Era Comp Expeditions: whale watching & Tracy Arm. Also, a sad goodbye...

So, although this blog is a little late and I am not technically even in the U.S. anymore (being saved for my next blog entry), I wanted to update a little on some of my most recent adventures that I took before leaving Alaska. Well, my summer job was awesome in the sense that along with getting to take the occasional Helicopter rides, we could also COMP tours with our fellow tourist companies.

The first comp took place with my coworker, Matt, where one day, we took to the seas. Okay, rather we parked my car and hopped on a bus with a group of mostly senior citizens and headed out to the Allen Marine dock to board the large boat. Right at the beginning, we came upon a large group of Orcas that were very playful and lively. That's rather odd for orcas as they usually keep to themselves and pass along quickly. On this trip though, one little one breached (jumped out of the water), one was on its back slapping it's tail against the water, and one little baby even was coming out half out of the water (i think they call is spyhopping...not sure though). Well anyways, we got some awesome pictures and talked to a few ladies. And Matt proceeded to make fun of me as I was just as excited to see the fish jumping as the whales. But by the end, he was pointing out the fish too and acting just as excited. Well then we saw some porpoises that were just too quick to snap a pic of. Then the humpies (aka humpbacks) appeared and just as Matt and I were yacking about something, a giant one breached right next to a boat and all we caught on our cameras was the splash. Ah well...That was when we started talking to the travelocity lady. I called her this because she said one day, this travelocity rep came up to her with a gnome and her and her friends took a really good picture and they all looked great because instead of saying cheese, they said travelocity. So now, it's their habit to say travelocity before snapping every photo which she also had Matt and I say when she snapped a pic of us.

Sadly, that tour was over pretty quick as we headed back to the harbor, downtown to recover my car, got a quick bite to eat at the Twisted Fish, and then I headed back home to wash my uniform for work the next day. Well, about 5 days later, Melissa, Robert, and I went to Adventure Bound and "COMP-ed" a tour to Tracy Arm Fjord which was about 10 hours long. Most of the tour was in a boat, but when we got to the Fjord, we saw some of the most blue water I've ever seen, some amazing little waterfalls, huddled together for warmth as the cold air hit our faces, felt the spray when the captain got really close to a waterfall, felt a little nervous as the boat cut through the small icebergs floating around, took pictures of the cute harbor seals, talked with this cute older couple from California sitting across the table from us, watched and recorded a little video of the glacier caving, took some amazing pictures of the blue color in the ice (which the older lady called Tide Blue because it looks like Tide Bowl cleaner), and just enjoyed my last day off from Era with two of my favorite people. It was a lot of fun (mainly because of the company) and there were some good laughs and a nice nap in which I woke up to find Robert attempting to master my Nintendo DS games. :) The pictures were pretty amazing too and I was thankful for getting to take this tour.

Well, it seems that the summer ended much faster than I had hoped it would. I was really excited to come to Norway, but pushed it out of my mind as I just enjoyed my summer with my friends and working at Era. Of course, some drama stepped in and wore out myself and all of my friends and near the end, we were all a little thankful that it was almost over. The sad truth was that it was a very emotionally tiring summer. But even with all of the worries, I would never give up the time I spent with all of my friends and I even miss my helicopter job. Yah, I complained about it some times (and mainly the pilot's narcissism), but it was a good summer job. Plus, as a going away gift, Jen let me go up in a Dead Head with her and even gave me a hug goodbye. I actually got a lot of hugs from work people and snapped some good pics of my people at work. It was a good summer and one that I wasn't entirely ready to have end. However, it wouldn't be me if I remained in the comforting shadows so instead, I packed my bags, sang I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane (in my head of course because I'm a terrible singer), shed A LOT of tears, snapped some nice goodbye pictures, and headed off to the unknown on a solo journey. But, that is for the next entry...for the ending of this one: Thank you everyone for putting up with me and staying by my side, for the endless advice, the supporting hugs, the smiles, and the shark stickers! I'll miss you...

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