Work Is Not A Four Letter Word

I awoke this morning to the sound of our neighbor's beagle howling her little heart out. This is usually a signal that there are moose in the area. This meant that I needed to go protect the flowers that are just growing back and the first of Jude's tomatoes that are starting to turn red. As long as I am up it must be time for a new post.

I left off with the dip-netting that was taking place just down the street. We made two trips down there with mixed results. The first day Julius got one and Jude, Amanda and I got muddy. Jude and I went again the next day and got 7 more Reds. It became time to leave when Jude got stuck in the mud. What's up with the mud? With all of the glacier action up here there is a tremendous amount of what is called glacial flour. The grey mountains have been ground down by the glaciers. The material is as fine as powdered sugar. Mix this material with water and you get a frosting type material depending on how much water is there. Every once in a while someone will go out on the mud flats and get stuck. When the tide comes in they have been drowned. Where we were fishing, this was not an issue, but the mud was still there. The freezer is now full and we are slowing down on our fishing. As a matter of fact, we have not been fishing in two weeks.

Jude and I have a job! We are working for Princess Cruise Lines checking passengers onto their Alaskan Cruise. We went to a job fair back in March and were looking for part-time seasonal. Our biggest qualifications were that we are retired teachers. I guess that means we can put up with a bunch of crap and still keep our temper! I have been real good until a woman came up to me the other day and said, "You lost my luggage!" I answered a little to quickly and just said in somewhat of a sarcastic voice, "I DID?"

We work every other Wednesday in Whittier, AK. We leave the house at 8:45 AM and drive to Anchorage to punch in by 10. We then board a bus, excuse me, COACH and head down one of the most scenic drives in Alaska, Turnagain Arm. The road follows the water with snow capped mountains on each side. The trip takes us about an hour. Timeliness is important because to get to Whittier we must pass through a 5 mile long, one lane tunnel. The tunnel is open in each direction for only limited periods of time, westbound on the hour and eastbound on the half hour. In between times the train uses the tunnel. The tunnel was built during WW II for transporting supplies by rail.

We arrive at our work stations at 11:45 and begin checking in passengers at noon. We scan their passports and credit cards then give them their room keys and send them to the ship. There are about 20 stations where the guests check in. The passengers arrive by coach whenever the tunnel opens. This means we have a flood of people show up at 20 minutes to the hour. Depending on how buses come through the tunnel depends on when we get our break. Sometimes there are only a couple of buses with about 45 people on each one. During these "tunnels" we are done in 10-15 minutes. Usually there are 4-5 buses and we work longer, right up until the next tunnel. The day usually ends with the 8:30 PM tunnel. We rush to get the last load on the ship and make the 9 PM tunnel. Then it is a one hour trip back to Anchorage and then another one hour drive home. Actually it is a lot of fun and we work with some great people. More important, nothing to bring home and nothing to worry about, all for a big $9 per hour.

But wait, there is more. Working in the travel industry has some great perks. Jude and I do not work enough hours to qualify for a free cruise, but we do qualify for a 50% reduction on a regular price cruise. Better than that, we have the opportunity to do what is called familiarization trips, or Fam trips at a very low cost. Actually no cost, just big tips. We have done a one hour glacier boat trip, a 6 hour glacier boat trip on Prince William Sound, a tram ride up the side of a mountain, a train ride to Talkeetna, a 2 hour boat trip on a braided river (not much different than the 90 day trip down the rivers), and the coup de grace, a one hour flight seeing trip over Denali National Park. We also can stay at any of the Princess Lodges here in Alaska for a room rate of $35. In addition we get 25% off on food and I think 30% at the bar! Not a bad gig for part time.

These pictures were taken on our flight over Denali. Notice the blue color in the picture. That is pools of water on the surface of the glacier.

Driving home from work two weeks ago at 10 PM, we had something happen that had not happened since we arrived back in Alaska in May. The headlights came on! That's right, it was getting dark! We saw street lights for the first time! Today sunrise was at 6:15 and sunset will be at 9:45. We are now losing over 5 minutes per day.