Adventure!

It's seems strange to say but I've been in Seward for one month now and I'm loving it. The rainy days have subsided somewhat to a more steady stream of cloud and fog but the occasional patch of blue makes it all worth while. Thankfully, when the skies open up it's been a drip here and a drip there. Last week the weather was a disaster -- total downpour all the time.  I mean “chicken little, chicken little the sky is falling!” sort of down pour. The dogs were soaked. We were soaked. The tourists were soaked in their little yellow rain slickers. But it's been fun and everyone who comes to visit still has smiles on their face so it makes it all worth while!

Work has been busy but exciting. I've really enjoyed living in Seward and sharing my passion with dog enthusiasts from across the globe. Yesterday I had people from Israel, Portugal, and France on my tours to give you an idea of where people are coming from. I also had a Japanese family from just outside Tokyo the other day so I did my best to speak to them in Japanese... Utter failure! All I could remember was "I can speak a little Japanese" and "The dog is cute, don't you think?" But they seemed to enjoy my efforts nonetheless. Actually, I could understand what they were saying for the most part which was neat I just didn't have the vocabulary to respond. I guess that's how it goes when you don't practice.
At work, our big walk-in freezer broke recently. Luckily, we were able to use everything up before it got all mushy and gross. The downside was the freezer than stunk like fish. We took out all the gross wooden pallets and pieces of plywood that had lined the freezer, chopped them up, put them in a truck to take to the dump and then what happened...the truck died!  So inevitably with the fish smell lurking around we had a small black bear come to investigate what that "delicious" smell was. He couldn't have been very old. I'm guessing a year, maybe a year and a half at most. We are talking tiny. But he wandered around for quite some time yesterday until we got the truck fixed and moving on it's way.

We also had our crew party recently after work because people are starting to pack up and head home for the season. (so sad). It was a lot of fun, but I'd worked 11 hours or thereabouts so I was pretty beat by the time I got there. Our activities included throwing meat into a dog house (I got it in 4 tries!), running a four dog team on gravel on a wintersled, some sort of cash register check-out thing, a driving relay race, and just hanging out and eating pizza. Although I enjoyed being on a winter sled again, we took the dogs out on a very windy trail and these guys are fast. Stupidly, I choose the strongest dogs in the kennel who were much faster than I was. I was terrified of wiping out and getting gravel glued to my face. Scars are cool, don't get me wrong, but not on my face, please! Fortunately, there were no wipe outs but I was the slowest. (Darn!) Our team, after winning several events started losing and in the end came in last. That was ok though because we had the most laughs.

I got offered a winter touring / year round management position here in Seward for the next year and I decided to take it -- so if anyone wants to come visit me, I'm definitely encouraging it (though I will have to work!). I'm excited by the opportunities it will give me and think it will be a ton of fun. I've really enjoyed working with the Seavey's so far. They're fun people and very laid back -- plus I know I can learn a lot from them. Pretty neat being offered that sort of position after only being here for a couple of weeks! Guess I'm a good employee :) yay!

I'm also excited because my parents are coming to visit. They will fly into Alaska on Thursday and spend the following couple of days up in Denali National Park. I'm jealous because I haven't gotten to go there yet! Then they will come down here to Seward and we will go sight seeing and fishing. I'm very excited. I can't wait to see them!

All right well that's it for now.
I will try to post again later this week.
p.s. sorry this post is so scrambled/ bounces around a lot.