Alaska Cruise part 2

Our second stop was Hubbard Glacier. As we traveled through Yakutat Bay, we saw a couple of humpback whales. I could never get the timing right to get a picture-my camera was too slow to catch them when they surfaced. Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in Alaska-I took a lot of pictures of it and all the ice in the water. We couldn't get super close to it since the ship was so big, and we were cold being outside on the deck, so we didn't stay out there too long.

The next day, we docked in Sitka. We hiked up Castle Hill, which gave us a nice view of the town and the harbor-we could also see Mt. Edgecumbe in the distance, which is a dormant volcano. A Russian castle used to be at the top of Castle Hill, until it was burned down in 1894. Next, we went to St. Michael's Cathedral, which is a Russian Orthodox cathedral. Cameras weren't allowed inside, but there were a lot of interesting antique religious relics and icons. This cathedral was actually rebuilt after it burned down in a fire in 1966-before then, it was the oldest religious structure from the Russian era in Alaska. We also visited Sitka National Historical Park, which has 28 hand-carved totem poles. As we walked back, we came across a hatchery run by the college there that also had a little tidepool exhibit inside where I touched some starfish and other ocean creatures.

link to pictures of Hubbard Glacier:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/HubbardGlacierAndIce

link to pictures of Sitka:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/Sitka

Alaska Cruise part 1

I'm finally getting around to doing a post about our cruise. I guess it seemed a little daunting because there's a lot to say, but I think I will break it up into segments.....Anyway, David and I went on a cruise to Alaska June 9-16. It was the first cruise either of us had been on and we had a great time. We were able to get our ocean view cabin upgraded to a balcony, which was really nice and also gave us a little more space.

We spent the first afternoon/evening getting situated and finding our way around the ship. I was excited about the food and being able to dress up and go to dinners in the formal dining room. I had escargot one night (which David found somewhat disgusting and wouldn't try) and we both had filet mignon and lobster tail on another night-it was nice to have fancy meals and try some things that I've never tried before. They also had entertainment on the ship most of the nights-we saw the magician and a comedian that were pretty good. Every day when our room was cleaned, they would make an towel animal-I got pictures of a few of them, but there was also a scorpion and an elephant.

The cruise was round trip from Seattle, WA and our first dock was in Juneau, AK. Juneau is Alaska's capitol and although I lived in Alaska until I was 12, I had never been there before. I actually hadn't been to any of the places in Alaska that the cruise docked, so it was nice going to new places. It was raining in Juneau for pretty much the whole time we were there, but we still had a good time. We walked around and looked in a few shops and then stopped at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox church which is a historic church there. I also took pictures of the Capitol building and the Governor's mansion. In our exploring we came across a very pretty river and it was so green-it made me sad that I live in the desert now. After walking around and exploring, we decided to get out of the rain for a while and went to the Alaska State Museum. They had some very interesting exhibits about various tribes native to the area and other interesting history. After the museum, we rode a tram up the side of Mt. Roberts. The view was a little foggy from the rain, but we still could see the city and out into the ocean. We saw a rehabilitated bald eagle and saw a presentation by the Tlingit (klin-kit) tribe that operates the tram. We hiked a little trail while we were on the mountain, but it got windy and the umbrella blew inside out. So, after that we were pretty cold and wet and decided to head back to the ship.

link to Juneau pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/Juneau

link to pics taken from our cabin balcony: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/ViewFromCabinBalcony

link to pics of our cabin:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/TowelAnimalsAndCabin

more to come soon...

San Diego Trip

Ok, I'm pretty late in posting this, but we went to San Diego in April for Michael's (David's brother) wedding. Since our 1 year anniversary was the day after Michael's wedding, David and I extended our stay to celebrate. The wedding was lovely, although I did get sunburned during all the picture-taking outside of the temple.

Link to Wedding pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/MichaelSWedding?authkey=UAgMme0araI

We also went to Sea World with David's family, which was a lot of fun. The only downside was that we went on one of those white water rapids rides toward the end of the day when it was getting cooler and got completely soaked. I was expecting it to be like the one at Lagoon where you can make it through only getting somewhat wet, but we were basically drenched. So, we were pretty cold and wanted to leave after that.

Link to Sea World pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/SeaWorld

We were staying at a vacation rental in La Jolla and we went to La Jolla cove which was pretty close by and saw all the harbor seals that beach there. I enjoyed watching them-you could actually walk out on the beach pretty close to them, they just had the area where they were roped off.

Link to La Jolla Cove pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/LaJollaCoveHarborSeals

We also went to Balboa Park and Seaport village with David's family and then drove over the big bridge to Coronado Island where I took some pictures of the skyline from across the water.

Link to Balboa Park pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/BalboaPark

Link to Seaport Village and skyline pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/Sandiegotrip

After the family left, we stayed a couple more days. We went to the San Diego Zoo and saw lots of animals and we also walked around and ate dinner in the historic Gaslamp District of San Diego.

Link to San Diego Zoo pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/SanDiegoZoo

When we left San Diego, I surprised David with a trip to Big Bear Lake in the mountains of Southern California where we stayed at a bed and breakfast for a night. The next day we went hiking and walked around the lake for a bit before heading back home. It was a great trip and it was nice to get away for a while.

Link to Big Bear Lake pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/BigBearLake

New Updates

Ok, so it's been quite a while since I've put a new post on here, so I should probably update everyone. I stopped working as an attendant and started only doing massage on March 12. I'm working part time and the extra days off are really nice. Even though I'm working part time I'm making more money now than when I worked full time as an attendant, so that has definitely been a good thing. I attended a 3 day training that the spa provided on Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed learning it and it will be nice to have a new type of massage in my repertoire.

David and I also just moved on March 9 to a townhome that we will be renting for the next 12 months. It's about 3 miles from where we were before-it's in a gated community and has a 1 car garage. It's been quieter than the apartment also-we only share one wall with another unit and we're above the garages. The only thing we've been having problems with is that the garbage disposal doesn't work, but they should be fixing that soon. I'll probably put some more pictures up in a little while, but here's a quick one of the exterior.

Some delays....

Looks like it will be a little longer before I switch over to massage at work. They have to hire 3 new girls as attendants and they have to finish their orientation and training before I can switch. So it might not be for a couple more weeks. There's also a possibility that they might need me to pick up a few shifts as an attendant even after they switch me over to massage. It's a little annoying since my boss gave me the impression that I would be starting at the beginning of February, but I guess I just need to be patient.
On Saturday they had a scheduling problem/emergency and asked me very last minute to give a guest a massage. I was a little nervous because they hadn't really gone over the specifics with me on how they set the massage table, where to get the lotions, how to incorporate the hot towels into the massage, etc. I was given like a 2 minute rush instruction on all that, so I forgot one or two little things, but it was the lady's first massage, so she probably didn't notice anything. I also had to do the massage in a couples room because all the other massage rooms were in use. Even though I was nervous at first, it was a good thing because it kinda threw me in there and now I won't really be so nervous when I do actually start. And hey, I made an extra $62 that day for doing that massage. Not bad.

p.s. if anyone wants to see the website of the spa that I work at, here it is...
http://www.harrahs.com/qua/our-spa-overview.html

Finally!

On Monday I finally got my massage therapist work card after waiting about 2 1/2 months for the special investigations section of the police department to finish my big background check. Since the spa attendants are still a little understaffed I will keep working there for the rest of the month and then I will be starting as a massage therapist on February 1st. I will probably be doing some training for different treatments until then and hopefully get passed off on some of them before I start working so I can have more things to do besides just swedish and deep tissue massage. I'm a little nervous because it's been like 5 or 6 months since I've been massaging regularly, but I'm excited too. Wish me luck!