The Activities Begin

Today we took a two and a half hour river rafting trip down the Nenana River~ it was wonderful...through forests and canyons with great views of the surrounding mountains. The river water is glacial run-off and a constant 36 degrees year round even though today the air temp was 72 deg F. Because it is relatively close to the glacier the silt has not yet settled, making the water very murky and difficult for the guides to see obstacles, consequently, we were hung up on a large rock at one point which created a bit of excitement. We also took our first hike in Denali Park and got to see our first moose! (two actually, but what is the plural of moose?!)

We have been here a week now and Ron is still in training whereas Mary has worked 3 shifts as hostess in the Courtyard Restaurant. Amazingly I seated three Irish ladies, one of whom is from the tiny town of Edenderry where my mother was born and raised. We struck up a great conversation and I now have her address and am expected to keep in touch, and most certainly visit when next in Ireland (there seems to be a lot of guests from the U.K. and Australia).

Although we are regarded as "the old folks" we are finding our young co-workers to be very friendly, and this goes a long way to making our time here more enjoyable. In fact we shared our rafting boat today with a nice young couple from Bulgaria.

The social hours around our sleeping quarters seem to be between 9pm - 1am, making it difficult to get to sleep before then ~ because of the constant daylight it truly feels as though it is permanently 2:00 in the afternoon at all times (why we were advised to bring a flashlight heaven only knows).

Note: Still waiting for second bathroom to be operational!