More ALASKAN News

We've survived another couple of weeks in Alaska. We started our jobs here. Nathan is cooking (where he comes home covered in sweet and grease) and I'm a housekeeping supervisor (I just make the housekeepers work). The only thing that is good about it is we get the same days off. We are planning our first backpacking trip into the park for this tuesday and wednesday. We did our back country training which included a 30 min video and a talk with the park ranger. Whenever you stay overnight in the backcountry you have to register for a bear proof food container and a permit to be in a specific area in the park. You have to buy a map from the park (the kind with only lines that when they get closer it means that the terrain is getting steeper) and we have to mark off the restricted areas so we don't stumble into wolf dens. We took a long bus tour into the park and got to see some great wildlife. Our tour guide had this great zoom lens so we got upclose and personal shots. We saw bears, fox, dall sheep, carribu, snow shoe hair, magpies. We did spend a week in Utah. Nathans Grandpa died so we went home for the funeral and to support the family. Nathans grandpa was a really athletic man even into his 70's (He reminds me of Grandpa Baugh) He played basketball at BYU and Uof U. He served in the Korean war and played basketball for the Army, which was a great blessing, since he didnt have to fight. The Hale family will really miss him. On our way back to Alaska we had a long lay-over in Seattle, so we took a cab into the city and painted up the town. We saw Pike Market Place, the space needle (quick fact: in 1962 was built totall cost 4.5 mil. in 1996 they replaced the three elevetors cost 4.5 mil. and in 2000 the re-painted from top to bottom and the total cost was 4.5 mil. CRAZY!!!!), and walked along the boardwalk. We had a fun time. We are really getting into the routine of life here and having one adventure after another