Day #59: Back to the Grind

Daniel left this afternoon, while I was at work. We had a wonderful week, and I was pretty sad to see him leave, but I am also excited to get back to the grind to build my monetary cushion for our travels together this fall. We were quite busy, so here's the quick update:

Monday: I worked, Daniel slept in, and I was able to get him on a canoe tour in which he canoed out to the glacier in a giant canoe. He really enjoyed it.

Tuesday: I requested a couple of tours that Daniel could ride along on, so in the morning we visited the Rainforest Gardens & then got lunch while all of my guests were at the glacier. Then in the afternoon I was able to get him on a whale watching tour. He loved both of these tours.

Wednesday: I had a tedious 14 hour day, after which I met up with Daniel and cried in his arms about some horribly rude guests. I won't go into detail about what they did, but I was really glad to have him there to comfort me. He is so good to me. We ended the evening by meeting Pat out at the bar for his birthday where I promptly bought him a drink then excused ourselves for bed time because we were so exhausted.

Thursday: At this point we were both spent. Thursday was spent watching movies and being lazy. I'm pretty sure we only left the hotel room once and that was really just to go downstairs in the hotel for dinner.

Friday: Friday was the highlight for sure. In the morning, we took a walk out to the flume between Mt. Roberts & Mt. Juneau just to get out of the hotel room. We weren't sure yet if a tour was going to happen. Well everything came through beautifully and we wound up getting on the Taku Lodge tour - they take you up in a float plane out across from the hole-in-the-wall glacier to the historic Taku Lodge. There they feed you a deliciously fresh salmon dinner (salmon roasted on the grill outside as well as steamed apples with cranberries, baked beans, freshly made biscuits, cole slaw, and fresh bread) and then take you on a brief nature walk around the grounds of the lodge. The history of the place was incredible, and the wildlife was awesome - there were two guys who pretty much get paid to chase bears away from the grill and into the trees! After they were done cooking the salmon, they let the bears lick the juices off the grill, and we got a great view of them up close (from inside of course).

This week with Daniel was a highlight of my summer - and he said the same thing. I think he really enjoyed Alaska (possibly a lot more than he thought he would). Something about the ruggedness and the lack of fluff here really inspired something wonderful inside of him; something is alive now that makes him desire to live completely without luxury. I am with him on that. We both really enjoyed our time together, though we both were anxious to get back to our summer plans and finish what we started. Talks about this fall continue in the direction they've always been. For now, I am going to work really hard for the rest of the summer and save up as much money as possible in order to live as cheaply as possible while travelling come October.

Missing you all but keepin' on truckin'.