After 15 days....

I have now been in Alaska for 15 days working and haven't had a day off! That's how it works up here as driver guides. You work based off of your hours that you have available and because Alaska has so much daylight, we are legally allowed to work up to 80 hours in 8 days. This is not true in the lower 48, where the legal limit is 70 hours in the same amount of days as commercial drivers. So, I've been in Alaska and working the entire time I've been here and absolutley loving it! The picture of the car going through the tunnel is an interesting fact about Ketchikan. It is the only tunnel in the world that you can drive through, around, over and UNDER! The other photo is a picture of the town from our drivers house. The building with the green roof is the Southeast Discovery Center which cost $7.8 million to build. The entire state of Alaska was bought for $7.2 million way back in 1867!

I don't even know where to begin. I think I've mentioned before that I lived in a house with 19 other drivers and we are all getting along pretty well. I have developed some close friendships with a few individuals and we have made it a goal that we will go for walks everyday after work, especially in nice weather and enjoy the town once the tourists are gone. Although the city isn't all that big, there are many different kinds of walks all throughout the area that we have explored so far. It's also a great time to see wildlife. Today I saw my first black bear and yesterday I saw two separate pods of orca whales that were traveling through the Tongass Narrows, the waterway that separates our island from the neighboring islands.

I have also had a chance to take advantage of the free tours that us guides have available. Although I haven't had a day off yet, one day I got off early and was able to go zip-lining through the rainforest canopy. For free. The tourists pay about 180 dollars to go on the same tour. So I am very blessed and lucky to have the job that I do.

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