Another week is in the books here in Alaska.......

I wake up every day amazed that we are here.  I have been able to drive my boat solo across a few inlets with less than a quarter mile visibility with only my plotter and radar.  Talk about faith....  Heading into 600+ foot deep water with 6-8 foot swells and/or waves, knowing that land is out there.  But it is a few miles away, if I go in the right direction....  I feel that there is some sort of life lesson here in this adventure.

My boat has been running great for the past few days.  I have also found an area on my daily morning run heading out into the ocean that has great cell phone reception for about 15-20 minutes.  If you would like a call at about 7:30am Alaska Time, let me know.

I am also starting to get on a roll with the pictures here.  I am getting good reviews from both staff and guests.  Some of the guests are getting into the store looking for the daily images, before I can get there and get them posted.  We area also selling them, which i guess is why I am here.

Well reality is starting to hit some of the staff here.  We have been here about a month "stuck" in an island on an island and some are getting island fever.  If you are lucky enough to get off the island and boat to Craig, Alaska.  I will remind them that they still end up on the same island, but it is a more civilized part of the island.  There are paved roads, cars, power lines and people along with a True Value, grocery store and two sporting good stores.....  Oh, I can't forget the pizza place.  That said we have had two staff leave for various reasons.  Even in all this beauty there can still be conflict and dissatisfaction.  Again, I feel that there is some sort of life lesson here in this adventure.

If Gwen and I ever get a day off together then I might have to take her "off" the island for Pizza.  I sure she would accept the change from all of our prior dates to Sam's club for a hot dog and four-berry sundae.

Today we actually saw blue sky.... through the clouds.  We don't get blue sky a lot here.  It is mostly gray sky, gray fog and gray rain.  Maybe that is why it looks like a rain forest here.  I can't complain as that makes for great pictures as the fog does reflect the light quite well.  However, three days of sun in the past month does leave us missing the sun.  Now I know that there are many of you in the midwest that would trade abundance of sun for our lack of sun, but I can't do that right now....


P.S. I added a picture for you......

So how was my first day going solo in the boat?

I actually blew the front seal of my boat's engine about 2 hours into my tour and had to return to the harbor after only taking 3 pictures....

Day two of my first week soloing in my boat:  I was actually in a spare boat as my engine was still in the shop.  Then about 4 hours into my day the power steering hose blew in the boat.  So, back to the harbor.  That is after waiting about 2 hours for the mechanics to find me.  They got lost twice on the way out to assist on my way back....

Day three started out the same way for someone else....  I had to make a run to the local sea plane dock in Craig, Alaska with the Marketing guy for the Waterfall Resort because another boat broke down and the shuttle boat was sent our to cover the broken down fishing boat.  Then, the guide for the shuttle boat (Craig) and I headed out for pictures after our 2 hour detour.  We witnessed a battle between two bull sea lions on one of the rocky capes, with the loser heading back into the sea...  Above the jagged rocks where the sea lion beds were thousands of bald eagle's keeping a watch on the spectacle below.

Tomorrow I have my first day off in the past 10 days....   I will not be up at 5:15am....!   Tomorrow...

But, I will not ever get tired of driving around looking at all of my God's creation...!  There are hundreds of whales and sea otters.  Thousands of eagles and fish...   Snow capped mountains, many islands with small inlets and coves.  I just stand amazed that I am here!

Rick's first day off does not coincide with Gwen's.  Gwen got to sleep in a couple of days ago and do laundry and clean the room.  She also got a chance to visit with some of the other staff here at Waterfall.  There are many wonderful people working here.  It is a great chance to get to rub shoulders with people of all ages and backgrounds.

I (Gwen) have been able to create hundreds of fruit baskets for the guest rooms, stock and re-stock all the drinks sold here and some of the clothing...fill out hundreds of Alaska Fishing Licenses and even got to be the Salmon Derby Hostess for a day (filling in for Stephanie's day off).  The Derby Hostess records all of the biggest salmon and halibut caught on any of the 25 boats that day and announces the winners at the evening meal.  Tomorrow will be a "turnover day" for me, which means that we will be checking out about 85 people and welcoming the same number in the afternoon!  It will be very busy!  Huge groups of men (mostly) very eager to get right out to their boat to fish!

I better get to sleep.  We are getting used to going to bed before 9pm, so that we can be up and to work by 6am.  The sun only sets for about 3 hours a night here, so we go to bed in the light and wake to the light!  We have been thoroughly enjoying the hard work and time to live in this beautiful place!

Our Blog is starting off a bit slower then we had hoped.  But the internet is even slower then we had hoped.  We are restricted from sending any images over the internet here.  We will try to update it as much as possible and then if/when we get to town we will update with images.

I have been out on the boat a few times in the ocean but tomorrow will be my first day out solo.  I have seen whales, sea otters, and seals.  I have caught a ling cod and a halibut.  Just today i walked out of the warehouse and saw an eagle drop down about 50 yards away.  It picked up a fish out of the water and flew away.

The other day we (all the guides, customers and I) were all called back due to severe weather.  The winds were getting up over 35 mph and the seas were choppy with 2-3 foot white caps.  We (my trainer and I) were on our way back when a boat with customers broke down out on the ocean.   We were called to go back the 2-3 miles of rough open water and transfer the guests onto my boat and get them off the ocean.  However, on the way out, the tow boat caught up with us so there was not much time spent out there.  Just the 6 mile round trip on the ocean.

Will let you now how my day goes tomorrow.  I will also let Gwen have some time on this as well.......

Rick

Alaska at last.....

We finally made it to Ketchikan on Friday...

Saturday it was rainy and cloudy all day...  but we are here.

Everything is green.... from the mountains (well at least the bottom 2/3rd's!... tops are still white)...

to the rocks...

...the roofs.

even the roots and ground are green.

We have seen our first 8-10 Alaskan Bald Eagles, a few gray whales from across the bay and about 3 harbor seals.

This little guy was just below a large fresh water rapids and I think was just enjoying the cold fast moving water.  He would swim up roll on his back and just slowly swim up in the fast moving flow.

Just a side note, we have come to really enjoy the food and hospitality at the Sweet Mermaids, which is just a couple doors down from the Gilmore Hotel, where we are staying.  Good food, great coffee and really nice staff.  When we come back, this will be a place we will definitely stop again!

So if you ever take a cruise to Alaska and or stop by Ketchikan, we would recommend them.

From Alaska and until the next time....

"Will we... or won't we leave?"  That is the question.....

 Wednesday, May 30th did not start like any other day.  It was our last day in Silver Lake.  We needed to finish packing the RV.  We were not sure where it would stay for the summer yet, and we needed to get to Manhattan, KS for the night.  Well, things went much slower than we thought, as we still had to disperse many of the final few items that we could not fit on the RV or would not go to Alaska (thanks Mike and Kathy...  their sale will be on June 15th & 16th on North Topeka Blvd.) Our kind neighbors forced us to take a break for a lunch at Gambino's and then washed a couple loads of laundry so we would not have to do that once we got to Manhattan that evening.

Thankfully, we were able to get the Tiffin RV parked at some other friends who have a large yard, and were willing to babysit it for the summer.

We then packed our final few items and headed for Manhattan, KS. After traveling a block and a half we turned around in a drenching storm with hail.  About 30 minutes later and with no power we tried a second time to head to Manhattan, through downed trees, single lane construction with no control lights but made it to Gabe's house by 9:30pm safe and sound!

On Thursday May 31, we headed to Kansas City International Airport at 8:30am for our 1:05pm flight.  All was going well till we arrived at what we thought was going to be a tricky check-in, with six checked bags.  After waiting for over 20 minutes we found out we were in the wrong terminal.  Yes, it was an Alaskan Airways flight but it was actually on an American Eagle flight.  By this time it was about 12:15.  Once we were checked in and had boarding passes we were told to run to the gate.  We made it there with five minutes to spare, quick hugged the boys goodbye and rushed through the security checkpoint.  Then we heard the announcement,  "Due to severe weather at Chicago O'Hare we were on an 1 hour delay..." We would not take off till after 2:30pm.  Our flight in Chicago for Seattle took off at 3:35pm and we arrived at 3:50pm.  We now had 6 hours to kill before we could leave on the next and last flight of the night to Seattle.  So we took a walking tour of O'Hare airport and saw the "Tunnel of Lights" (thanks Gabe)

and the Hydroponic Gardens (thanks Chicago Police Officer / Tour Guide).

So, we waited for the 7:40pm flight that took off at 10:10pm for Seattle.  We arrived in Seattle at 1am local time and 4:00am our time.  We re-booked our Ketchikan flight AGAIN, collected a few RON kits.  (I told them that I was not Ron and needed a "Rick and Gwen kit", but they still gave us the RON kits) and we used them....nothing like a toothbrush and deodorant when you have nothing else!

It is also amazing what a little sleep and a shower can do for you.  On June 1st we got up at 8:00am (11am our time) and made it  to the airport to leave for Ketchikan at 10:00am.

Arrived in Ketchikan on time at 12:00pm local time, but about 18 hours later than our original itinerary.  We saw over four cruise ships in port when we arrived.  That did not matter to us, we had made it....we ferried over from the landing area to the main island and waited for a cab.  The first one that drove up was pirate.  He had a patch on one eye and wore suspenders, but got a call before we could get to his cab.  I think that may have  been a good thing as we look back over the events of the past two days.  We did get a cab and arrived in our room at the Gilmore Hotel at about 1:30pm.  We were settled in Alaska....

Then the Norwegian Pearl decided to notify us that she was leaving at 2:00pm and was blowing her horn right outside our window....this was the view.  We were told that there were about 8,000 tourists in town that day.

That is fine.....
We have made it with ALL six of our bags a well.....

We are off to breakfast and take a few pictures with my real camera, instead of Gwen's iPhone.

Till next time...