Mushers can sing too?

Life here in Juneau is still wonderful. We went through a little bit of a wet spell, I mean downright raining for days, but that is kind of what I expected here in Juneau. However that last couple days have been absolutely gorgeous!

We still haven't been in full swing with our tours, but we had a little taste of of it today. I think by the middle of next week we will be completely slammed. This ground operation is new so we have to make a name for ourselves with the "shore x's". Those are the people on the cruise ships that sell and schedule tours for the passengers. Different cruise lines have sent their shore x's to our tour so that they know what they are selling. I had the Holland American X's and I guess they were completely impressed. The Alaska icefield Expedition Sales Head said they really enjoyed themselves.

It has been intersting to apply my entertaining skills that I have learned from 20 years (gosh I hate that number) of serving and bartending, to my dogs, but I am really starting to get the hang of it. Its all such a show, but what a wonderful show it is. Its great to be able to spread my love of mushing to everyone. There are a couple of those that say, "Oh the poor dogs" and turn up their noses but I'm even starting to firgure out how to impress them too. I like the really enthusiastic ones the best. In fact just today I think I have permenantly planted the dream in the head of a 10 year old boy. He was determined to take one of the puppies home to start his own dog team. In fact I pushed it a little further, telling his parents how my parents had always supported my dream and look now I came all the way from new Jersey and I am living the life I dreamed. They were pretty excited about it too. I bet I'll see him somewhere on the race trail in 10 years!

We still have had some time to play. I am really getting to know everyone at camp. We have so much fun. One day we went out and played capture the flag in the pouring rain. It was a blast! We were running aroung the forest and the old gold mine buildings. It was pretty intense. Another day we played soccer up on our heilcopter landing pad which sits above camp. We got pretty competitive, though my team had an advantage between my previous coaching skills and Amanda's past soccer playing.

I have begun running down to the sheep creek trail head and back, which is about 3 miles. But the trip back is straight up and switch backs so I can only run about half of the way now and have to briskly walk the other. Sarah, Sean and I have all been practicing so by the end of the summer we will be able to run the whole thing.I think Matt is going to start running too. Everyone else thinks we are insane running up the side of a mountain. We keep trying to explain how much we like it but they aren't buying it.

Last weekend I met the lead musher from the glacier. His name is Johnny and he is running Sebastian Schenuelle's dogs. We went hiking around a really cool old growth forest. The trees had to have been 6 or 7 feet in diameter. There also were some twisted hemlocks. For some reason the grow in a spiral and look like they are made of a bunch of twisted cords. It was raining pretty hard so we went down town. I went to a bar and sang kareoke to prove to him that he should sing too because who cares, everyone else in the bar is probably from a cruise ship and we would never see them again. So in the middle of my song that I was completely belting out, and everyone in the bar was screaming and cheering I look up and who is sitting there but Jay Ramras. For those of that don't know him he was my boss for 4 years at Pike's Landing Restaurant in Fairbanks. He still owns Pike's but he is now also a legislator here in Juneau. So after the song he goes out of his way to say "Hi Abbie" and asks what I am doing in Juneau, like he ever cared what ws was doing before! He made sure that every person in that bar knew that he knew me. Probaly because a group of very attractive blond women were all over me telling me how great I was, I see he hasn't changed much! So much for my stranger theory for singing Kareoke.

So Juneau has kind of won me over with is ever changing tide of people that come in and drown the city and go back out to sea again. It makes it so everything is festive all the time. Even though I still feel like King Kong attacking Juneau when I drive my huge dog truck through the narrow streets of Juneau I am getting pretty comfortable. I still would rather spend my time in mountains or on the beach, which is what I will be doing today. I am going to drive all the way up to Bridget Point, where the road ends North of Juneau about 40 miles. I think we will hike around the point and camp out on the beach again, ahh the good life. Cosmos loves to try to bite the waves and its a great place for him to play fetch