Day #2: I'm Getting Warmer

Second day was a 12 hour day! We started at 8am this morning, were given a bus to drive around town, and spent 4 hours making sure that we knew where all of the drop off sites were. After that, we sat in the break room where we were paid to sit on our butts with some friends for 2 hours waiting for our next drive. We made it onto Jessica's tour to see how she does things; she had a 3 1/2 hour Glacier Gardens tour (which also goes to Mendenhall Glacier). I learned a lot watching her drive! She talked the whole time, gave a slew of information, and offered up lots of advice and tidbits on things to say. Of course, we also had some time to walk around at the glacier with our friend Nick, so we explored the sights and the visitor center while we waited to get back to the docks. Because of the cloud cover, the glacier was so blue, and even though it was a bit chilly, we walked around enough to not freeze our butts off. Bear in mind that we got paid for all of this. It's a rough life.

Fortunately, 12 hours didn't feel like 12, and we had enough energy to get back and hang out with some of the other HAP employees in the lounge that we all share in the Baranof. I can't stress enough how nice the people are here; everyone is so excited to be here and anxious to get to know us. And every night there seems to be some sort of activity going on with someone - there was a movie run out to the valley this evening to see the Hangover 2, and tomorrow night there is dancing and something called "group therapy" that a few kids put together to get together and talk about "deep stuff." We will definitely not be bored this summer.

So obviously the weather yesterday was beautiful, but today it wasn't bad at all. Temperatures dwindled around 55, and the cloud cover stuck around all day, but it didn't rain on us, which I feel fortunate for. The days are long though, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It never gets dark enough here to see the stars, and we have to utilize the full extent of our blackout curtains to get any sleep. But the days feel infinite, and I haven't felt fatigued at all since I've been here (granted, it has only been 2 days). In general, the climate feels very similar to home; in fact, the landscape feels like home too, only the mountains here are steeper, closer, and much more grand.

Tomorrow I get my first passengers. They start us out with simple transfers, so I will be transferring guests from the docks to the Temsco helipad where they will receive helicopter tours like dogsledding and the Juneau Ice Field. I have to do this all day, but the upside is that it's not a full tour, so I can talk as little or as much as I want. It's a good introduction to the tours, and will give me a good idea of the things I want to talk about on my own tours when I start to receive them. Unfortunately, however, my call time is 615 am, so until next time...