Whale Watching

The Whale Watching tour runs three times a week. Since we had the night off, we decided to get on the boat to get off land. Inside the park a boat has to stay at a certain distance away from the whales, as not to disturb them. But outside the park which is where the whale watching tour takes place there is no such limitations. That's not to say, that the captain is irresponsible and gets too close to the whale, but we are able to get closer. And while we float with the motor off it is amazing how close that the whales come to you.

The last picture is of sea lions. They have such personality. Then always show up with the whales, and always come close to the boat and make lots of noise, as if to say, "hey, you think that the whales are great, take a look at us!".

Our First Kayaking Trip

Well this was it. We finally organized a group of people to go on an overnight kayaking trip. Ian and I had been wanting to go for a while but were a little anxious. I wanted to go with other people first before we tried going on our own, because neither of us had ever done something like this before. So we asked around and found 6 others who had the same days off as us. Kat, another fellow server and returning staff members, was one of there people. She had done a lot of kayaking last time she was up here and was confindent in the planning process.

We were up at 5 am Monday morning to load the kayaks onto the boat, because we were headed up the bay. The tour boat that leaves every morning at 7:30 for the glaciers also drops off and picks up kayakers. There are two different spots along the way. We were dropped of at the second point. We arrived at our drop off at about 10:45am. The boat is really neat becuase it is not propelled by propellers but by jet thrusters and also it sets only 3 1/2 feet in the water, and can pull right onto shore to unload kayaks and people. After unloading our kayaks and supplies we watched at the boat floated out of sight. And we were off. As was expected it was raining, but we were prepare.




From there we headed to Rendue Inlet, which leads to Rendue Glacier, a branch section on the East arm of Glacier Bay. From the pictures you can see how beautiful the water is in the inlet. There are a lot of facts that make it that color including the algae that grow there and also the silt from the glacier. We went about a third of the way into the Inlet, but that was a far as we decide to go.


It doesn't look very far on a map, maybe a couple of inches, but it took us 3-4 hours to cover the distance of about 4 miles. During our adventure we saw two brown bears near a shoreline. It was our first sighting of bears by kayaks, and it was amazing. It amazes me how captivated we, as people, are by wild animals.

We decide on a place to camp, near our pick up point, and headed towards it. It took us another 3 hrs or so to reach our destination. As we started to get out of the kayaks it stopped raining. We we all so happy. We didn't have to set up our tents in the rain.

While the rest of us set up camp, one of the guys name Dan, started a fire for us. Even though I had rain gear on, I was still a little damp from being in water all day. My jeans were pretty wet. There is nothing better than a fire at the end of the day, and we were so lucky to have Dan there to start if for us. It took about 45 minutes to get it going and after we had collected enough firewood we proceeded to try and dry some of our clothes as we dinner.

We woke about 7:30am to pack up and leave because we had to be at the pick up sight about 10am to make sure we caught the boat home. If you are not there on the shore by the time the boat arrives, they leave you. They do not wait, because they are on a schedule. You would just be stuck for another day. So we made sure we were there in plenty of time.

After they picked us up, we proceeded to finish the tour, and even though we had already gone on it, it was still amazing. We were so exhausted, that on the way back to the logde all of us fell asleep at one point or other on the boat.

Bartlett River Trail

It took us about 3 hours to walk the 4 mile round trip trail. It was absolutely beautiful. It is just amazing how green everything is. Moss is present on just about every piece of wood and rock.

The only woodland creatures that we saw was a squirrel and a porcupine. Even when we got to the river and there was a bunch of open space, still nothing. I was hoping to see my first bear (from a far, safe distance), and get it over with. The anticipation of seeing one, while on land, is killing me. I want to be able to say, "ok, I saw a bear and I am still alive".

Once we got to the river we just explored.
I guess that there is a lake trail that you can go on. But it is much longer. It is about a 10 mile round trip hike. It takes about double the time as the river trail. On the lake trail there is a a WWII plane crash site, and the plane is still there. We want to walk that trail sometime while we are here but just didn't have time to go that far because we had to work.

Thursday's Sunset

Another Hiking Day

We had some time to go hiking so we did.

The Lodgies vs. the Locals

So apparently we have a softball team. Each week, people who can and are willing, go into town to play some softball. Monday was our first scheduled game, and Ian and I had the day off so we thought that it would be fun to try it.

Our team name is the Dodgie Lodgies. The people from Gustavus call the emloyees of the Lodge 'lodgies". And boy did we suck. I guess we lose every season, and bad. And this day was no exception. We lost 5 to 25. I am proud to say that I was the first one to score. Even though we were horrible it was still fun. It was a chance to get out and meet some of the people that we wait on in the restaurant. The locals that come into eat make up about 20% of our clientel, so it's fun to interact with them.

Another Beautiful Sunset

This is our office window. Every night that we work we get to watch spectacular sunsets just like this from the restaurant. Even if it is cloudly, it is still beautiful It's a hard life that we have right now!

The Bear's Nest

In the town of Gustavus, there is a place called the Bear's Nest. On the weekends people come to see some of the local talent place. It is located inside of a cozy two story house, where you must take your shoes off before coming inside. Ian and I were not sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly suprised. The video, of course, is not the best and definitely does not do it justice, but the music was amazing!

The Crazy looking guy dancing with the woman is John, he is an engineer on the boat. He is probably one of the most interesting characters I have ever met.

The other guy in the picture with Ian is another Jon. He is one of the servers that work with Ian and I in the restaurant. He is a returning servers that worked here a few years ago.

The people in the last picture are some of our co-workers who also came out.