Allyssa's Alaskan Adventures

:(

2008-12-24T01:33:00.000-08:00

I MISS ALASKA! I WANT TO GO BACK RIGHT NOW!

Peace Out Skagtown... bittersweet feelings

2008-09-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

So this is it... I have about 3 days left here in Skagway. I am starting to get more sad as my departure date rapidly approaches! Yesterday me and the gals decided to walk around and take pictures and a few places that are very close to our hearts haha. I seriously can't believe I'm leaving in a few days... our last ship day is in 2 days so we're just cleaning up the store and getting ready to close up shop. I really hope I can come back here someday either on a cruise as a DANG tourist or just come visit for a few days that would be awesome! I really love it here, it's beautiful and so peaceful. I think it would be a good place to rest and rejuvenate, if anyone needs rehabilitation... go to Alaska haha. I think I'm gonna be really sad on Monday when I leave. It's ok though cause I took a TON of pictures and I bought way too much crap to remind me of the wonderful Skagtown. I'm really excited to come home and see my family and my friends! I'm definitely looking forward to it. Oh another thing, Hailey Norr who is in charge of all the interns for Del Sol called us the other day and said there are 2 positions open in Key West Florida from October 2nd to January 1st. I thought about taking it but decided it's probably time to go home but I may do another internship next summer, it's been a lot of fun and it's a great opportunity! Well this is probably gonna be my last post. It's been an amazing summer, I've learned SOOO much about life, love, happiness, sadness, decision making, and I've learned a lot about myself which is great. Being out here has also brought me closer to the Lord. I didn't have my family and friends to remind me to stay close to Christ, I had to do it all on my own and it made me realize that I really do need His love and guidance in my life and I'm so grateful for the chance I had to grow and become a better person and come to know Christ better. I know without him I would be so lost and confused, I'm grateful for prayer and scriptures... it doesn't matter where you are, as long as you have those 2 things you're good to go!! Well it's seriously been the most amazing summer and I couldn't ask for a more awesome experience! I miss everybody and I'm so excited to see you all! See ya in a few days!!

Good Ol Del Sol

I love these cupcakes more than anything!

This is my favorite door in all of Skagway!

Self timer

This is where it all happens, we rent our movies, get our treats, go tanning. and we also live upstairs!

Here's the backdoor...up to our apartment

We found an old abandon train to climb on

This is my most favorite place in the world they make the most delicious cupcakes in the world!

Salmon is gross

6 DAYS....

2008-09-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

And I am coming home! Hooray, I'm so excited. I really need to leave Skagtown cause I'm starting to go a little bit nuts. I will definitely miss it here though. It's so peaceful and laid back! But ya I think I need to come home... for my sanity!

This is what happens when I'm bored... I gotta get outta here!

Little Red Caboose

2008-09-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

Me and Ali got to go on the White Pass train that travels from Skagway up to Canada. It was a 3 hour train ride so we bought some goodies and hopped on board! It was a lot of fun and we took some crazy fun pictures! P.S. 3 more weeks.. yay!

Danger!

Our sweatshirts are bomb.. ya they're both mine!

SAWEET!

This is my favorite pic!!

Coming out of the tunnel

Tagged!

2008-09-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

4 Random Things I Like About My Husband
1. I don't have one.
2. I'm never gonna get one.
3. I don't even want one.
4. Are they even necessary?
(just kiddin)

4 Movies That I Can Watch More Than Once
1. Breakfast at Tiffany's
2. The Burbs
3. Juno
4. Pirates

4 TV Shows That I Watch
1. Ace of Cakes
2. The Office
3. Iron Chef America
4. American Idol

4 Places I've Been
1. New York
2. Alaska
3. Canada
4. California

4 People Who E-Mail Me Regularly
1. Shareen Neff (forwards)
2. Jordan
3. American Eagle
4. Facebook

4 Of My Favorite Foods
1. Mexican
2. Chinese
3. Cheeseburgers
4. Pizza

4 Places I Would Like to Visit
1. France
2. Switzerland
3. Iceland
4. New York again

4 Things I'm Looking Forward to in the Next Year
1. My friends coming home from their missions
2. Getting my associates
3. Transfering to the U
4. Hopefully in an apartment in salt lake

4 People I Tag
1. Mother Taco
2. Kendra
3. Nathan haha
4.

Fishin and Swimmin

2008-08-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

I did some interesting things this week. First off the other day we decided to go fishing but we didn't have a pole or a license so we fished with out bare hands. We're right in the middle of the Salmon Run so there are a BUNCH of salmon in the Skagway River. Pretty sure me and Ali almost caught one too, it was huge and it wasn't afraid of us at all, I was like kicking it and it still wouldn't move haha, and no it wasn't dead. Then last night was Kendra's last night it Skagway so we went to dinner at Fish Co. then me and her decided we were gonna go swimming in the freezing cold ocean. So at about 9 o'clock we went for a dip. Yes it was freezing, I don't recommend it to anyone! It was a cool experience though, and now I can say that I swam in the Pacific Ocean in Alaska!!

Ya, that was cold

Our legs are bright red from the frigid temperature of the river

I found a pile of rope which means a good photo op!

I decided I'd sing on the sidewalk for money.. all the tourists were walking by going back to their ships.... notice my camera case sitting next to my feet. Ya I didn't get any money

Here we are before we got in the water

Here i go...

I'm pretty proud of myself!

I am wondering why I just did that

Sepia Tone Loving

2008-08-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Yacatania Point and had a campfire. We made tinfoil dinners that turned out pretty good! We had fun taking pictures in black and white and sepia haha. It was Jenna's last night so we thought we should all do something fun. Kendra leaves this week so then there'll only be four of us left. We're gonna miss them!

Weekend in Juneau!

2008-08-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome weekend. Me and Noah went to Juneau for a few days to hang out before he flew home to Indiana. We had a lot of fun exploring and goofin around. We took a 6 hour ferry ride there which was kinda long but it was cool! Then that night the company he works for had a free whale watching excursion so we got to go on that and see some whales. It was like a four hour long tour which was kinda long. The first couple hours were cool though haha. We did a lot of shopping there were some cool stores in Juneau, I found a couple antique shops which I was STOKED about!! The last day we went on a hike that was uphill the whole way and it kicked my butt but it was cool. At the top of the mountain is a restaurant and gift shop and a tram that takes you back down and that was way fun! Then this morning I took a way early flight back to Skaggy on a little 4 passenger plane, I got to sit up front and be co pilot so that was cool but pretty sure I fell asleep on the way haha I was sooo tired but ya it was an awesome trip and it was cool to get out of Skagway for a couple days but I'm glad I'm back!

On the Ferry to Juneau

This guy is creepy

Yay for Gelato!!! Holy cow this was good!

That's right.... go to church!

Here we are in the cool church, pretty sure we aren't supposed to take pictures but what the heck

Here's downtown Juneau from atop a mountain

At the top of the mountain... that hike was a killer

The airport.. sad

The Glacier

2008-07-27T23:45:00.000-07:00

Pioneer Day.. and other events!

2008-07-26T14:29:00.001-07:00

My weekend wasn't that exciting but atleast we didn't just sit in the apartment! For pioneer day the ward had a party cause pretty much all of us in the ward are from Utah! We went to the softball fields and had a BBQ and played games! It was lots of fun. Then Noah came down yesterday and we all went to dinner and just hung out!

Me and Ali at the Ward Party

The Egg toss

Look... a real baby!! I might get to tend her on Mondays and Fridays, I'm pretty excited about it!

Look... me driving a real car! I don't get to drive cars very often!!

Weird

My Very Adventurous Weekend!

2008-07-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

So this was probably the best weekend ever! Me and my buddy Noah rented a car on Saturday and drove the 2 hours to Whitehorse, Canada. Whitehorse is the bomb diggity cause it has a Wal-mart, 2 movie theatres, and fast food. And the view on the way is awesome too!! So ya we went to lunch at KFC (pretty sure Canadian KFC's don't have biscuits.. they don't know what they're missing) then we checked out all the shops and we bought like 5 CDs at Wal-Mart for the car ride home. Then we went and saw the new Batman movie which was way sweet! Then we went to dinner at this cool restaurant. Oh and I drove on the way home and pretty sure I got lost and went an hour in the wrong direction... my bad! Then yesterday was even cooler! Noah works on a glacier close to Skagway, so I went up on a helicopter up to the glacier! It was so cool, I got to go on a dog sled tour, we went snowmobiling to the crevasses, and I got to spend the night up there and just chill with the Alaska Icefield Expeditions crew, pretty sure they have their own cook and she's is money, she makes the best food! I got to play with the dogs and scoop poop too... very exciting but it was cool. There's about 300 dogs up there and there is non stop barking... even in the middle of the night! But ya it was a way fun and adventurous weekend, I had a BLAST!!

We finally drive a car... P.S. I miss my car

Ya don't mind Noah's Fu man Shu... he thinks he's funny

A cool beach we found on the way to Whitehorse

Stonehenge!

Some sweet cement room with graffiti

Yay for Canadian McDonalds!

And yay for KFC!!

Isn't this Saweeet?

On the helicopter... getting ready to take off!

View of the glacier from the chopper

This is Noah's dog Cheyenne... she's so cute!!

I got drive the dog sled

Sled dog puppies!

We went to this cool ice cave!

In the ice cave!!

Dangerous Crevasse!

Cool man!

This was way deep!

A Few Things I Miss From Home...

2008-07-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Mi Familia of course!

Cafe Rio

Taco Bell (I actually have dreams about it)

My puppy Zeus!

Shopping (although shopping online is pretty cool too)

My friends!

Rumbi's

My Audrey Hepburn movies and other memorabilia

My Bed

Babies and kids!!!

Warm weather

My vintage dresses I bought at Decades!

My closet

Thunder/lightening storms during the summer nights

Darkness at night

Stars

The moon

Good looking people

People that shower and groom themselves

Deodorant

Affordable food and anything for that matter

Ace of Cakes

One Tree Hill

My comforter (that thing is money)

Chillin at Grandma's on Sundays

Being constantly harassed by Uncles and other family members ( I actually don't really miss that)

My cute little cousins

All the family get togethers

All my pointy flat shoes!

My pearls (luckily I have my earrings)

My peacoats

Movie theaters

Wal-mart ( I never thought I'd say that)

Target

The Mall

Gateway!

Barnes & Noble Cafe!

White Chocolate/ regular chocolate with chocolate chips, whip cream and chocolate and white chocolate drizzle frappuccinos (I invented that when I worked there)

I don't miss Provo!

My Car!! P.S. if Regan doesn't take off those stickers pronto I'm sending anthrax to him via the mail!

The intersection at 106th and Redwood, I don't really know why

My longboard

Limewire

Papa Johns

South Jordan

A fully stocked refrigerator/freezer/pantry

Dance parties in my room with Hailie

Bubble Baths

Long warm showers

Hot tubs

Pools

Otter pops

Home cooked meals

Non-smokers/boozers

The News

Radio

Television

But don't get me wrong... I love Skagway!!!

The Day Harrison Ford Came to Skagway!

2008-07-07T23:18:00.000-07:00

Today was the best day ever! I was walking down the street and my landlord stops me and says "Guess who's in town?? Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart!! Pretty sure I was just freaking out. She said that they went on the train and should be back around 4. Unfortunately I had to work so I couldn't go to the train station to wait for them to get off but at about 4 I saw them walking down the street and I just booked it out of the store after them, I was willing to sacrifice my job haha. But ya it was so cool, they are staying at a little bed and breakfast in town and I guess they're staying a couple days. I hope they come into Del Sol!!!! But ya that's my exciting day scoping out Harrison Ford!

The guy in the black's name is Buckwheat and he was they're tour guide... lucky!!

You can kinda see Calista in this one!

He's freakin hot!

Happy 4th!

2008-07-05T00:15:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! Here in SKagway the 4th of July is like the greatest holiday ever! They go all out! Starting last night (the 3rd) they had fireworks then this morning we ran a 5k, then we went to the parade. Then SKagway decided to break a world record and have the worlds largest egg toss. The number to beat was 350 and we had 1,100 people! It was so cool. Oh and me and Kendra were partners and we were the very first team in the line it was pretty sweet! The day was just pretty cool, there was a bbq, pie auction, tug of war, 3 legged races, and other random things! It was a lot of fun!

Here we are collecting candy at the parade!

Our buddy Jake with his cool penguin costume

George W. dropped in for a visit

My precious egg for the egg toss

Here are 1,100 people lined up. We took up like 6 blocks.. it was pretty cool

It was just a random crazy day!

2008-06-29T03:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was so much fun... actually this weekend was just a lot of fun! So there's this way creepy apartment above the old Del Sol building which is currently a Fur Store now. Well on friday night I wanted to go on an exciting adventure so me and my buddy Noah sneakily went over there and we found some way cool old stuff from like the 60s... it was pretty sweet. Then we went to the beach and it was raining way hard and it was kinda creepy cause it was all foggy! Then yesterday me and Kendra worked. Our favorite place to eat is this place called Glacial Smoothies and Expresso. They have the most amazing sandwiches, wraps, and smoothies there so we got that of course. Then last night we went to this really good resturaunt called Fish Co. with our Alaska Icefield Expedition buddies and it was a lot of fun! I actually like fish now, but only Halibut and calamari! Then we all went up to the mountains for a bonfire. It was way fun!!

Luau Bonfire Thingy

2008-06-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

The other night we went to a bonfire Luau cause it was someone's birthday. It was pretty cool I guess. I decided to dress like a hippie just for kicks. I decided I'm just going to become a hippie while I'm living here cause everything is way hippieish!

The party was at the Green House

This dog only has 3 legs.... sad

Goodbye Tourists!

2008-06-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

Everyday we get 2 to 6 cruise ships full of crazy tourists and at the end of the day that loud horn calling everyone back to the ships is like music to my ears haha! I don't have anything against Asians but oh my heck, they are so crazy! We get a lot of Asians in our store... they really love the nail polish haha. But ya some of the tourist are hilarious and just make my day. Surprisingly there are a lot of people that come from Utah so it's fun to talk to them about that! But ya this picture is pretty cool, this is the Dawn Princess leaving port! Bye bye crazy tourists, but not for long cause there'll be a whole new group of them tomorrow!

Pirate Party!

2008-06-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our neighbors threw a pirate party and you can imagine how I felt about this!! I was so freakin excited cause I'm pretty much a pirate! So me and Ali threw on our Del Sol pirate shirts and when we got there they had this table where you could make cardboard eye patches and swords haha it was way sweet!!

Highlighters and blacklights!

2008-06-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

Last night we were way bored so we went to the store and played around with the blacklights we use to demonstrate the color changing products! Then we got this brilliant idea to color all over our faces with highlighters haha hence the crazy pictures! But ya it was lots of fun and it beats sitting at home watching season 4 of One Tree Hill which we do every night!

Danger

2008-06-08T22:02:00.001-07:00

The other day we went on a hike with some friends that work up on the glacier. I was stupid and wore flip flops so that made it rough but then we were on this ledge and I was trying to get over a rock and our friend Noah put his hand out and I tried to grab it but I missed and freaking fell off the 10 foot cliff! It was kinda scary, I like blacked out and everyone was screaming! I didn't get too beat up though, I just skinned my back and banged my foot up a little. Now that I think about it, it's kinda funny haha! Oh and I ripped a giant hole in the back of my brand new jeans! But we had a fire and roasted mallows and stuff so that was fun! We also stink bombed our manager's apartment this week and it was way funny but pretty sure they aren't too happy with us! Well that's all for now.. peace out!

We found a beach!!

Chillin on the new found beach

This is the cliff I fell off of haha

my poor foot

Our Day Off!

2008-06-02T23:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty sweet day! It's my third day off in a row and it's been awesome! Today me and Ali did a little more browsing and we discovered some pretty cool stores and museums! We went to the Skagway Museum and saw some cool stuff, and we went to a store that we've been to before but we found a little back room that has hats and costumes for sale which was way awesome! Then we had lunch at the Red Onion Saloon, don't worry we just ate lunch haha! So ya it was a fun day until my credit card started declining, oh well it's probably for the best!

Check out our sweet hats, pretty sure I'm buying one before I leave!

Night Church????

2008-06-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

So today the 7 pm night sacrament meeting started for the summer! It was the first time we'd been to church in about a month due to work. The last couple of weeks I've been kinda irritable and just missing home and stuff. But when I walked into the church I just felt different and at peace! I loved just sitting there and listening to people's testimonies and just feeling the spirit, it's exactly what I needed and I"m definitely going to go every week not that night church has started!
I'm sad that I missed Emery's baby blessing today but I'm glad Lance and Adri have a blog so I can look at picures! She's so cute and chubby, I miss her! Our new roomie/coworker Becca came today and she's really cool! Well that's all for now... have a good day

Yay for Costco!

2008-05-30T16:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a great day because our order from costco came! We had boxes and boxes of food, and it took us like 2 hours to put all our stuff away and our freezer is jammed pack full of food (not joking). But we have food now, yay and we don't have to spend splodes of money at the market now cause food and pretty much everything else is way expensive here. Kendra's mom sent her a disc with the last two episodes of American Idol, the Office, and So You Think You can Dance, so we get to watch TV now. Oh and I was flipping through the channels the other day just for kicks and I found PBS and pretty sure I watched Mr. Rogers and I was pretty excited about it.

Food is good but we have way too much of it!

BONFIRE!!!

2008-05-28T01:19:00.000-07:00

The other day we went up to smugglers cove at like 11 pm and had a bonfire, keep in mind that is was still light outside cause it doesn't get dark here until about 12 am which is pretty sweet, then it gets light again at about 3 or 4. Its a lot of fun! But ya we had a fire and just chilled and it was way cool!

Me and Ali by the fire

Pretty

P.S.

2008-05-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Oh and Rachel looks like she's having a lot of fun with softball. Pitcher huh? That's pretty sweet!

(Rachel was upset that I didn't mention anything about her on my last post haha)

Just Another Day in Skagway

2008-05-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

Hey hey! Nothing really exciting happened today except I got the day off and we got to take a tour of all the stores in Skagway and we got a bunch of free things which was pretty cool!! Yesterday we worked for about 14 hours straight which was nuts. The store owner is coming next week so we are organizing and getting things all spick n span! I've been looking at everyones blogs, it looks like everyone is doin good. Mikelle sorry I can't be there to play, if you want to take a detour to Alaska on the way back Cali that'd be ok haha. Emery looks so precious in her pink little tutu and she's getting so chubby I love it! Meg looks so cute in her dance costume and I can't believe how big she's getting! Tyson and Tracies blog is so cute, looks like the kids are very helpful with the garden and stuff haha! Oh and Amy (Goffin) thanks for all the random comments, I especially like the "whale" one! So when are you and Jace getting hitched? Well that's all for now have fun erbody!

Pretty sure I was freaking out when I saw this box sitting in someones driveway, I just had to take a picture of it! The kid on the box even looks like ANdy... kinda haha!

Today I went to Canada.. and Haines... oh and I saw a humpback whale!

2008-05-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty exciting day! All the touristy things were basically free for all the locals today so we did some pretty fun stuff. This morning me and Kendra went on a bike tour to Canada which was way awesome. Ali couldn't come cause she didn't have her birth certificate to get through customs which was a bummer. But then we took a ferry to a little town about 20 minutes away by boat. The town is called Haines and we spent most of the day there. The town is definitely not as cool as Skagway but it was fun. On and on the ferry ride to Haines, we saw 2 humpback whales and I was pretty excited cause I've never seen a whale before! Well that's all for now!

Can you believe I'm in Canada? I've never been in canada before so I was pretty excited! It was cold though!

We just went through customs

A WHALE!!

Oh Canada! This was actually in Haines but what the heck

COLD WATER

This is my new pet starfish, I named him Haines cause I found him on the Haines beach.

Cool beans!

Ok... I Guess Hiking is Cool!

2008-05-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

So clearly I've never been much of an outdoorsy kinda girl but I think all that is changing. We went on a really cool hike the other day. We met these cool kids that like to hike and know their stuff so they asked if we wanted to go and we decided what the heck. So it was about a 7 mile hike, we went up the this icy lake which is coincidentally called Icy Lake haha. Then we went up to the Reid Waterfalls which are really cool. Then today me, Ali, and Kendra just went on a little hike to the bottom of Reid Waterfalls which was really cool! This is the coolest place ever!

This is Icy Lake, ya it was pretty icy!

Isn't this cool, look at all the moss!

Don't go chasin waterfalls please stick to the rivers and the lakes that your used to, I know that your gonna have it your way or nothin at all but I think you're moving to fast.

A sweet cave

Checkout the sweet waterfall behind me

We went to a play last night and this was in the lobby, too bad I don't know how to use it!

Very Rainy Day

2008-05-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

This is my rain getup, it has been raining really hard the last couple days, and when it rains it's is freezing!!!

We're making out shirts change color via the uv lamp!

Here we are again.. not working

Hard at Work... not really!

2008-05-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

Today me and Ali worked but it was really slow cause we only had one ship in port! So we decided to take pictures and document are working experience. Also a couple days ago we went exploring again and we saw some cool stuff like this old cemetery that has graves from the 1800s, it was pretty cool! As we were walking down state street we some some pretty funny things in people's yards so we took pictures of it!

Me and ALi hard at work playing solitaire!

Our Day of Exploring

2008-05-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we all got our first day off so we went and explored Skagway! We ate lunch at a cute little cafe then we went to the ocean and I saw a seal!! Then on the way back we saw some guy driving a forklift down the street haha, that just gives you a little feel of how small this town really is! There's a really good ice cream shop here and we go there almost everyday! It's a blast here and we're working hard but having fun too!

We made it!!

2008-05-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

We got to ride in this little commuter plane or something like that! It was so cool, we basically got a tour of Alaska from the sky!

We finally made it to Skagway! It's such a fun little town! All the shops are cute and colorful it looks like the backlot of Universal Studios or something! We have been working way hard for the last 3 days. Our store has been moved to across the street so we've been trying to get it put together. We've been working all day and part of the night... crazy! But it's really fun here, we're going to go explore the town tomorrow so that should be cool!

Pictures of Skagway

2008-04-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

These are some cool pictures of Skagway. It's a really small town, it has a population of about 830 people. A lot of cruise ships come through though!

ALASKA!

2008-04-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hey so I decided to start a blog so all my family and friends can check out my cool adventures in Alaska. I haven't left yet, I leave May 3rd so I still have a couple weeks but I'm so excited to go, it's going to be an awesome experience! I am going with my friend/roommate Ali Goffin, we are going for 5 months, we come home on the 30th of September. Well that's all for now!