In Closing...

My mom told me last year when I came home that I needed to write a 'conclusion' to this blog. It seems a little pointless a year later, but at the same time I think it would be nice to close this a little more gracefully.

A short summary of my trip home. We were so grateful that the weather was nice enough for us to get a floatplane out of Afognak, but then found ourselves stuck on Kodiak with our flights cancelled. All the hotels were full because of all the other stuck travelers and Brittany and I were lucky enough to have Nikkia with us who had friends in town. So basically we stayed with a family who had never met us. They were so nice to let us in. Thank heavens for charitable people like that. Before we stayed there we went over to the floatplane pilots house and ate ice cream and watched a movie. (I think that might have been a little bit of a different partying style than they were used to, but they seemed to enjoy it anyway. Haha.) It was really a good time and almost let me forget how much it sucked to be stuck in Alaska for my last day of summer. So the next day we finally got into Anchorage. I think I remember almost crying when they were going to charge me again for having overweight luggage, which had nothing to do with 20 stupid dollars, but this was already the trip from hell. I ended up finding my receipt from before and didn't have to pay. I said bye to Brittany in the Anchorage airport and was so happy to be going back to Arizona. When I finally made it to AZ I remember sprinting towards my family for a huge hug. I ended up having less than 24 hours at home before I was driving to school in Utah, but it was a good <24 hours all the same.

It really is odd to reflect on my experience in Alaska now. Since then I've finished another semester in Utah where I worked in an upholstery shop and spent a semester in Israel. If you want to talk about a contrast try living on an isolated island in Alaska and moving to Jerusalem intensely studying the Bible every day.

Anyway, even though I really can't see ever working in Alaska again I really appreciate the summer I had there and the people I came into contact with. The guys I worked with really were incredible people and taught me so many things. The women I cooked with were incredibly strong women and I really look up to both of them. Being there took me way outside of my comfort zone and I did a lot of things I never would have had the opportunity to do otherwise. I am grateful for that. Before going I remember thinking "This is so not me," but I think sometimes you can't really know whether you will enjoy something until you try it. I loved it and I miss it now, but am still grateful to spending this summer under the AZ sun.

Exodus 20:12

As per request of my mother I am updating my blog, which she informed me I can do now that I am done with Harry Potter, which was in fact spectacular. We only get mail twice a week and it took 2 weeks for it to get here! Can you believe that?! Oh, the injustice!

At first I thought I didn't really have anything to write about, but then I remembered that I have not yet told my bear story! BearS story! So my last day off I got to go out with a couple of guests and we went to a place called Waterfall, which is so beautiful. Right now the salmon are spawning and the river is just chalk full of them. It's pretty crazy. Anyway we went and sat in this spot that's a little hillside above the river and waited for bears. Wow, it was amazing. We saw a dozen bears in the space of about 2 hours. For the most part they would sit on the other side of the river and catch salmon and eat it. I have a video of one who caught a salmon, heard a camera click and looked up at us and threw the salmon back in and ran away up the mountain. The best part was this sow with two little cubs. So it is pretty intense watching these beasts walking through the river and stuff, but then the sow and two cubs started towards the hillside we were on and were halfway up and still did not see us, so our guide clicked the gun and she saw us and just diverted her path away from us, but she was like 25 feet away. Lemme tell ya that will get your heart racing a little. Wow. I've heard like every day for the past two months that the last thing you should do is run, but when you are looking at a bear 25 feet away, run is the only thing you want to do!







I would update more, but mostly I've just been cooking in the kitchen, and the truth is there's not too much exciting going on in there. It has been pretty wild trying to cook, clean cabins, and do dishes (all by hand) for 28 people. I mean there are only 3 of us!

Oh, we did get some guests in that brought some crab legs. Holy smokes! They were HUGE! Crazy.

Pam (head cook) with the legs

Oh also Brittany went out fishing with Ward and Frank and Frank caught the first king salmon of the year. It was 29 pounds! Crazy, huh? Oh and all those fish they are standing behind is fish from one boat of guests. Let's just say I'm glad it's not my job to clean fish.

Just For the Halibut

Three Hundred Ninety Pounds, I repeat, Three Hundred Ninety Pounds.

Ya, you'd be a little squeamish too!

Memo to Self:

When cooking chocolate mousse and deciding to double, do not double everything but the chocolate chips.

Turn off the oven.

When you are cooking rice pilaf and you have to sautee the onions separately do not put them in the same bowl as the diced carrots, cardamom pods, ginger slice, and cauliflower.

Stop dropping all the spoons after you dry them.

Do not throw the egg whites down the sink until you have read the rest of the recipe.

To Undoubtedly Be Continued...

One Near Death Experience After the Other

I have a really good story for you. Ok, seriously this was without a doubt the scariest moment of my life. So there are tons of hiking trails around so Brittany and I try to get out a few times a week and go hiking, but a lot of times the trails are grown over and we end up getting off track. So a couple of days ago we are going along and the trail just ends, so Brittany jumps down to this ledge and keeps going and I tried to follow where she went but I guess I jumped to a different ledge and I totally went sliding down the mountain. I looked below me and saw I was about to fall over all these slate rocks so I dug my elbows into the mountain and was able to stop myself. In truth I didn’t really have time to get scared, but once I could stand up again and realized what had just happened I couldn’t stop shaking. Wow, talk about intense. Haha, but really I am ok, just a few cuts on my arms.

Blood & Gore

So I do actually have some exciting Alaskan things to add from yesterday, but I have to get pictures from other people so we will get to that later. Sorry, y'all.

So here is today's excitement. I would like to start with a short explanation of one of my pre-worries about coming to Alaska... I don't handle blood well. The first time I tried to get blood drawn- and we are talking a little vial for a test, not even enough to donate- I was passed out before the needle was even ready. So working in a fishing lodge I knew that I would be seeing things like fish being ripped to pieces and Brittany told me that there was a dead bear being cut up before I came. I have seen plenty of disgusting things here that should have put me over the edge.

This morning I was awake and feeling pretty good for the morning and we're all in the kitchen laughing about whatever, when I, in short, mistook my thumb for the carrots I was chopping. I saw my skin cut through and it suddenly blood filled the cut quickly and I ran from the back pantry to the kitchen. I threw my hand in the air and said, "I hate blood!" Dana grabbed me and brought me to a chair and held my thumb with a paper towel. Tears were streaming down my face and I was chilled and I knew it was coming. Dana helped me up to lay me down on the couch and -I should say this next part was told to me afterwards because I honestly don't remember this next part- my knees went out and she lifted me up over to the couch. I sat there for maybe 15 minutes before I finally felt a little better and got back up. I must say I was pretty freaking grateful to have a med student in the kitchen. Haha.

I should say that the cut really was not that bad. It is about half a cm deep if that. I did just realize that I cut through the nail. I mean it's not bad, but I got it pretty well. This picture doesn't even do if justice. Haha.

Gather Round Kids, It's Story Time!

It’s been awhile, but now I have some good stories for you all.

Story #1: A few mornings ago Frank came and woke us up because we had a visitor out front about 30 feet away from the dock. Guess what it was! No, really guess. What? No! It was a humpback whale! No joke! It was the coolest thing I have seen up here. It just came up to the bay and was chilling for about 2 hours swimming in circles out front. We were watching from the window when Dana told us that we should go out front and sit in the boat and watch it so we could get the sound effects. I thought she just meant the water splashing or something, but oh my gosh are those things loud. Aeeruuuurgh! It was pretty sweet, I must say.

Story #2: Well if the water tanks job did not have you convinced that Brittany and I are totally macho and can do anything in the world, then this will… we put together a grill! Yay us! Ok, now that I am writing it I guess there is not much of a story to tell, but I was pretty dang excited. I called my friend Emily and told her and she said, “Now you don’t need a husband!” Haha.

Story #3: When my dad bought his boat he also got Amber and I shorty wetsuits. (to your knees and elbows) Well I knew Amber wouldn’t be needing hers in the 120F weather in Arizona so I thought I would bring them up here for Brittany and I. Little did I know the water here is absolutely ridiculously cold, but nonetheless I didn’t drag those things 2000 miles for nothing. So Brittany and I whipped them out the other day and went for a swim. Yes, it was a very cold and very short swim, but how many people can say they’ve been swimming in Alaska? Probably a lot of people, but not any I know.

Story #4: We just had a family with a son and daughter who just barely left, but while they were here they went halibut fishing. The little girl was probably Brittany’s height and like 85 lb. She caught 2 fish. One was 103 lb and the other was 230 lb. Do you know how big that is?! It’s huge. Also I would just like to mention that in case you didn’t know halibuts’ eyes are both on the same side of their head and they swim that side up and the other down. And in case you didn’t know, it is hilarious.