Life to the Max!

Remember how I told you that a few times this summer Drew took camera crews out on the water at work?  Another one aired recently.  Check it out:

Maharlika

Drew and I got invited by a coworker of mine to attend a charity dinner this past weekend.  She is the president of Maharlika, Inc., a non-profit organization that gives scholarships to Philippine youth as well as provides aid to the Philippines during disasters such as the recent typhoon.  So once a year they have this big banquet with dinner and dancing and entertainment and a lot of people from my work go to support it.  So we went and had a great time! It was really fun to get all dressed up for such a fancy event.  Drew met a guy who's fiancee does make up and hair so she did that for me and then I got a cute little outfit pulled together with the help of Burlington Coat Factory!

Drew made me pose by the woodpile, which he is very
proud of.  My favorite is my glittery gold shoes... :)

I was so impressed she was able to make my
hair look so cute when it is so short right now!

She even put fake eyelashes on me which actually looked nice and didn't feel
weird.  The only other time I've worn fake lashes was when I wore huge
ones for a Lady Gaga concert...so not quite the same.

This is Beth, the coworker that invited me,
in her fourth outfit of the night!

After the dinner entertainment the members of Maharlika did two dances together.   I've watched Beth practice these dances in triage many times so it was fun to see the finished product.  She amazes me with all her moves!  She is old enough to be my mother but she was working it out there!

Beth dancing.

Jodi and I.

 Drew and I wanted to contribute to the charity but we never had a chance to buy raffle tickets so instead we decided to buy our centerpiece. It had a minimum bid on it, and then everyone at your table could bid up for it.  I think this was a new idea they had because it seemed like people had put a huge amount of work into making 50 of these centerpieces by hand, and I don't think they were that popular.  But we wanted to contribute, so now we have a miniature traditional Philippino house sitting on our table at home!

We especially like the tiny pig, chicken and tree that are
 on our property, and are not at all proportional to the house. :)

Our lights have since burnt out but for awhile there they made a nice night light.

Someone did an amazing job building these little tiny houses though, seriously they are so cute!

After dinner I had fun dancing but Drew was not that into it.  We have talked before about taking some dance classes this winter and before he was all gung ho about it.  Now that it's actually here he is denying he ever said he would go to dance lessons with me.  But we found something we thought we both could like that doesn't involve any commitment to show up every week, so we are going to try it out.  Wish us luck!

Fall is Here!

Sometime in the last week or so a few trees turned yellow, and then a few more, and a few more.   Before I knew it fall was officially here!  I guess I've been in Utah too long, I've forgotten how long and beautiful fall can drag on for in a less desert-y climate.  My drive to work is even more gorgeous now, and everyday it looks different from the day before.  Drew and I decided to take a little half day trip down to Hope on the Kenai Peninsula on Friday.  The drive made me want to stop and paint at every little turnout!  Once we got to Hope we drove forever into the middle of nowhere (as if Hope isn't remote enough) and finally arrived at the start of 2 hikes.  One hike is 36 miles to another town called Cooper's Landing.  The other is just a 3 mile up and back trip to some lakes and a waterfall.  We opted for the 3 mile hike. :)  Here are a few pictures:

It was so weird to see all this lichen covering the hills.  I haven't seen that plant much anywhere else. 

By the time we got down it was so windy and cold that we couldn't wait to go to the little cafe in Hope and get some soup to warm us up!  It was the second to last day before they close as well for the season, so we were glad we made the trip when we did.

The next day I got lucky and got to come along with Drew to work.  We went out on Blackstone Bay trip, which was really neat.  It was pretty cold and rainy, but we stayed dry enough and that's the best weather in which to see the glaciers calve.  We kept hearing the thunder from farther away and finally while we were near Blackstone Glacier a HUGE piece fell off.  It was neat to see in real life.  We were also the only human activity on the water that day since it is so late in the season, so the seals were really curious about us.  They would follow us and kept popping up out of the water to get a good look at us.  We saw a few sea otters as well and got to paddle through a bunch of icebergs.  Here's a few pictures from that trip:

Drew will probably be finishing up the season by the end of this week so it was good to come along this last time.  Soon we'll be moving in to Anchorage and both working there.  Drew will hopefully be working at a Psych ER at one of the hospitals in Anchorage.  He interviewed today so we'll hear soon! 

Alaska Sea Kayakers is Famous!

So a couple of times Drew and his fellow guides have taken camera crews out for shows and news clips.  This is not one that Drew was a big part of, but you can still see him kayaking some and it's fun to see all our friends on the video.  This is part of a local news channel's "Day Trippin' with Ashton Goodell" spot that I guess they sometimes do.  This woman goes around and does cool things to highlight fun things for locals to do.  It's funny because in all her pictures she is like carrying a bike or all geared up for some huge adventure.  The guides say that on this kayak trip she was in the front part of a double with an old lady that was part of the crew and some way.  Apparently Ashton Goodell had the little old lady paddling her all over the place and barely helped at all!  You can hear her say she's tired at one point in the video and the older lady is about to kill her.  Haha! Grrr...well for whatever reason it won't embed in the post so here is the link.

Passage Canal

It's been awhile since I have posted.  Drew and I have been on vacation, visiting my family back in Pennsylvania for a bit.  Now that life is back in order here in Alaska I can fill you in on what we've been doing.  The weekend before we left Drew was working a lot of course, as the middle of July is high tourist season.  I had a few days off so I ended up going down to the town Drew works in and spending the night.  We did a little hike in the evening and decided that in the morning I would go along with Drew on a trip he was taking out.   The next morning a group of 4 dropped out of the trip and so it was just Drew taking me and one actual client out.  He was a real nice guy from Denver, up in Alaska on business.  So we did the middle of the 3 trips that Drew takes people out on.  It was kind of a windy day as a storm was blowing in that night.  The water was a bit choppy but we could handle it pretty easily.  We went up and down the passage canal, which looks like this...except not so lopsided...it's hard to take pictures in a kayak that's blowing around on the waves:

We saw several bald eagles, which I thought was pretty cool, but is apparently pretty normal for Drew:

We stopped for lunch here:

It was funny to see Drew acting so professionally as the guide.  It was also weird to do something outdoorsy and still have it be so fancy.  When we go out on trips of our own, we are usually cooking noodles or oatmeal in a pot.  You get the royal treatment when you go outdoors with a guide! He set us up a fantastic lunch:

On our return trip we paddled up some streams and into some pretty inlets.  It was still too early to see the salmon jumping but Drew told me yesterday that he had several clients catch salmon with their bare hands this past week.  We also stopped on a beach and hiked to a pretty little waterfall.  There was a great view of Billings Glacier there:

The woods here are so mossy and green.  I don't know exactly what plant this was but it was really pretty blowing in the wind in this little clearing in the woods:

All in all it was a fun way to get to spend some time with Drew even though he was working.  We got back just in time too, as it started to pour right after we got back to the shop.  Yay for getting out and doing something in Alaska!

What is Drew Doing These Days?

For those of you who don't know, two summers ago Drew came up to Alaska for the first time and worked as a kayak guide.  Ever since he left Alaska, all he talked about was when we could go back.  So Drew is working as a kayak guide again this summer.  Although I don't think he will ever look at this blog or post on it, he does seem pumped enough about it that he took the camera to work with him and took some pictures "for the blog."  So consider this Drew's contribution, although I am the one posting it.  :)  These are from an all day tour he took out to Blackstone Bay.  Enjoy!

Blackstone Glacier through the window.

 Approaching Beloit and Blackstone Glaciers.

Wateralls and Northland Glacier

 Kittiwakes flying in front of Blackstone Glacier

Blackstone Glacier.  The kayaks are still about 3/4 of a mile away from the glacier.  They are huge!

Icebergs in Blackstone Bay

Paddling near Beloit Glacier.

As part of the all day kayak tour, they take a little hike up to one of the glaciers.  This is a view of Blackstone Bay taken on the hike.

Dwarf Fireweed and the Lawrence Glacier.

blue glacial ice

This boy standing by Lawrence Glacier gives you an idea of how big these things are.

Paddling around Willard Island

Drew loves this moss covered tree.

This panorama didn't turn out so hot, but it shows you a good chunk of Blackstone Bay.

Back in the Passage Canal, Drew took some more shots closer to his work:

This raft of otters is so cute!

This is the kittiwake rookery.  The birds all nest here because they use the algae that grows on these rocks to build their nests.  

A Princess cruise ship passing by

A view of Whittier from the water

Drew says this is his favorite Glacier.  It's one of the many glaciers you pass as you drive along Portage Pass to and from Whittier.