Farewell, Alaska!

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of packing, traveling, packing traveling, and a little bit of sightseeing crammed in-between. Matt, Kevin, Josh and I packed up at 4am on September 30th and took a 300-mile, twelve-hour ride on one of the Allen Marine catamarans up to Sitka. It was a gorgeous day to be on a boat and we saw an incredible amount of wildlife, including humpbacks, orcas, black bears and stellar sea lions.

Stellar sea lions basking. Notice that the dock is a little tipped...

After a long but fun day of travel, we arrive at the Thompson Harbor in Sitka, and moved all of our bags to the boat we would be staying on for the week, the Jodi Ann, courtesy of Kevin's captain and our friend Captain Steve.

The elusive captain and the Jodi Ann, our home for the week

The night we arrived in Sitka was spent having one final hurrah with the other Allen Marine employees that came along for the ride to Sitka. Most of the employees left to go back to Ketchikan the next morning, but we simply slept in and hung out on the Jodi Ann. Our next couple of days were spent exploring the town, playing cards and sleeping in until noon. It was pretty awesome.

They could be models.

The beautiful Thompson Harbor in Sitka

Sitka is a beautiful place that was originally settled by the Tlingits thousands of years ago, and was taken over by the Russians in the early 1800s. It used to be the capital of Russian America until Alaska was purchased by the United States in 1867. It still retains its native Tlingit heritage as well as its Russian legacy. We had a wonderful time exploring the little city, but I will admit that we spent a great deal of our time enjoying life on a boat. Let me tell you, being unemployed in Alaska, on a boat, 500 feet from a grocery and liquor store, is a pretty sweet way to live. We lamented the fact that it could not go on forever.

A beautiful end to the 9-mile Indian River hike we did in Sitka

Hanging out on a trail bridge- trail maintenance in Alaska was very impressive!

By far, the highlight of our visit in Sitka was the day that Captain Steve took us to the Goddard hot springs, an island about 15 miles to the main island that Sitka is located on.  There were three springs on the side of the island that we docked on, and a lot of friendly Sitka folks there who make sure the springs are running okay. Two of the springs are covered- more like natural hot tubs- and one is out in the woods. Naturally, we brought our rubber duckies, courtesy of Alaska Amphibious Duck Tours.

Matt on Goddard island

The boys in the hot springs

Someone had the foresight to sink a bathtub in the spring for extra relaxation

After an incredible week of vacationing, we took the Alaska Marine Highway ferry up to Juneau, where we spent the next three days. We hung out at the Mendenhall glacier, met some nice folks in town and had an overall great end to the trip.


After a looooonggg overnight flight from Juneau to Boston, we finally made it home. This has been an incredible journey and we have had a blast. Right now we're spending some time settling back into the East Coast and starting the arduous job hunt (Matt is dismayed that he might not find a job back here as easily as he did in Alaska) in Vermont. I can't believe that we are already back- it already feels like a dream! Thanks so much to everyone who followed our adventure- we'll let you know when we have the next one figured out.

Thanks for following! Love, Matt and Bridget

Three Keggers in One Week!

The last week of cruise ships in Ketchikan can only mean one thing: celebration in the form of heavy drinking. With two company parties and one wedding (each with their own keg), Matt and I were swamped with all of the partying we had to do. It was really quite exhausting and I am still in the recovery process. First up on the party agenda was the Allen Marine company party. The celebration was hosted at possibly the coolest house I've ever been to- more like a museum dedicated to Southwestern art than a house.

The Allen Marine gang

 The house belongs to the owner of the company's parents, the Smiths, and Mrs. Smith is very much in to making her own art. It is pretty eccentric, as the next couple of pictures will attest to:

A dress made out of the boxed wine valves (Franzia, to be specific)

Naked barbies on a staircase? Not exactly sure

I figured it wasn't weird that I was taking pictures of all of the things in their house because everyone else was doing it, too. Another great aspect of the party was the musical entertainment, provided by Josh on piano and Lahtu on guitar. We also managed to get a group shot of all the naturalists that work for Allen Marine. Wrangling everyone together for that photo was like herding drunk cats.

Jamming out

The Allen Marine naturalists

Matt, Josh and a gorgeous view

 We had barely recovered from the Allen Marine gathering when it was time for round two- next up on the agenda was the Duck Tour company party.

Party on the duck boat!

Ketchikan's specialty: middle-aged classic rock cover bands

The highlight of the Duck Tour Company Party was the fact that Matt won Employee of the Year! Along with a $25 Amazon gift card he received the coveted Golden Whistle.

If that isn't the epitome of a star employee, I don't know what is.

 Our last and final kegger was the best of all: the wedding of our new friends Jessie and Marty (see the paintball mountain blog). Unfortunately, I had to work through the actual wedding but we got to go to the important part- the reception. We had to hitch a ride out to the reception and were picked up by a nice girl who lives in her car in the woods (she politely asked us if we had "done any good foraging this summer"), making it to the reception with plenty of time to dance the night away.

Kevin putting out his best moves

The groom dancing with his adorable 3-year-old daughter

Me with the bride

 The dancing was great and the festivities were fun too. Being 6-foot tall in a land of dwarves, it was almost a given that I would catch a projectile being thrown at me. Thus, I caught the bouquet, which was pretty great because free flowers! After the bouquet was thrown we headed outside to the real festivity- the lighting of the fireworks, a rather new wedding tradition.

Snagged it!

The father of the bride helping the married couple light their fireworks, which is symbolic for something, probably.

All in all, it was a crazy, fun week and we had a really fun final hurrah with all the great friends we've made here. Now, time to recover and pack (groan).


Love,
Bridget

Tour de Ketchikan

    As our season starts to wind down, Matt and I have been looking to do as many things off of our bucket list as possible. For Matt, this meant getting to go to the Misty Fjords (an impressive national monument about 40 miles east of Ketchikan) and going on my tour. For me, this meant going on a floatplane. A joint goal of ours was summitting Deer Mountain.This week, we accomplished all of these things and more!

   First, Matt got to go on my trip. I was a little nervous to let him hear my presentation but he says I did great (he might be saying that because he's my boyfriend). It was a blustery day and we ended up having some of the worst waves of the season while he was on board. He still got to see the cannery and be on a boat though and he seemed pretty happy about that!

In front of the waterfall on my tour

Matt's shot of the canning line machinery

Next, Matt and Josh got to go to the Misty Fjords on Kevin's tour (Kev was previously on the Wilderness Survival Tour but it ended in early September so he's been working on the Misty tour ever since). I had to work and was a little jealous that they got to go, but very happy that Matt and Josh got to see the Misty's before we left Ketchikan. It was a gorgeous day and they had a great time. They in fact had a fabulous time because the captain told them to buy beers instead of leaving a tip (the employees get a bonus for selling more stuff) and they happily obliged.

Matt in the Misty's

Josh in the Mistys

                                      Matt got a superb picture of Owlface (the profile of the owl is towards the right of the                                    picture, facing right. The large arch is its eye)

One big wish that Matt and I had was to go on a floatplane tour together. Unfortunately this was hard to accomplish because we have different days off (and the days we do have off together now are days when tours aren't running because the cruise ships are in). So, I had to suck it up and go on a flightseeing tour by myself. I ended up having an amazing time, mostly because the floatplane took us to watch bears!

View of the take-off from inside the floatplane

These were pretty sweet headphones

 The tour I was on is called Neets Bay Bear Watching. The Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association has a salmon hatchery which releases salmon fry to many remote streams all over Revillagigedo Island. The Neets Bay hatchery produces about 99 million summer chum fry and 36 million fall chum fry. The fry are released in several remote locations and 73 million are put back into the stream near the hatchery, which is why it is almost impossible not to see a bear in this stream during the summer months. Whoever thought of this tour idea was a genius because not only do you get to ride on a floatplane with a bird's eye view of Ketchikan, but you get to watch a hatchery in action and (duh!) watch bears in their natural environment. Also, they play Enya on the plane which is the most relaxing music to listen to while you're flying, ever. The Neets Bay staff does not tamper with the bears at all- the only way they affect the bears is by making sure there are plenty of salmon in the stream in the summer months, which ensures that the bears will come back. Our guide, Puck, estimated that about 80 bears live right around the stream area.

 

Hatchery salmon. These salmon think they're swimming upstream right now. Stupid salmon.

The first thing we saw when we came to the bear viewing site: a sow and her cubs walking to the stream!

Helping Mom fish!

This male cub fished for a while not too far off from Mama and her babies

When the male bear got too close for comfort, Mama barked and sent her babies up the tree for safe-keeping

And finally, the pièce de résistance of the bear photos I took:

This big boy was gnawing on a big pile of salmon on the side of our walking path when we stumbled upon him. He just stared as us for a while and then went back to munching yummy salmon brains.

This tour was definitely one of the highlights of my summer so far, and hopefully Matt will be able to squeeze himself on a similar tour before we have to leave. Our last item off the bucket list this week was finally summitting Deer Mountain. If you recall in my post "Mountains, mountains and more mountains" I mentioned that we only reached the 1-mile mark because there was too much snow pack on the ground. That was a lie, it was actually because I was so out of shape I had no desire to go any further, and thankfully there was snow at the top so people would actually believe me when I said that. But yesterday we finally accomplished this task and it was definitely worth the aches and pains that I am now experiencing from my first bit of strenuous exercise in months.

One of the many gorgeous photos that Matt took with his awesome iPhone camera

We did it!

All in all, we had an awesome and very active week. I believe this coming week will be just as busy and just as fun as we wrap things up and say goodbye to some amazing friends and an amazing place.

Cheers!

Bridget

Josh comes to town and Bridget has a great birthday!

I haven't been very good about updating the blog lately, but the new job has got me super busy. I wasn't actually supposed to have a day off until next Saturday but due to a mechanical glitch on the boat we got a day off, so I am taking the time to fill everyone in. The end of August was a little boring for Matt and I, as we haven't had a day off together in over a month (cue sympathetic violin music). But then one of our good friends from St. Mikes, Josh, arrived in town for the rest of the season and we were pretty excited to see him.

Josh, fresh off the airplane, with Kev

Josh and I at the waterfront

                            Here's one of Josh and Matt after they went hat shopping-  Matt is attempting to show that his                  has little lights on the front

It's been so fun having Josh here to show him our favorite spots in Ketchikan, and also to have a playmate on our days off. That is the one thing that's been difficult working a seasonal job in the cruise industry- nobody has weekends because the ships are here every day, so we all have different days off. Now that Josh is here (actually sitting in the kitchen here with me now) my days off are definitely more fun.

Speaking of fun, I had a wonderful birthday and it was lovely to have three of my best friends there to celebrate with me. Unfortunately I had to work, but I was lucky enough to see a bear AND and elephant seal on my birthday. Elephant seals are quite rare in Southeast Alaska, and are really really cool looking. My pictures aren't excellent but I did my best.

Elephant seal staring us down

From this picture you can see his proboscis (nose) which resembles an elephant's trunk

Black bear tearing apart some salmon, surrounded by gulls who are waiting to gobble up his leftovers

Needless to say, getting to view some wildlife made working on my birthday worthwhile. After work, I got to open a PILE of presents from my boyfriend which made me feel like Dudley on Christmas morning (Harry Potter reference for all you Potterheads out there). He got me a beautiful silver and copper Tlingit bracelet (one of the native tribes here who pride themselves on their amazing artwork), a t-shirt by Ketchikan native Ray Troll, and some Ketchikan souvenirs that I'd mentioned I wanted to get before we left.

The Ray Troll print that I now have in shirt form!

 We then went out to a delicious dinner at Oceanview restaurant and then we had a Whist and Wine night at Kevin's house. Since I had to work again at 6:30 in the morning the next day it did not get to wild (could you tell by the theme of cards and wine?) but it was a LOT of fun. Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, I had a wonderful time and I appreciate all of your thoughtfulness!  Soon the season will be winding down (we only have three more weeks here) and the four of us will have days off together and hopefully go on many adventures before we leave Ketchikan.

More soon!
Love,

Bridget

Here's Some Stuff I Bet You Didn't Know about Ketchikan

As you may have been able to tell from my previous blog posts, Ketchikan is a pretty quirky place. I'd like to share some of the quirkier bits about Ketchikan- some things that I love and some that I find to be pretty strange.

1. Our staircases are streets

The "street" leading up to and past our apartment

      Because of the way the houses are stacked up on top of each other on the mountainside, the city built a series of staircases connecting all of the houses to each other and to the road. These staircases are technically streets. They each have their own street sign, get snow service in the winter and get mail delivery as well.

2. All of our restaurants specialize in two cuisines or more

The sign doesn't say but they also have a large selection of Greek food

We suspect that most restaurants in Ketchikan have the philosophy that if they can't excel at cooking one cuisine, they can just adequately cook several cuisines, giving the customer more options and thus distracting him from the mediocrity of the food he's eating. Chico's, pictured above, is just one example, specializing in Mexican, Italian and Greek food. We have yet to eat at a place that is just one of anything. Even the Filipino restaurant that actually cooks delicious Filipino food also serves sub sandwiches, pizza, soups and salads.

3. Whales, not Goldfish

This is how it's done in the West and beyond

I had never heard of Whales before I came out to Alaska, but they're a pretty big deal here- often preferred over goldfish, which I thought was blasphemy until I tried one. THEY. ARE. SO. CHEESY. Their cheesiness goes beyond that of a goldfish cracker. I can't even explain what tasting one is like. It's like cramming an entire wheel of cheese into a tiny whale shaped cracker, basically. I can't get more eloquent than that because just thinking about them is distracting me and making me hungry. What I'm trying to say is, if you've never tried a Whale cracker you've never really lived.

4. You can smoke cigarettes in bars

What is this, the 80's? Almost every bar here gives you full license to smoke butts in bars. It's pretty gross, in my opinion, but I legitimately believe the bars here would be out of business if you weren't allowed to smoke in them.

Oh, Jack, seeing your beautiful face as I walk home from work every day truly makes me happy

 The Asylum, pictured above, is one of the many puff-friendly bars here and just so happens to be about 100 feet away from our apartment.

5. We sell furry undies to tourists

It's unfortunate you can't see the back, which sports a tail

   We sell some pretty weird souvenirs in Ketchikan, among which are furry underwear. If they weren't made out of real fur and were actually within a price range of a gag gift I would probably by them because they are hilarious. But, alas, they are actually a real gift and cost real money, and I would love to meet the person that actually drops a couple hundred bucks for them one day. I know it's just a pipe dream, but I too would like to be rich enough to buy my friends real fur underwear as a souvenir from Alaska. One day.

Miss everyone down south, but I'll be coming home in a little over a month!

See you soon,

Bridget