Whittier is a town of 250 people. The whole town lives in an apartment building called the BTI. In it is everything we need, Kozy Korner, the convenience store. The post office, trash, laundry and 311 the apartment I now call home. Internet kind of sucks we’re always having to restart our router. I have the most breath taking view of the mountains and ocean out my bedroom windows.
There are 12 members on the Phillips crew that I work and live with. They come from Mane to Texas and Callie.
We start our days around 8 or 9. Head to the dock to clean and restock the boat. Around 10:30 we take an hour lunch break to come home and change into our uniforms. White button down, black pants and shoes, ascot, epaulets, name tag and Phillips cruise red jacket. We get back to the boat at 11:30 and welcome passengers aboard. Our big boat is the Klondike and it runs a 5 hour tour serving lunch and fresh baked cookies! The Glacier Quest is a smaller boat and only holds about 150 people. The GQ is where I normally work, we take it out for 3 hour tours. Seeing Mountain goats, black bears, kitty wakes, dall porpoises, humpback whales, bald eagles, sea otters, harbor seals and up close glaciers! Our boats are small enough to get with in a 1000 feet of the glaciers. The water becomes filled with huge pieces of ice that have crumbled off the glaciers, you can hear them cracking and the heart shaking boom when huge pieces of ice break off into the water.
When we get into the icy water we go to the stern of the boat and fish for a few huge pieces of ice to put on display and chop up for drinks on the way home.
Its fun work, getting to talk to people, take their pictures and point out wildlife.
I get one or two days off a week. I’m still finding things to do here... I need to pick up some new hobbies. Most of the hiking trails are still covered in many feet of snow. I’ve been writing, reading, drawing and cooking a lot.
At the end of the day we all come home and hang out, talk, watch a movie or make a big dinner together. The crew already feels like a family. I am really happy here, it’s going to be a great summer!
