Cars-R-Coffins

Well,

My phone is at-large. All based on well mannered assumption it has been smashed by an auto.
I didn't like the thing anyways.
i really didn't like it.
I believe it fell out of my pocket while riding my bike, and when i called it not long after it was discovered as M.I.A., it was dead/turned off. That would lead one to believe something made it dead/killed it. I then assume it has been plastered into the ice and pavement somewhere on our minneapolis road system.

HA

When adding the totals, this would mean that in the last week i have lost both my ipod and my phone to car tires. Of course i was the one that let the electronic piece end up on the ground some how but this is America and i need to blame some-thing/one else. Cars are my choice.

The have banded together in great commradery to attack me (obviously). I didn't think they had it in them.

Cars-R-Coffins

I do have to say,
atleast i haven't been hit by a car.
At this point we know their after me
you may take my luxury electronics but
you'll never get me.


So now i am in my predicament
I don't have a phone
I actually dont have plans to buy a new one at this point.
I can be reached at 612.379.7444
that is my house phone.
or email me
leave me a comment on this site with your phone number
most likely i don't have it
you can still call my ice and pavement encrusted phone and leave a message.
I am checking that as well.

all for now kids

love you

Whoa

So,

i just realized that i am leaving for California in 9 days. Holy shit that crept up on me. I was not paying attention at all apparently. I am so excited. I spoke with Nick and Claire the other day and they have a bunch of stuff planned. They listed like a ton of stuff real quick so i don't even really know what they all have in mind, but it will be all good stuff. Some things i do recall include the grand canyon, the salt fields in Nevada (i think), Vegas, some deserted ghost towns, Joshua Tree National Park, and camping somewhere south of San Diego.

I am actually sitting up at 2:13 am because i cant sleep. My head is flying around and i am so excited to see some stuff that i have never seen before.

After California i am coming back to MPLS for the cold month of Feb. There is a class that is condensed in one month that i am taking. Some other highlights of Feb. will be The Stupor Bowl. The biggest messenger bike race in MPLS/St. Paul. It is on the first weekend of Feb and tends to be insanely cold. Last year i raced and it was like -20F.
Also John and i plan to go ice climbing in Duluth, i am super amped on that.

I have alot of stuff to get done in the next week and a half.

Then when March hits i am PLANNING on seeing the Peruvian trails that will lead me to Machu Picchu,

I don't have a plane ticket down there yet but its only a button on the computer screen away.

I am hoping to start putting up short videos on here soon.

Next good story that i have i will maybe record it and post it up.

i am going to try to get some sleep, i just have to stop thinking about how the next 9 months of my life are going to be a blast.

all for now

Christmas Photo

This was our Christmas card with my siblings.
its a good one

check out that mustache...

Christmas

Well i've got a headache,

Yesterday was christmas.
It was a good day
I woke up just after 7 am to open presents with Lexi, Tanner, Katie and the fam.
It was awesome watching Tanner open guitar hero III and start screaming YES YES YES! This is what i have been bugging you guys for. he he

Then i went to Joan's house for christmas dinner. We had:
Oysters on the half shell - some raw and some grilled with a touch of parmesan
red potatoes baked with tarragon, rosemary and olive oil
Asparagus with pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil.
Prime rib with a red wine reduction
A beautiful California Zinfandel made by Steele

After dinner, Smithwicks, and Zinfandel
we had a few Fernet and cokes
Then home
we drank more beer and listened to Pink Floyd
we drank Wild Turkey Manhattens and listened to Neil Young
We talked about life and people
we talked about politics and family
We talked about books and music
It was really nice
thanks dad
we drank brandy on the rocks
then we went to bed

Like i said earlier
I've got a headache

Christmas Time

What a shit day...

I took Aaron's car to go christmas shopping. Apparently i don't know how to fill up a car with gas anymore. It took me 3 trips in to the cashier to get it done. It really wasn't my fault though the machine wouldn't take my card. But still who fills up with gas anymore, right?
pffft, not me.
That is so 1990's
get a bike.
: )

Christmas shopping is the worst.
Just being in stores hurts my being.
I just want to run up and smash the bottles of perfume and tackle some lady and wipe my ass with her fur coat.
he he - she wouldn't get it though.
luckily i made it as quick as possible and got everything done today, On the 23rd.
and there were no ladies with soiled fur coats on the floor when i left, i guess that's a good thing.

So today was great,

It was my friends birthday.
I went down to Cleveland, MN to have Christmas dinner with my family.
Dinner was great and i had a great time.
Coming home Dad and i stopped at Keegans for a pint or two ( in which we called Ken Baker to harass him for not being there at 2 am)
My friend called and needed a ride home.
I borrowed Aaron's car
when i got there my friend wasn't there
and i dropped my ipod with out knowing it
and ran it over with the car...

funny thing is I'm not mad

i'm not going to spend any part of my life pissed off
it's not worth it
: )


POST EDIT:

status: Friend found

Ipod: screen smashed but still kickin out the tunes
heck yea!

All is well

See there was no reason to have your panties in a bunch.

Good thing i don't wear panties.

POST POST EDIT:

Ipod broken for good.
No doubt.

Well,

School is over for now and my schedule has slowed. It feels so good to be done with school. I did well and am very proud of myself for being successful in a full loaded semester. I haven't got my grades back yet but i am pretty sure i know what i got in most of my classes.
The holidays are coming up which should be fun.

I never know what to ask for.

I am leaving in 2 and a half weeks for California. I am starting to get really excited. It should be a blast, i have a ton of plans, probably too many in fact.

I have had a wonderful day today, I met Emma and Eric for brunch, and have been biking around running errands. It was beautifully foggy out, 30 degrees and i had such nice time on my bike.

all for now...
B-

California

I bought my tickets to California a few days ago. I am departing on the 6th of Jan and returning on the 31st. I am really excited to relax, surf, read and write. I will be staying with my friends Nick and Claire, and hanging out with my aunt Kyran, who i rarely get to see. We are hopefully going to see the Grand Canyon and camp out there for a bit. I wouldn't mind seeing Bryce Canyon and Zion national park while were out there, but it all depends on time. I am going to tear the roads of L.A. apart on my bike. He He. I hope to see San Fran as well but i don't think i will have enough time for all the stuff i want to do. Like usual. Anyways... It's really cold here. Like everyday is 10 degrees with a wind-chill that brings it down to -5. That makes it crazy cold. December hasn't been like this in years, and the snow has been crazy. Anyways, enough of being a Minnesotan and talking about the weather.
winter is good and bad, thats for sure

can't stop thinking

I cant help but think there is something wrong with me.
i try so hard
whether you think that i do or don't
I really do
Something always happens
don't feel bad for me
its obviously my fault
but the problem is that i don't understand it
I try so hard
i really do
I put more towards things than you think
I am ready to just quit
it doesn't make sense
i work for you, i really do my best and enjoy doing a good job
keeping people happy
and you give me money in return
But why is that worth it?
And when i do something that is apparently wrong in some form of reality whether it is yours, mine or a random persons it is some how true
and holds so much weight.
just because someone said it,
it automatically is a rock sinking in the sea.
bringing little air bubbles down with it
as if it is impossible to mistake a feather from a rock
for some it apparently is
why don't you see it?
it's because the rock hit you in the eye.

Track or Treat

So last night was Halloween and some of the local bike community people put on a a bike race in downtown Minneapolis. Of course this is somewhat of an underground race (the streets aren't shut down or anything and the city sure as hell doesn't know about it). So this was a Fixed gear (if you don't know what that is click here) race only, no other bikes were allowed to compete and this how it went: 4 minute time bonus for wearing a costume and 2 minute time bonus for riding brakeless. There five pickups and 5 drop offs, the pickups had to be in order but the drop offs could be in any order.

So the beginning of the race was at Peavey Plaza downtown MPLS. We met there, registered and were off. The first stop was the Gold Medal Spiral where you had to run up the hill and get your candy and stamp. I reached in my pocket for my manifest and it was gone!!! ahhhh first stop!! I looked everywhere in the grass even though it was dark, reached in my pocket again and it was there. My mind was playing tricks (on Halloween) on me. Gotta out of there and headed onward. Next stop was the walker pedestrian bridge which is on the other side of downtown, i was tired.
The rest of the race was really fun, i saw a lot of people having really close calls.

At one point i was trailing three guys who where not as tired as i was because i was losing them. Finally they hit a red light that they couldn't really run. i caught up and with my momentum was able to thread the needle through while they where standing there flat footed. I flew by and heard Hayyyy oooooo. That was probably my favorite part of the race. I also had a few times i had to turn and ride suicide (into traffic) to save time. that was fun. i had another racer following me because he didn't know where he was going and i turned towards traffic on a one way, i wonder if he was prepared for that... he heh

When i got to the finish, it was at someones house, i handed in my manifest and the guy organizing it (pickles, Thanks again) told me i got 5th place!!!! whooo.
Thats the best I've ever done in an alleycat.

Afterwards there was a party with a few kegs and a few bonfires. I met some really cool people and had a good time. There are some photo's here

and here is a photo someone took of me practicing a track stand

OCT.

Well haven't written in way to long. (Blogging or personal writting)
I have been busy with bullshit. Basically stuff that i don't want to be doing. School, moving ect.

I have had some good times of course.

A few weeks ago i picked up Katie (my sister) after she skipped school and she helped me move. We held hands in the car and i shed some tears because of the stress i was dealing with. I am not very good at dealing with stress sometimes, Depending on the kind of stress. It was so nice to have her there with me. I hate to admit this and am ashamed of it, but i feel i have taken her for granted in my younger years. She is so wonderful and i don't thank her enough. I doubt you will ever read this Katie but thank you so much.

I declared October white trash month in spirit of being homeless.
Therefore i grew a mustache. Check out the photo
Of course not everyone that has a mustache is white trash, just mine makes me look like it. He He




I went and saw Trampled by Turtles a few nights ago. It was fun to see some decent bluegrass again. I miss it. There were a ton of people there. I did the hippie shuffle quite a bit.
Charlie Parr is playing this Friday at one of my old watering holes the 331 in NE. I think that will be fun.

The new Radiohead album came out titled In Rainbows. I'm not going to say that its better than any of their other albums yet, but its on par. Some very beautiful tracks include All I Need, Jigsaw falling into Place and Videotape. The fact that its near free to download here.

Lastly,
a quick story
So I'm riding my bike on Lake street in south Minneapolis (quite a populated street) and this lady in a newer Saab goes around me gives me plenty of room (i even mentally noted the nice space she gave me) and when she gets past flicks me off. We are in stop and go traffic and when i caught up to here i look over and smile and wave. She gets angry and flicks me off again. The next time i am about to pull up to her she steers right and tries to cut me off from being able to pull ahead of her. She fails at that (i went around her). So i set my bike down unbuckle and drop my pants. I am waving my white ass back and forth at her (as well as a long line of cars) I did a little dance for her, showed the "Grade A Beef", waved and then just picked up my bike and rode away. She was really pissed after that. She was not happy. I wish i would have put a big butt cheek print on her window though. Next time.

All for now
Brett

So you want to be a writer...

This was a poem i wrote in response to Charles Bukowski's poem
It was written sometime in July of 2007 when i was living in Juneau
So you want to be a writer by Charles Bukowski

You say to let it flow
You say you know
Let it burn in your stomach
Until you let it out
What if i let if grow out
my ears, nose and mouth
until that third world librarian
has got a puddle under her chair
i cant be like anyone else
i can only be what surfaces

beneath the shades of blue
is a darker blue
and beneath the darker blue
is a white light
This white light is a photosynthesizing center regenerating
these efforts to be a poet
though ill never know it
let it stay that way until i am finished or it leaves me
I may not be blessed but i am a lucky bastard
and I'll keep it that way
Spare a few days
Here and then
Now and again

If that third world library floods
what will happen


Nothing.



This is one of my favorites that i have written.

Sunny outside coudy in my head

i am enjoying life very much
especially as of late
adjustments have been made
I still think that i see Juneau folk in Minneapolis
Will that ever dissipate?
we have so much to look forward to
so enjoy it
and never stop
till you expire or it leaves you

John and Ester

What a wonderful day
I awoke not knowing where i was
desperate for water i made my way to the kitchen of my friend Johns house
I folded the blankets and left a note
The second my feet were in my pedals i thought what a great night
We sat in the grass under the trees taking pulls from the wine bottle
We swam in our most natural state
The water was wonderful
The trees were beautiful
We scared off some other beach go-ers
My ride home was amazing
The music flowed
The wind felt amazing
Thank you John and Ester
I know i told you both how much i like you about 7 times last night
but you are good people.
And the whole day followed
As good as it gets
I walked in the rain with a child size umbrella
letting my feet feel the wet sidewalk
they loved it
I had good thoughts on that walk

Home

I got home yesterday...
Flight wents fine.
Its really crazy being home. Lots of culture shock. The traffic of the city is just tense and stressful. I dont like it.
I miss Juneau. I really do, everythings so much more relaxed.
It's great to see the people that i cherish in MPLS. You know who you are.
I just have alot to do in the next couple days.
Build a new bike
get ready for school
unpack - which i probably wont even do - my room will just stay empty and i will keep wearing the 5 shirts i have been wearing the last 3.5 months. he he
I don't like culture shock, i really dont like it.
Here you have to call people with a phone to see them and travel more than 10 blocks

My first night back was great though, I saw alot of good friends. I have been craving swimming in our Minnesota lakes and we were able to get out to hidden beach for a swim. Heck yea.
To my friends in Juneau i miss you dearly and will see you soon
This is not the end.
the end

Freedom

Yesterday was my last day of work!!

It feels so good to not have any responsibility right now. I love it.
Everything is really smoothing out for me.
I sold my bike to my good friend Nick.
I have a job waiting for me when i get home.
I am moving into a very special house in a few months.
I get to see the people that i cherish in MPLS in only a few days.

I am just preparing for home for the next few days. I am going to Pelican, AK on Monday. I am really excited to take the ferry out there. I haven't been on the ferry system yet. I think i wrote about this already but Alaska has a great highway marine system. They kind of need to when most of the cities in SE Alaska have no roads.

I haven't been writing at all lately, i have been so busy. I have done a bunch of really fun stuff. I can write about it later.

I will see MN so soon.

I am going to try to hike Mt Jumbo tomorrow because its my last day available to do that. I am just hanging with the people that i love here in Juneau before i go. Here are some photos of random stuff i have been doing:

This is a photo of downtown Juneau



I camped out in a cabin up the road a few days ago with some friends and this was the sunset view:






These are friends at my bar on the last night
Included here are
Costa, Merody, and Sam
Alice, Resse and Nicole




This is the Alaskan Bar that i spent plenty of time in. Patrice is bar tending. I will miss dancing to bluegrass here. I will have to come back next summer and do it again.

Lately ~

I haven't had much time to write lately but i have been really busy getting stuff done before i go home.

I have been working a bunch (like always here)

One of my friends up here guides ice climbing trips and glacier treks up here. I was lucky enough to get on a trip with him. Usually this trip is $500. The $500 includes a helicopter ride to the glacier and a 3 hour trek. I paid $46 for it. He He.

I wish i had more time to elaborate on this but it was amazing. We had huge 2" cramp-ons and ice picks. I got lowered in to a cravase and had to climb my way out with the ice picks and cramp-ons. It was amazing. We found some ice caves that we could walk through. I will elaborate on this more later. Ice climbing was one of the best things i have done this summer.

2 days ago Nick and I climbed Mt Juneau with huge packs and camped up there for a night. Hiking up that mountain with my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pack, food for 2 days and other stuff on my back was really hard. We got up there and it was really cold, really cold. We spent 2 full days and an evening up there and saw some really cool stuff. We saw a bear, some porcupines and about 25 mountain goat. We woke up to really hot clear blue skies and got sun burnt that day. It has been really nice since.

I have the day off and Patrice and I went for a lovely walk on Douglas. It is perfect out today. Really mind blowing, Juneau never looks like this. I'll post photos later, theres just so much i wish i had more time.

all for now
B



This is a photo of the icefield

West Glacier Trail

I hiked West Glacier Trail again a few days ago with my friends Nick, Claire, Susan and Nick. I hiked to this side of Mendenhall glacier earlier this year and it is amazing how much it has changed. Very sad more than anything. The glacier looks different from when i saw it. Its melting at a very fast rate and soon will be gone.

We found an ice cave that was so amazing you leave that glacier a changed person. We were able to walk about 100 feet into/underneath the glacier. I got some good photos seen below but my friend Nick (freelance pro photographer) got some breathtaking photos. I need to offer him some $$ for those.

It is so amazing to get so close to it, you can see little pebbles and dirt frozen just a few inches deep in the glacier now. You see those and you know that those little pebbles have not seen the world in hundreds of thousands of years, and they are just about to be exposed. Thats crazy. Thats insane.

Check the photos out

See you MPLS folk in 3 weeks. I cant wrap my head around that either.

Ticket Home

I have a plane ticket home.
Aug. 22
I am leaving Juneau at 1 am
MPLS by 2 pm
Dont know how i feel about that

These are my friends Nick and Claire, They are really good people from the east coast. I am very thankful that they came to Juneau. I already owe them so much.

This was a beautiful day on the herbert glacier trail with fog on the glacier run off.

Patrice

This is a friend of mines music.
Her name is Patrice and she's great
Her family has been in Alaska for 4 generations now.
We have the same birthday

Photo's of Friends

These are my friends from both Doc Waters and the Tram
check it

The Haps

So a lot has been going on lately...

Yesterday i climbed Mt Juneau
That was crazy, the mountain kicked my ass. I was planning on just going up and chillin for a bit and coming back down, I brought my small water bottle a pear and 2 granola bars. Well that would have been enough if i stuck to my plan. I climbed pretty hard on the way up, i made a few short stops but kept going consistently. So i got to the top huffin and puffin dripping in sweat and it was amazing. I could see so far and so much. So i sat up there and ate my pear and granola bars and just enjoyed it. I had heard that if you follow the ridgeline east you would be able to see the Juneau ice field. So i take off strait east inland. This was really cool because you are on the tip top of this mountain range and it goes on forever. So you are walking on this trail (no bigger than a deer trail) and you look left and its basically a drop off down the mountain and you look right and ITS THE SAME THING. It totally reminded me of Lord of the Rings. So i took this trail for a long time thinking yea i will probably turn back soon, but i didn't i just kept going. It was so cool
So i was really hoping to see the ice field, this thing is bigger that Rhode Island. I unfortunately didn't make it the whole way, there was still alot of snow. My stomach started telling me i am hungry. I new that if i was hungry now and i have at least a 3 hour hike back that by the time i made it back i might be weak from hunger. I had exhausted the water from my water bottle also. So with no food or water i figured it would be a good idea to head back.
I did fill up my water bottle with wonderful run off from the snow up there, It was some of the best water i have had, ice cold too. That water is actually where Juneau gets its drinking water from. I saw a family of Spotted Grouse that scared the shit out of me. They were beautiful.

The top of the mountain was unbelievable
I hadn't seen another person since the trail on the way up when i passed their asses
It was soooo quiet and soooo peaceful
I hadn't been somewhere that quiet in years.
why would anyone want to leave
There were little pools of water on top that waded in. i of course wanted to lose my clothing and dive in but none were big enough or warm enough for that. The ones that were big enough still had ice and snow in them.
I got like 3 photos and then my camera battery died. Damn
That just means i will have to climb it again.

Here are some photos before my camera died. This is a stream that i had to cross to get up the mountain. It looks alot rougher than it really was.



These next two photos are of the same shot, one of them is zoomed in and the other is zoomed out. You can barely see the people on the trail in the zoomed in photo. I took these to try to put in to perspective how massive this mountain is. These photos are only of half the mountain too. On the zoomed out photo try to follow the trail.




Some other news:
I am pretty sure that my manager and head chef at the tram is quitting. That means that place will completely fall apart. Therefore i would have to quit that job, everyone there will quit. Now one would think why not just hire another chef? Well let me answer that for you. The labor pool in Juneau is non existent. This town gets so over worked in these summer months. Juneau is bitting off a bite too big with 6 ships a day coming in. Over 12,000 people stepping on to the docks. This city need more hard working mid westerners to show them how its done.
By the time any new chef got done training at this point it would be the end of the season and the training period would be stressful and not worth it.
We will see what happens though. I would pick up a bunch of hours at Doc's and go from there.

I hope he doesn't quit because we have a good crew at the tram now. We have alot of fun.

Other thoughts:
It's not that i don't want to come home but i don't really want to come home. hehe
I am happy here right now.
I really am
I wish i could just keep traveling, why stop here, i wish i could just keep going. But i cant and i have to come back to MPLS. Once i am done with school its ON
Most people get done with school so they can start their jobs. NOT THIS KID.

It will be fun to come home though. I am sure when the time grows near i will be more excited about it.

all for now
peace
Brett

Dear Joel

Hi there,
this message is a bit random but definitely necessary. It consists of a story. Please do read the whole thing, its worth it
sorry its so long
ready set go:

My name is Brett Baker and i am from Minneapolis. I came to Juneau, AK for the summer for some good old adventure. I was having a shit time my first couple weeks here, it was very difficult for me emotionally i am in Juneau alone. Around the end of May on a Sat night i wasn't planning on going out but did anyway - to the Alaskan (my favorite bar) and you were playing. I had so much fucking fun dancing and listening to you play. That night was my turning point from having a shit time to having a great time. So the next day i started researching you and your music and how to get some. I of course learned that it was basically impossible to find your 78 Vinyl. I did look everywhere i could (ebay, craigslist, thrift store and record store in Juneau). So i had sort of given up...
A few weeks ago i was at work (bar tending) and i don't know how it came up but i started talking about you and your music and your shows (I attended your July 3rd show as well and had a blast of course) to a guy at the bar. A young guy named Jesse. I don't know anything else about this guy, he just left Juneau and said he's coming back next spring. He says to me that hes got one of your vinyls. I am, of course like NO WAY how did you get it. He told me it was given to him. I of course offer him a bunch of money for it and he says no (i don't blame him). I then ran in to him a few days later (thats how Juneau is) and he says he wants to give me your record. It was given to him and now he wants to give it to me.
Now i am holding your vinyl in my hands still in disbelief
I am going back to Minneapolis in a month
I promise i am going to bring your record back to Juneau someday and hand it down.
You have my word
I need to say thank you so much for your music
its helped me down my road, i am in your debt
Thank you so much. Let me know if i can return the favor in anyway - Seriously
peace
Brett

This is a letter that i wrote to Wisconsin Slim today
i hope he reads it

Poems are a friend

The Mountains show their bones
the floor glows proudly
Do they show off for our praises and admiration
or just because they can
the glacier water runs though it
only where it can these days
the blue sky blankets it all
but never covers it up
It projects the beauty
enhancing every lack of pixel
and it goes on forever
and it always will
Is your magic under the blanket
how did it find me
hold it tight
or surely it will be forgotten
for it is magic

I like to write

Cloudy in my head and in the sky
Juneau is busting
once again Wisconsin Slim showed the town
how miraculous moments can be
what a blast
hop, clap, swing to the beat
all night long
those moments dont dissapear they occur and fly by
taken for inventory by the sky
they're never lost though you may be
you may never be remembered or recorded
do your best young man
I am what i can be
make those moments
after they pass they will only exist in two places
on the trees and in the sky
make those moments happen
you can try to keep them in the third place, in your head
they will be forgotten even though they were there
but were they ever really there
did they ever stay there
did they ever stay there for more than the time they were occuring
life is what you make it
keep the occuring coming
be what you can be
no less
if not, spare it
throw it away like so many do
never will I.
march onward
to the moon
If you dont make it
surely you'll fall into the sea
how different life can be

Co-Pilot

I had the day off today!!! After being exhausted from working far too much i was able to relax today. I put in 16.5 hours on Thursday. I am pretty sure i have never worked more hours in one day, and i think i made more money on Thursday than I ever have in one day. It feels good. Enough about that.

So last night i had some people sitting at my bar at the top of mt Roberts and one of them is a pilot for a float plane company that gives float plane rides. They were still sitting at the bar when my shift was done so i sat down and had a beer with them. Now i am starting to realize that i can get pretty much any tour in the area for free because i work for Goldbelt. I can get some through Doc Waters as well but more through Goldbelt. Goldbelt sells everyones tours and then they let me on for free since i work for Goldbelt. So this pilot tells me i can get on for free as long as they have an open seat. So i am like heck yea i am going to do that tomorrow. I had plans for a hike but Lu canceled on me. So i went down there today and hopped on a float plane called the wolverine. WOW, ALL FOR FREE. i love it.

As we are boarding this little float plane, that carries 10 people including the pilot, i hear the pilot say someone has to sit in the co-pilot seat. Now you better believe i was ready to throw Grama aside and hop in there. Luckily for everyone i got the seat. I don't know if everyone else was afraid or what. Well i aint afraid... So i sat down and started checking out all the gauges and dials and all. WOW

The take off was amazingly smooth, it was raining as we took off and as we landed. The scenery was absolutely breath taking. I was so giddy. I couldn't hold back. I am sure the captain and others were like why is that kid laughing his ass off and smiling so much. There were mountains everywhere. The route that the plane took went like this:

Take off from the wharf (downtown Juneau) and head south to the Taku inlet and we flew up the Taku inlet and on top of the Juneau ice field and then back around and up the channel. Some things you should know...The Taku glacier is in the Taku inlet (obviously) it is the only glacier from the Juneau ice field that is actually growing instead of shrinking. The plane route is here
Make sure when you view these maps that i have made that you click on the button that says satellite (if its not on satellite already) in the upper right corner. Depending on your browser and stuff it might pop up as a cartoon map. Those are satellite photos and are beautiful to look at by themselves.

It was amazing, i was totally flipping out. Tears came to my eyes more than once. There were beautiful little pools of bright blue glacier water sitting on top of the glacier as we flew over it. Dodging the mountains with the plane was awesome and seeing the ice field was something i had really wanted to see. Apparently you can see the ice field from the top of Mt Juneau too so i will see it again. There was some gorgeous blue water that i got some good photos of. Sitting in the cockpit was really cool too, i had a way better view than everyone else. It was really loud on the plane but they had headphone that had a little speech about the area. i took those off and turned on my ipod. Sufjan was singing in my ear the whole time, and since it was so loud no one heard my singing or other random giddy noises that may or may not have come out.

The flight was smoother than most commercial flights. i couldn't believe it. Landing was like butter. WOW what a great time.

Wedding Cake

Hey there. So i have been really actually crazy busy with work. The other bartender from the tram (mt Roberts) is in Chicago for 10 days for a wedding. That means i am picking up more hours and working at Doc Waters as well. Monday i had a 16 hour day and Thursday i will have another 16 hour day. Once she gets back from Chicago i will be able to slow down, for now the cash is flowing. I did however finagle yesterday off, only for a very important reason:

So a few weeks ago i was out for drinks (at the Alaskan of course) with my coworkers from the tram. Keep in mind I have only known these coworkers for a months and a half now. Two of them that i was with are a traveling couple, they have literally traveled everywhere. Lu Anne (an Aussie) and Curtis (from NJ) are really great. They tell me that they are getting married in a few weeks. I tell them how great that is and i am so happy for them. They mention its going to be a small wedding with some family and friends flying in to Juneau. They also mention they don't have a wedding cake yet and are looking for someone to bake them a cake (they were thinking of maybe a friend doing it). I think to myself, well shit i would love to bake you your wedding cake, I'd be honored! So i purposed and it went from there. She told me she wanted a carrot cake, easy enough. So i found a recipe and she gave it a trial run and we went with it. So yesterday i had to get off so i could bake the wedding cake and get to their reception.

Everything went okay baking the cake. I didn't have measuring spoons to use so i improvised and used my eyes. I did have 1 huge 2 cup measuring cup, that was it though. I spent the entire afternoon baking this cake (3 cakes actually). I did think to myself(in the midst of it) I have never in my life baked a carrot cake before. He he. It's not rocket science, its cake.

I wanted to use 9X9 pans which is what the recipe called for, but the grocery store was out. So i was forced to use 8" round. This lead to the sides hanging off a little bit, to make sure the top cake didn't break in half i (again improvising) cut little pillars out of a banana and stuck them in there. I garnished it with walnuts and carrot slices and picked wild flowers for the top; i picked a bunch to try some different ones out. Some of them weren't as wild as others (shimel's garden, he he). In the end i went with a purple iris.
They got married out on this peninsula at the Shrine of St. Theresa and rented a nice little lodge to sleep in and have the reception.

Here is the recipe i used, i did change some things, used brown sugar instead of white and put way less sugar than it called for. I added honey and golden raisins also.

The cake turned out great!! I had compliments by the majority and Lu and Curtis gave me a nice card and a bottle of Chardonnay. They were very appreciative. I was very happy and honored to do this for them. It felt really good to bake some good friends their wedding cake. We work together quite a bit and have become good friends.

I think they got some better photos, i will get those and post them up.

I work an absurd amount the next few days but have Saturday off and i am sure i am going to do something fun then. Probably a hike.

Summer Solstice

Yesterday was summer solstice and after work some of my coworkers and i went out to the beach and i took some photos to give everyone an idea of how bright it is in the very early morning. these photos were taken between 2:30 AM and 3:45 AM. Sitting on the log is Adam, Leila and myself. :)

Whale Watching

Yesterday i went into the whale watching tour shop across from the tram (where i work) and asked about their tours. How much? For how long? Any guarantees? Price: $110, 3 hrs, half your money back if you don't see a whale. Then i asked about discounts because i work for Goldbelt Co. (not proud of that). She told me i could get half off. I can do $55 to whale watch. So i go in there today, they had just enough room for me, and i sign some waivers and their like OK your set. How much do i owe you. They say, it's free for you. WHAT!!!...Free (the best things in life are free, riding bicycles, hiking mountains, ect.) Yes, so i got a completely free whale watching tour. We left out of Auke Bay, which is a nice bay 10 miles north of downtown. The tour took us north in to the Lynn canal. Lynn canal is actually the biggest fjord in North America. Most everyone knows what a fjord is but what i didn't know is that fjords (if it is a true fjord) were all formed by glaciers. The glaciers have moved rock and earth and everything into those formations of steep and deep landscape because they are so heavy. Really, really cool. So we are headed north toward the Lynn canal (i am sitting in front on the boat) and we're driving around and a long ways up the guide and i see a humpback whale breech (fly out of the water and make a big splash). I was the only tourist to see it!!! Luckily my father and uncles taught my how to spot animals when i was young (thank you to them), But it was a long ways away. So we cruise up there to watch him. We got within 80 yards of him and he was blowing water like crazy and swimming around. After a bit we headed south to look for more. We saw quite a few more and one of them was swimming right at us and got about 30 yards from us and dove strait down, stuck his tail way up in the air and was off. That was really cool. We also saw some sea lions. The picture above are sea lions with Herbert glacier in the background. Herbert glacier is the glacier i hiked to last week.

Here are some more facts about whales that i learned doing some reading and on the tour: Humpback whales mate and give birth in the winter in Hawaii every year and then swim up to south east Alaska to feed for the summer. They are mammals of course but i guess i had forgotten that they have to come up to the surface to get air, but they can hold their breath. In south east Alaska they have humpback whales and orca whales (killer whales). It is pretty hard to see orcas due to how fast they swim (up to 45 mph). The tour guide said they see them about once a week, but they are on the water 12 hours a day 7 days a week.
As you can see in the photo above humpbacks have a very small dorsal fin, i never knew that. They are slowly losing it due to evolution. Norway, Iceland and Japan are the only countries that still allow whaling (whale hunting).

I didn't get very many photos, i would much rather watch the whales with my eyes rather than watch them through a camera. They were magnificent. I wish one would have poked his head out so i could see his face. Most of what i saw was their back and tails. I will see more soon though. They were everywhere in the canal. I saw probably 5 whales close up and then another 7 off in the distance. I know the photo looks kinda lame but it's really hard to get a good shot when the boat is moving and the whale is swimming away. deal with it.

I mapped out the boat route and where we saw most of the whales using Google maps
I hope people know that you can zoom in and out and move around with these maps
too see this route click here.

Today marks 2 months away from going home. It is going fast. I am really trying to make the most of it. Everyday i have off i try to do something fun.

Also tomorrow is summer solstice. Happy summer to everyone, the environment shapes our lives way more than we know. I hear it has been uncomfortably hot in MPLS. That's too bad suckers. ha ha. It was 75 here today (dry heat).
All for now-Chao

Herbert Glacier

A few days ago i was able to hike out to Herbert Glacier. This glacier is about 14 miles from downtown Juneau. This hike was my favorite yet. I went with 3 of my co-workers (LU, Curtis and Justin), as we were pulling up we saw a black bear running in to the woods, that was pretty cool. So the trail starts out really easy and then once we got close to the glacier it was pretty crazy. We were on some really rough terrain. We had to hike over a ton of huge boulders. I got some really nice pictures, we found some more ice caves, one that was huge and too steep to go in. The last photo is the ice cave in the back round and it is really dark and deep. I really wanted to explore in it though. We didn't get to go right up to it because we were on the wrong side of the glacier run-off, which is basically a rushing river. We couldn't cross the river because it was too crazy. So we are going to do it again and start on the other side of the run-off. Most of the glaciers around here are receding 70 feet per year, but the past few years it has been over 100 ft per year. I have been told stories (and been shown) of how much bigger the glaciers use to be by natives here. The hike was really challenging and fun. My co workers and i had a great time together. The sights are stunning and i really feel like i am falling in love with the landscape here. It feels like i have cravings to see the beautiful forest and mountains and everything around. I am connecting with it all.

Wish i had more time to write, gotta go
the Mountains are calling my name

Preserverence Trail

Today i had the day off. I have been wanting to hit some more hiking trails but most of the fun ones have too much snow on them still. Mount Jumbo and mount Juneau both have too much snow on them. So i decided to hike the Preserverence trail. Here is my route The Perseverance Trail is the former road/trail taken by miners working the Silverbow Basin Gold mine. This was a really nice easy hike. I got rained on the whole time and was somewhat cold by the end of it. It was about 50 degrees out and when your totally soaked that gets pretty cold. The area that the trail brings you to is where the city of Juneau gets its drinking water. The water is all glacier run off. The trail is basically on the inside of a horseshoe shaped mountain side. So when you get to the end there are just mountains everywhere except behind you. Really beautiful. There was a lot of fog and the clouds were pretty low. I got some good photos despite the rain. I didn't see any wildlife which was disappointing but thats how it goes. I kept my eyes out for mountain goats, i am told a lot of times you can just stare at a mountain for a bit and pick them out standing on ridges and clearings. There are supposed to be a lot of bears on the hike to the top of mount Juneau so i will see some then.

Also, I had been playing with the idea of picking up a second job...so last night i decided to grab some late night food at Doc Water's pub, i asked them if they were hiring, they said yes...and this morning i went in and got a job. Bar tending and serving, heck yea. This does mean i will be working a ton, but what ev. The staff seems really cool, better than at my other job. One of the managers is from Duluth and she knows people from MN work hard, definitely harder than the people from Juneau. Maybe thats why she hired me.