Monday, May 18, 2009

Last leg of our journey

We boarded the Alaska Marine Highway boat named TAKU on Thursday morning, May 14. We had to be there by 9 am and didn't load until 11:15 am. After we explored the ship and found everything that we were going to need for the next 26 hours we hunkered down for a nap then woke up and started watching "Yellowstone Aflame", (a movie) on our computer. We were trying to make Brett really homesick already because there aren't big fires in Juneau... In the middle of our movie they came over the PA system and asked if there were any doctors or nurses on board to please go immediately to the a certain spot on the boat. Come to find out one of the crew members had a heart attack and was in pretty rough shape. We never found out what his role was on the boat but soon they had turned the boat around and were headed to meet the Canadian Coast Guard somewhere in the middle of the water. We had to use the Canadian Coast Guard because we were still in Canadian waters so the American Coast Guard couldn't respond to our call.
It took about another hour for the Coast guard to get to us (Ashton Kutcher would be so disappointed..) Then once they got there it took another 1 1/2 hours to get the poor guy loaded onto the Coast Guard boat. We never actually saw the man but one of the other passengers said that they were doing chest compressions like crazy when they were loading him and they had a grief meeting for all crew members and any passengers who helped him. Unfortunately, we don't think the poor guy made it back to land alive. But we don't have any for sure confirmation on that. Here's some pictures we got of the incident.
A small boat full of fisherman came over to watch
On the rest of our journey we saw the city of Ketchikan, humpback whales breaching (breaching means jumping out of the water), and we sleep quite a bit. We did stop in the city of Wrangell and Petersburg but it was early and we didn't get any pictures. Upon on our arrival, Brett and I both rushed downtown to fill out some paperwork for our jobs so we could start working on Saturday, May 16. Then returned to Megan and Zach's house to get settled in for the summer. Megan and Zach purchased a house last summer just before we left. The house they purchased was a fixer-uper and needed some TLC, most, if not all was done after we had returned to Utah. So their house looks a lot different and is so cute. They have done a great job fixing it up and I even dare lay on the floor and eat out of the kitchen now. :)
Sunday we both had to work. Brett didn't have to be there until later so he was able to attend church and then go to work. It is great being back to work. I was just thrown back into what I were doing last summer with no refreshers. I was kind of scared for the first couple of tables that I took but quickly fell back into the routine of things. It's great to be back and be here with Megan and Zach enjoying the summer once again. We are home, once again, in Alaska!
The town of Ketchikan stretches along the coast (the majority of the town in the picture)
This man slept nearly the entire journey, we wanted to tickle his feet a couple of times but we resisted the temptation
A breaching whale (it's smaller so we think it's a calf)

A breech splash

whale's tale

Dax got out of his swing with this sweet hair-do. I think Brett's going to try and copy it.

4 comments:

Kami Anderson said...

I'm so glad you made it safely. Hope you have a fun and exciting summer.

Paula said...

I'm happy to hear that you arrived safely. I love watching the whales, that would have been amazing. It sounds like you have settled in and are ready to go to work. Have a great summer!

Mama T said...

Love the photos. And yes I love the hairdo on my grandson!

Alex and Anna said...

Glad you guys made it to Alaska safe. THats too bad about that guy who died.=(