Beautiful trail just half a mile from my apartment!
Safety First :-) Your are welcome MOM!
My sweet ride for the summer around Anchorage!
After my long bike ride...I was fortunate to meet one of my co-workers Debbie and her temporary roommate Michelle! We got to know each other very quickly and before long were out to dinner enjoying a beer and reindeer sausage pizza! Yum!
Reindeer Sausage and blue cheese pizza!
Mmmmm, good ole IPA
I hit the sac early that night and prepared for my very first day of work! I had briefed with my supervisor Amie in Anchorage and wow did I receive a ton! Princess jump drive and messenger bag, hundreds of pages of material for tour direction and narration, and a handful of insight!
Paperwork galore...
Do I look professional enough?
That morning Kristin and I had breakfast in Anchorage and then I shipped off to Hotel Captain Cook downtown for my first official night on tour! As I checked in to the hotel I received my welcome packet and headed up to my room to go over pax counts, special needs, pre-booked excursions and transportation reservations from the hotel to rail depot, and rail services from Anchorage to Talkeetna, and Talkeetna to Mckinley Princess Lodge. Sounds like a lot...and it is!!!
My 9th floor room
My room and hotel were beautiful which made doing my work much easier. :-) I hit the sac early again and prepared myself mentally for the morning ahead!
I woke up around 6am and got my things together and headed down to the lobby to a sea of people confused and full of questions! One word...chaos, but as I made my rounds I slowly gathered my group of 46 and gave them an area to relax and wait for our transportation to arrive. Sure enough, our 55 passenger motor-coach pulled up and the group of us were on and headed to the rail depot! We pulled alongside our car and boarded a beautiful two level rail car with glass dome overhead!
Glass, glass, glass
Chugach Mountains
The views on the train ride to Talkeetna were absolutely stunning and we were even lucky enough to see five moose along the way! Breakfast on the train was wonderful and our rail guide Crystal was fantastic! We arrived in Talkeetna in just a few short hours and then proceeded by motor-coach to Princess's Mckinley Wilderness Lodge and I got upgraded to a suite! And boy was I not expecting that!
My suite in Mckinley
A king size!
Yes please!
It was too much room but I was very thankful for it and the nice bath I had that evening! :-)
The views of Mckinley were absolutely stunning and the weather could not have been more perfect! Sixty-five degrees and the mountain in full view! Wow what a sight! Oh and we had a small earthquake! Interesting thing to experience but very common in Alaska!
Beautiful day to see a beautiful place!
View from lunch
Afternoon hike...
Shorts in Alaska! It is possible!
Midnight sunset at Mckinley
All in all a wonderful first two days on tour and so many more to go! I am off to Denali for the day and excited for what lays ahead!
Jason Way to go, thanks so much for blog. It makes it alot easier for good ole MOM.
ReplyDeleteProud of you, and all that you are giving to your guests! Love you buddy, MOM