Home sweet home

Well i made it home.

Being back in Buffalo is a bit weird. I miss living in LA to be honest. I kinda like being back in my home town though. nothing has really changed.

I mean a few more tim Hortons have gone up, some people have broken up or got pregnant, but for the most part, Buffalo is Buffalo.

I was a bit restless being home with nothing to do...workwise. of course I have things to take care, but nothing that takes up massive amounts of time. I just need to chill, I realized I cant always go go go. So, now I'm just chilling.

I've always been one to kinda never stay in one place, or stay in one group. I actually do not like staying in one group of friends. issues ALWAYS come from that. the group never likes people branching out. they always feel like oh now she hangs with so and so.

when that happens i always find out who are some of my best friends.

i bring this up because when a person is away you get the whole " i miss you", or the " when should hang out when you get back" blah blah blah. I probably cold go on for awhile, but i will spare you cause I know you get it. Well once your home what happens?? lol there will be people that seek you out and make sure they spend time with you, its usually not those ones that gave you all those lines.

i just find it funny. I like seeing the patterns of humans.

Well my cruise ship life for now is over. It was a very exciting, dramatic, interesting, emotional experience. I loved it. I shall continue my blog once I'm closer to getting on my next ship.

My next ship is The Diamond princess. That ship goes to Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. I sign on Sept 11, 2010.

So I guess you'll read on in 3 months. :-)

Grand Canyon-Big deal???

My sister coming out here planned to see the Grand Canyon. I hadn’t seen it yet. To be honest, I didn’t really care to see it. I was kinda like oh since we’re driving by lets check it out, but if its out of our way, oh well. I mean either way I didn’t really care.

We were making our way to the Grand Canyon, and the ride up was really cool. I had no idea the was a forest that surrounded the area. The weather was great. It was uber hot for the beginning part of our day, than it just nice and cool. It was great. It eventually got quite cold. I full on welcomed the cold!! ☺

We stopped at this gas station/Native store. My sister bought handmade jewelry. I got a sweet pair of onyx earrings out of the deal. Lol.

We are pretty much at the canyon, and we notice a sign that says park fee. I’m like what the hell is that about. We were unsure about fees and all that. Turns out there was this $25 fee to enter the Grand Canyon park. I’m like SWEET JESUS!! We were only going for what we thought a short time. I guess you buy these 7 days passes for $25. We paid it regardless.

My excitement grew as we got closer to seeing it.

It was about sunset when we got to Mather Point. The visitor center was closed, but that was okay, I still got my info about the Canyon and all that I wanted. I’m always curious on how things like that got there and were formed. I read all this info before see the canyon. Now I really wanted to see the canyon! I saw all this info about hiking, and I so wanted to just stay for a couple days and hike!

My sister bought a whole bunch of stuff!! Lol I waited for her, and I just could not take it anymore. I told her “ Jen, the sun is setting we have to go now to even be able to see the canyon.” So, I just straight up book it. I didn’t want to miss it while we were here these few hours.

It was a it of a walk, but once we got the point, OMG!! it blew me away! It was just so beautiful.

I never thought it’d affect me the way it did. I want to go back for sure, and spend a few days there to hike, and all that jazz.

It was amazing, I’m glad I went. It was 100 miles out of the ay too.

My sister as I was looking out one last time, was like “ Amber so, was it worththe $25 dollas? I’m like YES! I don’t even care about the money now. I’m glad I was there to see something that amazing!

“The Grand Canyon is what all canyons are compared to.”

I must add this little tid bit of Information. When I was on my journeys in Hawai’I, I went to Waimea canyon. Now, Mark twain tagged it “The grand canyon of the Pacific” Seeing both, Waimea does even come close. Waimea was beautiful, but didn’t strike me like the Grand Canyon did. It turns out that Mark Twain never even went and saw the Waimea Canyon in person. Who knows if we even saw the Grand Canyon. I feel like nick-naming Waimea Canyon the Grand Canyon of the Pacific is almost an insult. Lol. Who is someone going to put a label on something like that without seeing both for real and in person??? Boo.

All in all it was a great day in Arizona!

Leaving Las Vegas.

Vegas traffic in the afternoon sucks. Lol My sister and I had a little tiff taff. We had set minds to just GO HOME. We were not in the best of moods. We were on the road, heading toward Utah. Than I said to her, where is the Hoover dam from here.

From that moment we’ve had fun! It was like from the point we were going to make the best of this trip for sure. I wont get into why were fought or whatever, but we got over it. ☺

We drove a bit out of the way, but that’s okay. I honestly was dreading taking the same route back to Buffalo. And I knew had I just headed home we would not have fun. We made our way to drive over the Hoover Dam. We got about 4 miles away from the Dam and we were stuck in LA highway at rush hour type traffic. LAME-NESS.

It was uber hot!! The traffic was slow, and we’re wondering why the hell is this hold up happening.

Security check right before the Dam! They check the weight of your car. Or course its an issue going over the dam.

So this check point was holding traffic back 4 miles. We couldn’t believe it. We didn’t even really stop. I paused for a sec, than he just said we were fine to go across.

Massive crowds of course. We didn’t get out and do tour. We just didn’t care to do so. Lol. I don’t know why we just do whatever.

We Were now making our way to the Grand canyon.

Leaving California

Ship life has caused me to move out of LA and back to Buffalo. So, I needed to move all my stuff, and car back to Buffalo. 2,600-3,000 mile trip back home.

My sister and I had a lot fun In LA. We were excited about continuing our journey home. My sister never roadtrip to this extent. For any American I feel like a cross country road trip is what we all want to do- eventually. To see as many states as possible, and tell our stories about what happened in each state. I know when I talk to people and we get to talking about travels, the amount of states an individual has visited is a giant conversation. I guess that’s a pretty cool thing about being American…a lot of land to explore.

Well I took the cross country road trip to LA. Now I’m doing it again going back. A different route as well. ☺ I would hate to do the exact same route going back. That’s something that bothers me. I want to see as many new things as possible.

Our first stop was Las Vegas. My sister was uber excited to visit Vegas. I’m not gonna lie I was too.

I happened to get a really bad cold the day prior. The day of I felt like death. By the time we got to Vegas all I waned to do was sleep. I mustered up some energy to see a little bit of it though.

We stayed at the Paris Hotel/resort.

To be completely honest I didn’t care for Vegas. Maybe because I was sick and cranky. I don’t know. I’ll have to go back when I’m well enough to have fun. Lol. It was cool to see all the lights and the busy streets, but for the most part I could live without it.

We didn’t stay long, so maybe one day I’ll go back and make it a few days of a vaca.

Back on land

Let me be the first to say that I am so happy to be back on land. There are just so many things i miss about "regular life" that you just dont/cant get on a ship.

the main one is driving, for me at least. I was so happy to drive my car!!

My sister flew into LA to meet me and from there we are roadtripping it to Buffalo. (great so far) we spent a few days in LA though. We had alot of fun in LA. visiting around LA made me realize how much i loved LA, and how much i missed it and wanted to still live there. We ran around pasadena for a bit, drove around hollywood, went to La ink for my parents(high Voltage tattoo) and than spent most of our night in Santa monica. :-) We took my sister for sushi in santa monica. it was so good!! Jo- She is now a fan of sushi! conversion number one complete!! lol

It's weird being home. I'm totally free. its a great feeling. I dont have to worry about work, being aboard at a certain time, editing champagne waterfall(the only edit/event I HATE doing) I can do what i want. its a great feeling!!!

I thought i would miss the ship more. I miss my job, but not having time to myself to do whatever with. I havent really gotten to the stage of missing people extensively yet. People def cross my mind for sure though.

Its so good to be back on land. I wont miss the work that much though, I'm working on a few projects while home. :-)

Leaving the Ship

5.5 months.

I really cant believe I got through this first contract. it all seems surreal. i had some really good times. I had some tough times, and some phenomenal times. I had some crappy bosses, I had some really great bosses, I made some friends, had some fights, grew really close with people, seen people come and go. I laughed, and cried with people. Now it was my time to go.

The first thing I hate about leaving is packing. lol really. Thankfully i wasn't over in weight on anything.

On leavers night of course I didn't sleep. You have to hang with so many people, and say your good byes, get your last shot/drink with your close friends. Finish packing maybe, make sure you have your paperwork done, and everything is ok to go really. I totally forgot to finish my ILO. oops. :-( i realized once i was home like a day. lol

my last few nights were great. I didn't go out in Victoria, I Packed instead. the night prior was awesome, I had a chill night with my two roommates, and one of the new photogs. It was a fun night. I had alot of laghs for sure. Me and jo were having flash backs on all the funny things that happened to us. great night.

leavers night when I was finally packed the photo manager invited all of us to his cabin for a beer. We had our free beer, than headed to the crew bar. to my pleasant surprise Anthony got my tim bits!! tim hortons is the shit!! dogged them. lol. then i was hanging out with the photogs and some others all night.

at the beginning Marek wasn't there. this kinda upset me ...slightly. I knew he's turn up though. I got my leavers card, I loved it. Jo did a good job. :-) Thanks Jo.

I was bouncing around to all kinds of people that wanted to see me. Marek did turn up. I was happy to see him. I wanted to give him a huge hug! i'm gonna miss him. We worked well together. what he said to me was just great. it def make me be like awww. lol And stephen got me scared before he got to the ship. lol Marek really pushed me to be a better Videographer. I told him that. I also told him I appreciated how he challenged me, and pushed me to test my limits and creativity. I learned a lot from him. I wish I could have worked with him longer. He promoted me, and my appraisal was all good. :-)

saying bye to everyone wasnt as hard as i thought. Yeah I'll miss my job for a few, but I knew i was doing this road trip with my sister and i was going to see the rest of my family soon!! I left with no tears.

I left a few people behind, but they'll be fine without me. :-) I wish them fun, and happiness for the rest of their contracts.


This contract really was a great experience. yes it did have major ups and downs, but I learned from it al.

bye bye for now princess.

Dog sled and musher camp

To get this tour I practically begged marek to push to get it for me. he pulled through for me!!! :-) it was my last cruise so i def wanted to do this tour!! alot of the crew wanted to do this tour as well.

it was a short tour, but a great one.

it started out with a really scenic drive toward the camp. I felt like I really got to see Alaska this time. the views are just amazing. i feel like a broken record. lol. its true though. :-)

We get to the camp and immediately you hop on this cart, and go for a little ride. now you may be wondering why its a cart. its a cart because they don't want to over train the dog, and get them all super muscular. they keep them small and lean, which makes them a better dog for the mushing races.

after that you get to learn all about the culture of mushing, history behind it, and all information you want to know about the sport, the dogs, breeding, costs, anything like that.

than you get to see puppies!! :-) it was awesome. i learned a lot about dog sleding and the races, and how it was a big part of alaskan cultures. dog sledding was a main way of transportation for Alaskan. Than the snowmobile came out and changed all of that. that gave birth to the sport.

I loved it. I had so much fun. the passengers i was with were great to. I had a great time editing it too! i think it was a good edit. Marek said it was great. I got alot of compliments on this edit. :-)

Whale Quest-take two.

So, I got major busy with my leaving the ship, but I am posting about my last couple of tours. :-)

My last stop in Juneau I did the whale quest...but this time it was a combo I got to go to the the Mendenhall Glacier.

The whale Quest was def better this time around. I saw way more whales. Not Orca whales. :-( in time I will see them in the wild. I also saw sea lions swimming around the whales too. usually you see them just chilling on some rock.

It was really cool, because i got to see humpback whales....yeah same as Hawai'i, but i got to see them eating. I was really amazed to see them eat. it was really cool. :-)

Mendenhall glacier was cool to see up close...well it always seems that way at least. lol The weather for me in Alaska was way too good to me. lol Marek said I am extremely lucky. Trust me I appreciate it! i got some really awesome pictures.

I wanted to see glaciers and I for sure got my fill of that. :-)