Hump Day!

Well we've hit our half way mark in our season! Crazy to think I've been here two months and have about that long left... I've had a lot of great life experiences up here. I have grown a lot as a person and gotten to know some awesome people! It's like another mission. Gonna miss the awesome people I work with when it comes time. I have learned much from them and had some great laughs.

Have to say The Holly and Russell Team are the best.. Never a dull moment when I work with this kid.

We always have fun. Dancing on the deck for the people coming back from the boat tour, raising the roof with excitement for dungeness crab, and Russell will never pass up the challenge of piggy backing people bigger than him up the 79 steps back up to the buses. 

Here is but a bit of what he did today.. This man was 260 pounds. He's carried two other men just a bit less weight to the top before.. $1 per step is his price. We usually joke and say we will offer a piggy back ride but Russell takes it seriously :) 

Heat has hit us. I couldn't avoid it leaving Utah afterall.. Today was 82° and had about 100% humidity.. Now that was sweaty in those yellow pants today! ha.. We saw a bear today outside the lodge and we still see those awesome whales, jelly fish and amazing creatures. I enjoy running in the rain and showing the guests the crab on tours. Get to do it tomorrow. I really am starting to love it more and more! I am so blessed. Especially with a sunset like this every so often.....

In The News

There's not much to see in a small town, but what you hear makes up for it." This seems to be the case not only in a small town, but the Lodge, Facebook and its such a small world..
The first change in my life everyone is asking me about. It came as a surprise I'm sure, but a relationship is in progress in my life. Many have asked about distance being an issue. I'm a committer no matter what the distance if it feels right. It's new and we're just seeing what happens. Hans lives in St. George and we just recently made a connection after we found a lot of mutual ground (people, views, thoughts and much more we are still learning each day). His brother is married to my high school best friend, Marsha. Kind of interesting how that happened, but so it did. I'm trusting God and seeing where he leads.
And of course I have become world famous at the lodge as YouTube has published our work for all to see. Mine was from a mother proud to show off her son's crabbing experience on my boat tour.. all you see is my head with a hood on, my hands and hear my voice ha.
So check it out! :)
http://youtu.be/4Ikc64wUrOQ

The 4th of July was amazing. We had a day of work as usual, then we went into town for fireworks and also made spray paint tattoos. The fireworks were launched off some boats in the water. Pretty amazing.

It's been a busy week, today we had about 415 people total to serve. The boys went fishing after work and caught this sand shark and decided to flay him up for some dinner. I'll have to try a bite at least.

Rain isn't coming much. A lot of humidity. Praying for more. Love you all. Hope you're well. Loves and hugs from Alaska.

~Holly~

The Ins and Outs

I'm sure many have been curious about how I can do all that I get to in Alaska.. Generally money is a huge thing for the adventures we do.. Well, here's the in of the coolness of being able to work for Experience Alaska Adventures... As you all know crab feast and the boat tours that we do are for those who come in off the cruise ships. Locals and others can come enjoy it too but it does cost a bit much to do as do other things like zip lining, adventure karts and float plane tours.. BUT because we are employees we get to do ALLLLLL OF IT for free!!!! :D Kind of funny that that was never mentioned when I got the job. It was a surprise when we all got here so no money has been spent doing the fun I do. We have our own kayak to use to so that long kayak (8 miles) I did? that was after work just at the Inlet. We get to fish and do all that stuff FOR FREE! :) No need to go out and spend money when you can hike run and explore for free :)

So if you wanna work up here it is a great way to save. We don't pay rent, we have toilet paper, laundry soap, dish soap, internet, tv and all that at our disposal for free! Also despite how much food is up here (ugh, expensive! Missing Utah prices) we get lucky when everyone likes to share their daily catch of fish, shrimp or whatever they are making... Hoping bills will get paid with the saving of money over the summer :D

Today was definitely a Monday tho... haha... busy of course and just our routine. My next day off will be Wednesday. So ready for it been about a week since my last full off day. Going to go try the Adventure Karts.. never done them yet! But they look fun! Gotta love free fun. It is the best!! We get salmon berries around the road here.. they are a little more tart than raspberries but they are delicious! Think berry picking is in the works too! ....
 The 4th is the busiest day for us.. 6 ships in town so no one will have the day off but it should be good for us! Loving it!  Happy 4th for everyone!!

Here is a lovely sunset.. picture taken by my lovely friend, Adriana! This is 9:45 at night.. We get later sunsets here as you can imagine... it is 9:30 here now and light as can be!!! 

Alaska Style

Fun and Adventure continue. I finally got a day off with a few of my co-workers on Saturday so we played on the zip lines!

This was my first time on the slide... Aside from making you look like a sack of potatoes in a burlap sack we slid down a 40 foot slide at the end of the zip line course.

At the end of the day we went fishing.. Yeah it may look like we are bored but we had a grand ol' time. The little ones we tossed out to the bald eagles who swooped down and grabbed them. I have video that I am unable to post but if you have Facebook check it out on my profile. 

And here is our catch.. Lotsa rock fish and one cod. Jordan (the one with the blue shirt and long hair) shared his spoils with me and I made a nice fish bake doused  with Cavender's greek seasoning... Mmmm.. even co-worker/fish expert Nick told me it was the best rock fish he has ever eaten.. Up here I have become a pro cook and baker. Beware friends and family I have made some killer new recipe's since I have been here and am determined to share and prepare once I'm back in the Beehive state. 

As you can see we have a great time with each other as we all share close quarters upstairs. 

Can't say that we really get sick of each other as much as we just seek revenge whenever necessary...

Work is busy as usual. I'm meeting amazing people from around the world and improving my Alaska knowledge, crab dance skills and (seriously now) my communication, self-confidene and presentation skills are getting better I feel :) Life is good! And that missionary broadcast on Sunday.. oh.. what a heart wrenching moment! So happy for what great things are happening in the world! Anyway I'm off for my first run tomorrow after a month of healing the knee and after that 8ish-mile kayaking trip the other day I think I'm in for another soon!  Sending love from Alaska!! Everyone have a great week!

Zip Through Alaska!

Monday was kind of a weird day this last week.. but it ended amazingly! Killer Whales (Orcas) visited us and we did the Polar Plunge off the dock.. Needless to say we swam with them ;) Could say that the ocean water was even warmer than Calf Creek Falls. Different tasting however ;)

Internet has been spotty so I apologize for no sooner updates but also life has been uber busy. Friday we had 6 tour groups in a row with only about 15- 20 minutes in between to prepare for the next group.  I love being busy and we have met some awesome people!

I have a new roommate also.. Emma Fisher from Anchorage moved here to work with us she is currently a BYU student.

Last Wednesday was my day off. It was awesome! I went zip lining. It was pretty awesome. Different than just sitting on a bar and zipping across a cable in a alfalfa field in Worland, Wyoming on preparation day haha..

It was even cooler! After that I went on another float plane tour. This time it was to the lodge to enjoy a crab feast that I usually serve to guests. I got to watch and observe my co-worker Ben serve crab to me and two couples (one from Texas and the other from Germany). It was awesome. I really understand why people do enjoy the experience of the crab feast. I loved it and want to do it again haha. Not often do we get to sit down and eat crab coz we are always serving it and I now think I'll take advantage of eating more crab in the future!

Ketchikan is famous for the world's most totem poles. They each tell a story. Don't ask me what these three are saying coz I couldn't tell ya haha but they sure look cool!

Loving my adventure up here. I've accumulated some new nicknames up here. One of our cooks, Gillberto calls me Juana or Juanita, another co-worker said he will start calling me Dolly.. My boss's daughter calls me HollyWood.. Gotta love it.. Today was awesome.. It's not everyday that a cruise ship captain comments on how beautiful your eyes are and gives you a hug. Everyone is always so nice when they visit! Love it!  I am grateful for all my friends and family from afar also. Got to talk to my two dads yesterday (Dad and President Fishher) Love them both and am so grateful for all they have done for me in my life! Also got to talk to my best friend, Hanna Adamson today. Its hard to be away from close friends but loving the people and the new environment here! Tell next time stay classy amigos!

A Whale of a Week

We received a new addition to our crew this week. Her name is Emma Fisher and is from Anchorage, AK, but most recently has been attending BYU in Provo. She's 20 years old and has a very sweet spirit.
We had quite the experience a few days ago when a co-worker/my roommate was found intoxicated and became threatening, violent and out of control. We were clued in that she had been sneaking vodka in her water bottle for awhile now. After sneaking out the bedroom window and being caught up with by a State Trooper she has now been taken out of our lives. She was a troubled woman and we wish the best for her that she will get the help she needs. All is getting better and Emma will be my new roommate.
That same day I had a fabulous day at work as I served an energetic and fun group of Asians and Americans. I really enjoy serving crab and entertaining groups. One woman was celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary and she said that it was the best day because of me. That definitely warmed my heart. Apparently in some cultures you compliment someone on something and they give it to you. Not sure if that was the case here but I did comment on an Asian woman's sweater.. She took it off and gave it to me then proceeded to get a picture with me holding it up.. They were super sweet people.

Today was a tough day on the boat. I've been in a funk lately but on one of the tours led by my co-worker, Nick they saw whales feeding. For some reason when I see great things I can't get a good picture to document it. I saw them as they passed the doc but this is all I got of them as they left in the distance.. you can see what looks like smoke but it is water the whales are shooting up.

Yesterday's tours were great we saw porpoise, a bear cub, seals, eagles, starfish and a mink. Someone asked me today if it ever gets old. Nope.. I will for sure miss all this great wildlife sighting when I go home. We get spoiled with the best seafood too.

I'm among a lot of good people now and it's never a dull moment with Miss Mary Jane to entertain us during the day.. Hopefully that will be enough to get me out of my funk I'm in. Love you all and miss you! Aloha from George Inlet Lodge!

It's an eagle, it's a crab oh and a BEAR!

All month I've heard my co-workers talk about seeing bears and I start thinking "when's it going to be my turn?" Today was the day. Bout dang time! haha. I was Boat Narrator today. We have two boats and I was on the smaller one that holds 15 people for the first time. The other one holds about 40 people or so. We have two boat captains. One that drives the smaller one likes to whistle to the eagles and throw a fish for them to eat. He had a conversation with one eagle and had a couple come down for people to get good pictures of. It rained pretty good this morning. I loved it! But being out on the back of the boat to pull up crab pots in the rain was not really people's favorite thing to do on the tour. We caught some feisty ones haha and found a sunstar on the last tour as well as two black bears! Sad thing is we found out they ate our residential swan, Millie :( I didn't get any photos coz I was narrating, but oh well.

I am continuously loving my job. It beats working in an office. I really hope when I do apply for jobs after my adventure here I can be out and about instead of being in an office ALL THE TIME.. Love the experience. Getting to know a lot of my co-workers and of course they are all amazing in their own way. Grateful to be with them. I spoil them rotten with my baking too. :)

Nick and Ryan, co-workers, went Halibut fishing today and this was one of their catches

This guy is 80 pounds.. 

Nick was nice enough to bring us some for eating tonight. Jordan, another co-worker, made some fish stew with a rock fish he caught.. That was unbelievably good, the halibut was fabulous and of course the past few weeks with crab salmon and shrimp.. You just can't go wrong! Getting fed great up here!

Today I got to have this little lady with us on the tour. This is the real boss of the lodge.. Miss Mary Jane.. Her grandparents are the owners, and her mom is our manager. She's four and quite the amazing little girl. She held the crabs by their claws and was super daring. Gotta love her.

This picture of her was during a Rainboot Race in Ketchikan a few weeks ago. Ketchikan broke the record for the most people to run a race in rain boots. The amount was about 1600 people.

Yesterday, some of us went and played volleyball with the YSA kids here. They do it every Thursday. An institute teacher was called on sunday so we will get that up here too! My knee is getting better so I am very happy about that!

I currently have eliminated phone service for now to save money and enjoy my adventure here but if anyone needs me e-mail me at krazyredhead04@gmail.com Thank you!