Brett gets hit by a bus

Yesterday was NOT a good day for Brett. His day went something like this: he went to work on his day off. Alaska Coach Tours (ACT) was asked to help another company out by helping them bus some of their tourists around Juneau. They asked Brett if he would like to work and he, of course, readily agreed. He had to be to work at 6:30 a.m. Usually, they have an hour and a half to prep the bus and make sure they are ready to go for the day. However, upon arriving at work, they realized they were even shorter on bus drivers than they thought and ended up sending him to the docks to pick up tourists at 7:30, so he was rushed and frazzled from the get go. When he arrived at the docks he was patiently waiting for his turn to load his bus when he felt a jolt. He looked in his rear view mirror and another bus driver had backed up into his bus! He rushed out to get all of the information, which at this point he was supposed to be loading toursits who were already going to be a little late. They called in for another bus, which took about 10 minutes to arrive. Thus, making him and the tourists later than he already was.

There was not a lot of damage done to the bus, just a little section of the back bumper was damaged. They think that it will only be about $90 to fix. Luckily, there were no passengers on his bus and no one was seriously injured. But talk about a not-so-good day! Despite the rough start the rest of the day turned out to be alright.

That evening we went for a small hike to West Glacier and hiked around the west side of Mendenhall Lake with Megan, Zach and the boston terriers (Buxton and Suma). It was such an awesome evening. We love being in Alaska and being surrounded with such beautiful landscape! We feel so blessed!

Show us the $money$!

Just for an update... both Brett and I are working jobs where we get tips. I am a waitress at the Baranof hotel and Brett's a tour bus driver. Needless to say we are getting a lot of actual cash. We decided that we were going to give Megan and Zach the money we owe them for rent with all of this cash. $163 of it was in $1 bills. They went camping for the weekend and we both had to work so we stayed at home. While they were gone we had the brilliant idea to lay the money that we owe them all over their bed for them so they'd have agreat surprise when they came home. They sure did love it! Plus, Megan works at a bank so she can just deposit it very easily. I thought we'd let everyone else share in our laughter...
We are having a blast up here but are missing everyone at home, especially with Mother's and Father's day and lots of birthdays and graduations. But we'll be home before you know it. Love you all! Happy Memorial Day (tomorrow)

Mt Roberts and our new favorite spot

On Sunday night, we went for a sunday night drive "out the road", as the locals like to say. In Juneau when people say the end of the road, it really is the end of the road. There is no road that comes in or out of Juneau so we literally drove to the end of the road. We walked along the coast for awhile and then headed back home. When we were on our way we stopped at another beach that looked like a good place for Megan and Zach to go camping next weekend. So we stopped to check it out. While we were there we saw 2 whales! and some sea lions too. It was a gorgeous beach with lots of really cool wildlife. So this beach became our new favorite place to go.
Yesterday day we (Brett and I) had the day off and it just so happened to be the nicest day that we've had in Juneau (about 68 degrees) so we decided to hike up Mt. Roberts. This mountain is the "tourist mountain" of Juneau. It has the tram that goes to the top and when you get up there, there is a restaurant, a theater where they have natives perform drum ceremonies and lots of other cool stuff. And of course there's gift shops and a place for all the tourists to drink some more beer and spend more money. Anyway, if you hike up the mountain you can ride the tram down for free (regularly it's $25 to get on). So we hiked up, that took about an hour, walked around for a little while and then took the tram down. It was so beautiful. We could see both ways down the channel and we could see out over the city. (Again, check out our pictures for more great shots of our adventure)

When we got home from hiking, we got tin foil dinners put together and went out to our new favorite beach to have a campfire and tin foil dinners. It was a very pleasant evening. Zach and Brett enjoyed some fishing while me and Megan tended the fire. Once again, just before sunset we saw 2 or 3 whales come into the area and we got to watch them for a little while. We love it here in Alaska. There really aren't many places in the world that you can go to have a fire on beach and watch the whales.

High Sea Adventure

Friday, May 16, we got hooked up with a free whale watching tour with Brett's work. The tour was with Allen Marine Tours. It was raining hard all day long but they have covered cabins on the boats so we decided to go for the adventure.

This was Brett's first time actually being on the ocean... What a sheltered life he has lead... :) The water was really choppy and it was really windy and rainy but we still had a blast. We did manage to see a couple different Humpback whales and a lot of sea lions. (See more pictures of the sea lions and whale with our other pictures.) This is the best picture that we got. we did get some good video footage of the event as well but Brett forgot his cabels to hook it up to the computer so we'll have to share when we get home....

Despite the cold weather we had a blast and are looking forward to probably doing it again along with many other adventures.

Our first adventure

Thursday, we went on our first really adventure in Juneau. We went to the Mendenhall Glacier and went for a hike on what is called the East Glacier Loop Trail. It was about a 3 mile hike and it was gorgeous. It was so fun to be able to get out in nature and to explore a little bit. The glacier was amazing! There is a beautiful waterfall that runs into Glacier Lake, which is right in front of the glacier. It was fun to hike around. We also got to drive around a little bit and getting more familiar with the area. It is such a beautiful place, we love it here already! - to see more of our pictures, click on the link to our pics.
Friday: Chelsea started her new job at the Baranof Hotel. She works inside the hotel at a cafe called Capital Cafe. The Baranof is the nicest hotel in Juneau. It's where all the big-wigs stay when they come to town. She will be the hostess for a few weeks until she's comfortable taking tables by herself and then she'll be a full-time waitress... Making GOOD tips. She will get off at 2 pm every day so she'll be able to get some homework done before everyone comes home and starts playing. Last night we went to the Lena Beach with Megan and Zach, Tracy and Ellis, and Colter and Jeanine (Meg and Zach's Friends) to have a hot dog roast. It was so relaxing to sit and listen to the waves roll in and watch the sunset on the gorgeous mountains. (Check out the pics) It was a good to relax and enjoy everyone's company. We had a lot of fun and are excited to have more fun adventures!

We're actually here!

As I promised, I have now started a blog. We arrived in Alaska on Saturday night at 9:40 (AK time) and have been having a blast so far. Upon arriving, Zach and his friend Ellis, had been crabbing that day and caught HUGE crabs. So we had a crab feast when we arrived. Talk about an official Alaskan welcome.
Brett is working as a tour bus driver and has worked every day that we've been here. He has been getting familiar with the area, which isn't too difficult at all, and shadowing actual tours. Today he is actually giving his first tour. I have still not officially found a job yet, but I went to the Alaskan Fudge Company yesterday and it looks very promising. I will know by later today, so i will be sure to keep you all posted.
We've taken drives around Juneau and Brett got to see his firsts glimps of the ocean on Sunday (that's what the picture is of - those are islands, and they're everywhere!). It's beautiful country. It's been raining a lot and the clouds have been hanging really low so we haven't actually got to see the real beauty that is surrounding us yet. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice weather so hopefully we can see all the gorgeous mountains.
We are having a blast here! Brett has already told me that it may be really hard for him to leave already.... I might have to drag him home.