Glacier Bay

Glacier bay was an experience for me to say the least. I mean the day prior I got to canoe up to a glacier, so I’m thinking to myself this isn’t going to impress me that much…it did. Lol

We don’t get off the ship we do a scenic cruise. We were really close to it. I never can get over the color a glacier has. I know why it’s that color, its still cool though. Lol

Work wise I had to get up uber early, set up a camera on the bridge. I love going up there cause the view of course is amazing! We set up the camera up there for time-lapse footage. I had to run up every hour to change tapes. We ended up getting 4 tapes total.

I had to get some footage of passengers in front of the glacier and stuff. I wasn’t making ppl wave, I just didn’t think it was fitting to the event that was taking place. Hard to describe, but Marek agreed.

Marek, and I were supposed to split the edit, but that didn’t happen. Our manager actually gave us a compliment on the edit Marek did. I am not taking credit for any of it. I didn’t edit it. Hopefully I’ll get to edit Tracy Arm. I hope so!! I’ll ask him today actually. But its weird I was in charge of the time lapse and had I dropped the ball and wasn’t on my game than we wouldn’t have that footage, but all I did was change tapes and set up audio ya know. Its funny though cause Marek kept asking me “oh did you get a time lapse of us going to the other glacier?”, “Did you get when were here?” and blah blah blah. Yes. Yes. Yes, Marek I got everything worth getting trust me. He was happy. But I still feel as though I did nothing for that edit whatsoever. Marek wasn’t happy with my attitude. Sorry, that’s how I feel. Marek did the scenics too. I got passengers. I hate that I always have to get the passengers. I wanna get epic footage and shit too. But it’s what the junior does. I have to deal with that for now. I’ll have my time to get some really good stuff. This is only my first contract. ☺

It was raining when we arrived, but I got some good pictures. ☺

Skagway, Alaska

In Skagway I went on a really cool tour. side note....I need to be a better morning person. lol. this tour reminded me of that for sure. i dont know why.

I went on the Glacier point Tour. I didnt really know what I was getting into. We canoed to a glacier!! I had no idea we'd be doing that. it was the Davidson Glacier.

there was again a cruise out to wherever we needed to go. Smooth ride, with free coffee... like the last one. I was a happy camper. lol Scenery was of course beautiful. I saw some sea lions again. It was about an hour ride out to the point. We arrived, and when we arrived i was kinda like...hmmmm. lol it was just a beach, with a bus waiting for us. it was a pretty secluded place. i kick myself now for now getting a pic of the beach. I was more worried about getting the video footage of the contract. beach, with meadows, with the Glacier in the background! amazing.

small bus ride to get geared up. small hike to the canoes. than we canoed out to the glacier. The guides were really awesome. fun guys to talk to. apparently i can like get a job doing that. they do all their training in house. they all live on this island. they are pretty much minimalists. i was intrigued by this lifestyle. It made me think about whether or not i could live like that ya know.

it was cool to be up to a glacier that close! even with us being uber close, we saw a hiker and he was super teeny tiny!!

I was happy i got to do this tour!!


skagway the town, well it is kept up to make sure it looks like an old western town. to give people the idea of what it looked lik eback in the gold rush days. i took a few pics. i wasn't feeling very well, so i just went to the market, got my required peanut butter and bread and went back to the ship to edit my stuff. It was my best edit. :-) For Alaska that is.

Juneau, Alaska

My first stop ever in Alaska was Juneau. I must say that the scenery is really cool anywhere up in Alaska….so far as I have seen.

My tour was the Whale Watching and wildlife Tour. Now I know what you are thinking, she did whale watching 80 times in Hawai’i. the difference with this spot is that I have a chance of seeing orca whales. AKA Killer Whales. I haven’t seen one yet. BOOOO. I am hopping on my next cruise I will.

I had to go on a small boat again. no problems. the water here is calm as sin!! makes for easy footage! While on the cruise looking out for all this wildlife its just sooo beautiful. I couldn't believe i was there really. Seriously. Yeah, I had a moment. lol I really did. I feel like I have done alot and came along way for someone from where i came from. my family know all about that. :-)

The mountains, and trees, and snow and glaciers...its all just awesome. I saw Mendenhall Glacier from a distance. It was the first glacier I saw. At that moment was when this all hit me.

I did see some sea lions again. I saw a couple whales, some bald eagles. I thought it was worth it.

After I went out in the small town surrounding the dock, and i do like the smallness of it to be honest. I walked around, looking for this alaskan chocolate that i saw in the boat i had just been on. Now I never really buy chocolate to buy it ya know. I dont like stock up. lol But this was white chocolate and coffee! i was shocked. and i thought oh i'll just see it when i'm in town. And i didnt. lol lame-ness!!

I ran into Jo, and we went for sushi. lol yes, i know. but we love it. sorry. it was pretty good. Oh, before hand i got some coffee. Coffee was reeeeeaally good. I enjoyed. I feel like before i leave i'm required to have salmon or something. lol maybe next time.

I ended up at this cool little bok store that jo gave me a heads up about. yes i got more books. I got a dicount tho and i got to joke around with the owner and his daugher. she reminded me of my niece and nephew!! I miss them. Juneau has been good to me so far.

Work wise...i fucked up... i hit the dam gain button without realizing it on my camera, my footage quality looks like shit. I didnt realize till i captured!! I was super pissed. Marek was like "nothing you can do about it now. we all make those mistakes from time to time." He really didnt want me to be upset. I was for a few minutes. i made a cool edit regardless. The hours are def longer, but I feel better when busy. I dont have much time to like write postcards, or update this thing, but i try as much as possible. all in all its been good. :-)

oh the light in Alaska is tripy. I feel like its always noon!!!







jen I Have one more cruise. I cant wait till we get to LA!!! :-)

Seattle

Seattle is our turnaround city now. Before it was LA. I went out with my old and new roommate. We got up early to go shopping. My roommate was on a mission to get seasons of Full house. Lol

We were in just a regular shopping area, but than we hit the Pike street public market. Which was really packed, and really cool. There is so much there. We didn’t have much time in Seattle, but we are going back to the market next turnaround day. I was excited.

Oh and sushi was had again. lol Dani says me and Jo are obsessed. Maybe we are. Who knows. Lol

Victoria, Canada

My day in Victoria was a good day. I liked hanging out there. I took a walk to downtown. There was this abortion protest going on. Oy. My tour was later in the day so I had a little bit of time to kill beforehand. It was busier than I thought it would be for some reason. There are some really cool building there too.

My tour, which I think was a really bad choice…was a waste. I did the Double Decker tour. You get on a bus with an open top and drive around and see the city and surrounding areas. Don’t get me wrong It was really cool to see everything. Camera work wise…not so much. Lol. Not a very smooth ride. Obviously very windy. It was either the wind or trying to get a clear shot through a crappy cleaned window…not to mention dealing with reflection. So I opted for the clear picture. With either the in or outside option the shaking of the bus was something I couldn’t avoid.

After my tour I went around and got all the same shots so I had something to work with. It wasn’t the worst edit, but it def wasn’t the greatest. While getting some extra shots I wondered to the Tim Hortons that I saw on my tour. Lol the coffee just wasn’t as good as the Tim Hortons in Buffalo. I was a bit sad. I wandered some more found this like hostel/café/bar place. It was cool there. I had some local beer, which was really good. ☺ just chilled. To me it was a very chill out place to hang out.

San Francisco

… It's hard to figure out how to start this post! Lol I absolutely loved San Francisco! I mean I wasn’t that excited to go to San Francisco, but once I stepped outside I was instantly blown away by the atmosphere, and vibe of the whole place.

I have never been to San Francisco, I was happy to go to a place where I haven’t been of course, but I never expected to REALLY like this city. It sounds uber cliché, but it was hard to leave this city. I loved it.

Ok… so what I did. Lol My tour was bright an early. I went a tour called “The city of San Francisco. We first went to the Golden Gate Bridge, which was really cool to see. We Drove over the bridge to this vista spot. It was really cool to see the city from afar, and the bridge from that side. From there we went to the de Young Museum. There was this one wall art piece that I really - really liked. I don’t know why, I just did. I had a pic of it as well. I was like 20 feet high. I forget the details of it, I wish I could explain it, but it’s of something that the human can’t see regularly. After the Museum we drove around a bit, shopping area, china town, the painted ladies. Otherwise known as the “Full House” house!!! It was really cool to see in person. I didn’t get a pic of it though, cause we went by so quickly. We didn’t stop. ☹ Our last stop was to downtown San Francisco. I saw city hall. Amazing looking building.

So, that was my tour… oooooooooohhhh!!!! I almost forgot the coolest part. Lol. We went to twin Peaks. From there you saw the whole city, the bridges and everything. I really enjoyed the view. I could have stayed there for hours! I got some good pics.

After my tour I went out and wandered around. I went around the pier, including Pier 39. I got a couple of pictures of the sea lions just took over those docks. Lol That whole thing was weird to me. I guess it’s a big deal to everyone though. It’s pretty funny to me though. I got entertainment from it. lol After that I walked around a lot. Downtown, Chinatown, random places. Let me just say in the 5 mile radius that I walked I must have counted 15 starbucks. They aren’t joking around. Two were diagonally across the street from one another. And it wasn’t like oh its impossible to get to one so they put the other one there, like I hear it is in Texas, but seriously two that close. Lol

All I know is I got my peanut butter. Lol Yes, I really love peanut butter. Its just we don’t have it onboard all like that. I can get it, I have a couple friend offer to get me some, but its not crunchy, and organic peanut is seriously the best! Anyway… just being in San Francisco was really awesome.

When I got back to the ship…I saw my freaking boss once again! ugh. While walking around I didn’t use my iPod this time around. So I’m crossing the street to the ship terminal, and I see him, and out loud I say “ oh god, fuck sake.” Lol the people crossing the street with me probably thought I was nuts. Lol. I was like oh jesus please don’t see me. Lol I don’t think he did thank god. I wasn’t gonna have my manager ruin my day out. After getting back on the ship I had to shoot San Fran sail away. There was a beautiful sunset. I didn’t edit the sail away, Marek did a sweet job at it. It was cool sailing under the bridge. I took pretty sweet pictures too! I got a shot of this woman with the bridge in the background right after we sailed under and she was like crying. I guess it was such a big deal to her. She said she had a fear of heights and she climbed it, walked across, so to sail under it was like a huge deal with her. I have to say it was a cool moment to sail underneath it.

When I was done with sail away Marek was like I hope you didn’t get a lot. Lol. I had no idea what to shoot, Marek didn’t really give me direction so I just shot. Lol I was supposed to just do people, and him scenics. I was like…opps. Lol When I saw the edit I loved it! He used a lot of my scenic shots! I got a really sweet time lapse! He used it. ☺ When I saw him I was like “so, I see you used some of my shots. You liked them didn’t you.” Lol. We just laughed, and he said I had some really good ones. ☺ I was happy.

I’m gonna miss San Francisco. Hell when I there I felt as though I could live there!!! I could really see myself living there. Hey who knows. I was surprised- the city was smaller than I realized. Its like only 46 square miles, or something like that. It is such a beautiful city! I’m definitely going to visit again. ☺