Another good day

Yesterday was one of my days off, and the weather was awesome at--perfect for the summer solstice! Up here, celebrating the solstice is a larger deal than celebrating the 4th of July, it's crazy. But Chelsea and I went down to our "beach" area that is next door to the Village and just enjoyed the sand between our toes and dipping our feet in the water. It made for a great afternoon.

 I made a sand angel

Yesterday a few of us also hiked up the Flat Top mountain and got to see an awesome view all around where the village is. It was a bush wacking adventure once again, but more large bushes this time to push through, then a large incline/climb up the mountain but totally worth it.

 Part of our view

 Tony sitting a ways away

 See Tony?

 The little bit of snow up top that we played in and had a snowball fight with. And on the first day of summer. Crazy, huh?

 Rosealina and myself

 Our view of triple lakes from the top of Flat Top

 Part of our adventure going down

Chillin' on the tracks

Well, back to work tomorrow, or should I say in a couple hours? Haha, oh Alaska.

A Beautiful Evening

 This past week has been pretty relaxed with hanging out with everyone outside of work and getting to know people better. There was this "photo night" where our HR manager gave a little lesson on how to take better photos no matter what camera we had. After a little lesson and time of him showing his personal photos from Colorado and Alaska, we took a drive out to a couple of awesome scenic locations along the Alaskan Highway. It was the evening so the sun was as a beautiful spot that illuminated everything. Kevin, our HR, let me drive his car while he took the company vehicle, and just driving down these winding roads there is so much to see. If I brought my own car I would be driving everywhere checking out Alaska life.

Our vehicles pulled over

It was fun to also mingle with more people and get to have a little fun as a small group. 

We had to do my classic jumping photo

Me and Johnny from GA

Me and Borislava from Bulgaria, one of the first people I met upon arrival

 Borislava's photo skills

 The small group of us who went out

 Photo that a friend Anthony took while we were out

Another one of Anthony's 

Although I still take below average photos, at least I think I learned a bit more about what photographers look at, and what I should pay attention to, while taking photos. Usually, I take photos  for fun, but it was so worth the drive out. Hopefully we can get out like that again. Any chance of leaving here to explore around I try to take advantage of.

New Friends, New Adventures

Since we're all stuck here for the most part, the only place to "go out" for the day is to the Chalet and to the shops. With Manny working all the time, he finally got the day off and wanted to head over to the shops to see what it was all about. So we hitched a ride there and got another one back (...eventually. Haha, that's a story for another time). I have already been to the Chalet too many times to count, but still enjoy seeing the local vendors and the fun items in their stores. We went into a really good coffee shop called the Black Bear, which I supposed is advertised even in Ohio. It was small and quaint and sold lots of pastries and interesting drinks. We also went into a variety of other stores that were owned by hippies, quilters, glass artists, and souvenir shops.

 Chelsea with her moose hat

 Me with the bear one

Shopping away

The shuttle has been shut down however for awhile, but opens back up today so I hope to hop on and get a ride out of here for a couple hours before work. This past week our employee/locals type bar (open to guests as well) had their grand opening. The bar is called the Chubby Salmon and sells burgers, fries, and shakes. There is the "Chubby Challenge" that the bar offers, which consists of 1 lb. of salmon in patty form on a bun with 1 lb. of toppings, which comes with 1 lb. of fries, and a milkshake. The challenge is to finish the meal within 25 minutes, and a free t-shirt will be given to the consumer. I suppose one guy, our regional chef?, tried the challenge but failed to complete it. Last night however, Manny took a shot at it and finished! He was the first to do so, and will get a free shirt, although he gets a free one anyways for being a manager. (So I'm trying to get him to give it to me instead.) He said it was alright expect the fact that the onions dominated the burger and he hates onions, and pretty much had an entire raw onion on the burger.

Manny about to begin the challenge

 Finishing up the sandwich

Finishing up the shake!

After that, he disappeared for awhile to walk around. I didn't see him after that! 

Well, the hotel starts up again today at noon--finally! We all have been waiting to get going with work again. Stinks to have to pay to stay here and not make any money in the mean time! So bring on the hours, I'm ready.

Mr. Squirrel posing for us while we hiked

 

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
 

 

::Epictetus::