.m. shift. Generally, I work 7 a.m.-4 p.m. So this was already unusual. We'd had a week of dark cloudy, drizzly, rainy days and Wednesday was the gloomiest day of all.

Not all people choose to cruise. Some just fly in for the land tour. On Wednesday we were to pick up two incoming passengers and drop 6 of them off at the airport to fly out. Not happening. The clouds were low and impenetrable for most of the day. This group of six was divided into 4 traveling together and another couple. The couple was delightful, as were 3 of the 4 traveling together. The last woman we code named Elvira Gulch. But enough bytes have already been wasted on HER just in this paragraph.

The couple were wonderful, trying to stay calm as we spent the day brainstorming on how to get them to Juneau before 6 a.m. the following day to catch their next flight. If they'd been fogged-in out of Juneau, they wouldn't have had much to worry about because Alaska Airlines works hand in hand with American Airlines...their carrier back to Kansas. But Wings of Alaska? Nope...American Airlines wouldn't hear any of it. It would cost them $150 transfer fee and around $1,000 to purchase the difference on the new ticket to fly out. Per person. $2300? No. We tried everything including calling Princess Cruises to see if a ship in port that would be arriving at 5 a.m. in Juneau the next day would take them. Nope. But....eventually the fog cleared enough for them to fly out of Skagway at 6:30 p.m. Bon voyage, nice couple! Actually, it was good to have a problem to solve and something to do. Wednesdays and Thursdays are generally very Very VERY quiet days.

The next day was off for me and Liz and I drove to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. As I've mentioned, that's the nearest "big" town. We packed up the used paper to take to the recycling station and headed out. Liz is somewhat intense about recycling. We've tried to explain that if there isn't a local facility, that sometimes the cost to the ecosystem is more in the use of fuel to transport the recycling. However, since we were already going, it made sense to bring all that paper.

Our first stop was to say hi to Mike and a couple of other drivers on our way. They were stopped at the "Welcome to Alaska" sign for photo ops with their passengers. We took a couple more orders for things to buy in Whitehorse that people needed. We probably did a little shopping for 4 other people besides ourselves.

Then off we went to the Yukon Suspension Bridge over the Tutshi River. This attraction is a building with gift shop and coffee shop and some displays of historical information.
We got a few goofy pictures: a picture of Liz with her Canadian Mountie peeps, me with the same peeps, her writing a postcard in the skeleton of a boat and Liz with her bear brothers.

During the Gold Rush, after trudging about 70 miles up the Chilkoot Pass or the White Pass, the miners would arrive at Lake Bennett, the headwaters of the Yukon River. There they would have to build a boat, including logging the trees for the lumber, to float the few hundred miles to Dawson City. I got in the way of the saw. The men may be cardboard, but the saw was real!

Along the South Klondike Hwy., I continued to photograph the flowers and we took several pictures of the gorge, river and suspension bridge. Of course, on the way, I had to introduce Liz to geocaching!

We found one cache together, then didn't find one together and then I found two in Whitehorse while she shopped. In Whitehorse, we hit the camping outfitter, the Salvation Army thrift store and the ever-important Canadian Super Store (for groceries). For lunch, we went to....McDonald's. This is an event, since there are no fast food places in Skagway. Still, it was just McDonald's and pricier than ever (as everything is up here).

The Canadian Super Store has a pretty good selection of groceries...far more than the local Fairway Market. We have to be careful to only bring produce back that was grown in Canada or the U.S. However, neither Customs station asked us about produce this trip! The thing about shopping at the Canadian Super Store is bags. Grocery bags. I'd forgotten the two canvas bags I own. When I got to the register, the lady asked if I needed bags. She asked how many and I said "lots!" And then she pulled out a bunch of bags. Having lived in Arizona for 12 years, it feels like an affront to have to bag my own groceries. But that's how it is done here.

So I'm heading to the front of the store with my bagged groceries and Liz is shocked: "Where did you get the bags?"
Shari: "The lady at the register gave them to me."
Liz: "You know they're 20 cents a bag?"
Shari: (recovering from shock and running back to the register to grab the 4 bags i didn't use and had left at the register) "WHAT?!?!?!? Are you kidding?!?!?!?"
Liz: "I didn't get any bags!"
Shari: "She asked how many I needed. I didn't know you had to pay for them!"
Liz: "My guy didn't even ask me if I needed bags!" (You would never have known she'd already paid since nothing in her cart was in a bag.)
Shari: "Here...take these 4 that I didn't need."
Liz: "I'll pay you."
Shari: "What? 80 cents? Forget about it!"

Yeesh. Turns out that looking at my receipt, they were only 5 cents. Still, I will remember to bring my two canvas bags and any empty grocery bags I have lying around. Filling up the gas tank for the day was $64. Yeesh. Groceries: $164. Outfitter store $32. Yeesh. A day with my friend on the road...priceless.

And then on Friday, I started getting a scratchy throat that has progressively gotten worse. This meant I did NOT go watch Mike's softball game. :-( (By the way, he broke the fingertip on his right ring finger sliding into second. 57 going on 18, one more time. And yes, he was safe on base.) I also didn't go to the company's Capture the Flag night out in Dyea. This I didn't mind so much except for missing the bonfire and s'mores. I would have been first to be sequestered in jail as I'm built for comfort, not speed. And then today, Mike went fishing. Today is the first sunny day in about 1-1/2 weeks. Still, it's lovely to sit on my bed, blog and look at the mountain outside my window.

But having a sore throat gave my co-worker Nathan a chance to be my hero. As I was whining at work yesterday about having passed up the echinacea tea in Whitehorse, he asked how it was spelled. 3 hours later he was calling me from the health food store in town asking how much I wanted of the bulk tea (and a tea strainer). LOL...he comes back with this zip-log of dried green plant material. And it was VERY yummy echinacea tea. I'll be on the mend in no time!

Today is about food. My co-worker, Sarah, decided it would be great to have a communal meal. She borrowed some dishes and appliances from her church and posted a notice for breakfast $5 per person. We'd pay and she would do all the shopping, cooking and cleaning. I left my room this morning with our ugly orange plastic plates and mismatched silverware. There in the middle of the hallway were two tables all set up with pitchers of water and juice and platters of eggs, bacon, pancakes and blueberry pancakes. It was so nice to eat with some of the folks on our floor. Sarah and her friend Ashley did an amazing job!


A couple of the boys went fishing in the canal from the shoreline and caught a king salmon! Huge sucker! Barbeque tonight! We'll contribute pasta with pesto in exchange for some salmon. Yum!

Lots of other stuff to look forward to:
6/28 Hour long geocaching Meet and Greet at 7:45 a.m. with a group of cachers who attended GeoWoodstock in Washington state before embarking on a cruise.
7/3 Company BBQ and decorating our company float for the 4th of July parade.
7/4 4th of July parade and another Meet & Greet geocaching event.
7/9 A third Meet and Greet geocaching event. For a town that has NEVER had a geocaching event...they're sure making up for it all within a 2 weeks time period.
7/12 Mike and I are taking a two night backpacking trip out to one of the glaciers. The thing about going to either Laughton or Denver glacier is that the trailheads are accessed by riding the railroad. Yup....the railroad that is really just a scenic railroad actually has a hiker transportation ticket!

So, I'd just best drink my echinacea tea and get better quickly so I can do a couple of day hikes before this trek to the glaciers. The mileage isn't much, but it will be with a pack....so..........(to be continued at a later date)