1. Denali National Park is amazing! I took the 12 hour bus tour that goes all the way into the park as far as the road goes. We saw7 bears, caribou, a red fox, and moose. We were even in the 30% of tourists that got to see Mt. McKinley. (Which entitles me to a shirt from one of the gift shops, even though about 90% of tourists by those shirts :) ) One of the bears we saw was eating right on the side of the road, so the bus driver stopped and we all took pictures and watched it for a while. Another one we saw was wandering around outside the visitors center while we were there. The park rangers had their work cut out for them trying to keep all the tourists a safe distance away from the bear. And then he ended up tearing down the hill, right towards a family of hikers. Don't worry, the park rangers saved the day and got the hikers to safety.
2. Coffee (and the people who drink it) is insane. Every morning when I come in to work at 6 I make a 12 cup pot. You'd think that would last a while, but some days it's gone by 6:30. Some guests will come in for 7 or 8 cups, then get mad at me when I don't have the next pot ready in time. They just stand there, tapping their feet or drumming their fingers on the counter until it's done. And then these kids came in today, got coffee, and put 15 packets of sugar each in their cups. I would not like to be their parents later.
3. Alaska is definitely not a desert. It has rained, at least a little, every day for the past month. And then because of the permafrost layer, the water can't drain. So my 4-wheeler ride the other day (it's completely illegal to drive them on paved roads, so I was on sketchy 4-wheeler trails the whole time) resulted in muddy water being splashed all over my clothes and my new skater shoes. Note to self; don't ever wear shoes I care about when I go to Jessie's, I never know when I might end up on a 4-wheeler.
4. Up here, when someone says "I'm going into town," they mean they are driving 2 hours to go to Fairbanks.
5. The Bulgarians all bought phones on the last Fairbanks trip. Only they went with the cheap provider, and didn't find out until they got back that they get absolutely no service whatsoever here. Needless to say, they were not very happy about that. And speaking of cell service, which even with Verizon is sketchy at best, it makes it a pain in the neck when guests are calling from the road. You can always tell when someone is calling from a cell phone while driving in Alaska, because the conversation will take place in 2-3 sessions.
6. There is a work camper couple that get a place to park their RV for the summer in exchange for doing odd jobs and being the official shuttle drivers. Their names are James and Brigitta. Brigitta is from Holland originally, and she is super funny and cute. I like her a lot. They have a black retriever named Sadie who comes and visits me in the office sometimes.
7. Basically every time I go down to Denali (which at most is once a week) I get Chrissi's and my signature sandwich at Subway. I usually end up at the ice cream shop too, and get a single scoop. 6 inch sandwich = $6.25 and one scoop of ice cream = $3.75, so my meal ends up being $10 even. I figure it's a heck of a lot cheaper than dinner and dessert at any of the other restaurants (though I really do need to try something new eventually)
8. Jessie has a book collection that almost rivals Jared's. (As a result of Keith bribing her to stay in Alaska she gets a monthly book fund, and I'm pretty sure she could single handedly keep Amazon in business) So her house has also become my summer library.
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