Canada Heli Trip (part one)

Matt had the opportunity to ferry a helicopter to Calgary, Canada, to end his summer job in Alaska. And I was lucky enough to come along! It was an AMAZING ride- I took a million pictures and I still wish I could have captured it better. We took the two day journey along with Nick(another Era pilot), who flew the second helicopter to Canada. Instead of doing a collage when I have a ton of pictures, I thought these were worth posting separately.  Our route can be found here.

It's hard to comprehend just how vast the ice fields and massive these mountains are.

This was the most delicious site! Sure it's just glacier ice mixed with dirt... but to me it looked like the biggest bowl of cookies 'n cream I'd ever seen!

 I tried to be a good co-pilot by following us on a map... luckily Matt wasn't depending on me alone.

 I LOVE this picture!(above) It was SO beautiful here and this really shows the bright colors that were here.

The bluest water I had ever seen. You would have thought we were in Mexico or something! 

 I got smart after a while and realized that everything on the dash(not sure if that's what it's called) was being reflected in my pictures.  I had to be careful sitting here too- though my feet didn't quite reach the pedals, i had all the controls I needed to fly this heli myself. 

Our first stop was in Atlin, Canada.  We had to stop and refuel every couple hours or so.  It was a good thing too- those seats are not made to be comfortable. 

At every stop we(they) had to make a "flight plan", check weather, and such and so forth.
We stayed the first night in Watson Lake. The smallest town I've ever seen.  Luckily they had some of the nicest people who gave us rides to and from the airport.

Matt doing a pre-flight the next morning(making sure everything looks good to go).

 Above and on the right you can see the famous Alaskan Highway

To be continued...

Last look at our apartment...

...you will be missed.

Bye Bye Fudge Co

We said our last goodbyes this last week as our summer came and left us too quickly.  It was sad to leave beautiful Juneau and all the friends that we had made.  Though it was so hard to leave, there was and is so much for us to look forward to.  We felt like we accomplished a lot this summer.  Of course there were things still on our list to do/see.  But that just gives us more reason to come back, right? :)

I was SO blessed to find a summer job so quickly and close to home.  I spent a lot of my time here and made a lot of good friends whom I will miss very much.  They were so good to me and it was such a great place to be.  The job involved waiting on customers, scooping icecream, making cookies, wrapping fudge, and lots of quality control.  (I may or may not have gained a few pounds this summer.)  Most of our business came from the ships and this is where the tourists became defined as "interesting creatures" for lack of better/nicer words.  Anyhow, the Fudge Co will always stay close to my heart and I will miss them all dearly.

Rainforest Ziplining!

Matt and I have been trying to get as much in before we leave as possible. Our work schedules make it difficult, but we try. Yesterday we were able to go ziplining on Douglas Island. We waited by the seaplanes for our boat to take us across the channel. There we geared up and headed to the top of our zip. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous about this and was trying really hard to be brave. I was trying not to listen to our guide too much when he told us how high we were at each platform. The first couple times I had someone push me off- there was no way I could jump by myself. We zipped to ten different platforms and repelled at the end. Somehow this stuff doesn't phase Matt.  I'm still working on my baby steps to conquer my fear of heights.

The video below was the last ride in.  Afterward, they rewarded us with medals- giving us all a sense of accomplishment. I was so proud of myself for doing this.  All summer I have been fighting myself about it, but I just couldn't leave here and regret it.  SO glad I don't have to now!

:)

I came home from work the other day to find these scattered throughout the house...

What a fun surprise- I just loved them! :) I had to put them in this make-shift vase(water bottle). Whatever works!  He even made us some homemade pizza that night too. I just have the best husband ever and I love him SO very much.

We are both looking forward to Friday as it's our last day off together before we leave Juneau.  Cross your fingers for us that the weather will be decent enough to go zip lining and hike to the ice caves!