It’s been a long time since I’ve driven, and during my last contract I didn’t drive at all for the entire 8 months. Well I just had the opportunity to drive what is called an Adventure Cart! It’s like a dune buggy, and it’s extremely fun. Apparently they are modeled after an Israeli attack vehicle that can go up to 100 mph and has a machine gun on the back. Well mine only went about 20 or 25 mph and didn’t have a machine gun. Oh well, it was still fun.

Also, besides getting to drive something, I had some AMAZING food last week. We had a team meal at this Italian Mexican restaurant. Being in Alaska however, they had some really great crab. So I ordered King Crab. One pound. That’s a lot of food. I also ate clam chowder, some spaghetti, garlic bread, meatballs, and some kind of desert. I don’t know how to spell it, but it was something like baclava. It’s a Greek desert and it tastes great. So that was lunch around 2. Then a couple hours later at 5:30 I went to the Pinnacle Grill on the ship for dinner with Niamh. If you’ve ever eaten at the Pinnacle you know that it’s extremely good food, and they also give you large proportions. I ordered some kind of beef. It turns out it was on a kabob, and the way they prepared it was really interesting. They held it up on a plate and then literally poured fire over it. I don’t know what it was doused in, but the fire just kind of fell onto the kabob and the whole thing went on fire and then went out. It was super tender and very tasty. I almost finished it even after that whole pound of crab meat just a few hours earlier.

Anyways the Alaska season is still going great. Time is going pretty quickly though. The season is already half over and it seems like we just started. We’re making lots of money, significantly better than last season. When we leave and go to Australia it will be much less, but I’m really looking forward to going to that part of the world.

It’s kinda like saying “The road is smooth except for where it’s bumpy.” Well that’s what my life is like right now. I’m going to all the same places in Alaska as last year, and I even have the same boss. There are several other people on this ship that are the same from the Ryndam. But boy is life different. It’s so strange to think that I’m sitting on a park bench next to the Skagway library, doing exactly the same thing as a year ago. It feels so normal to be doing this and yet I would never in a million years have thought that this is something that I would have been doing. Last year at least it felt weird to be doing this. hahaha.

I don’t plan to go on so many excursions this year – last year I went on like half of them. There’s just a few that I wanna go on now that I wasn’t able to hit last year. So dad I’m sorry but there prolly won’t be all that many photos from Alaska this year. I do expect some though of course. Next week I wanna go on the Bering Sea Crab Fishing tour. Apparently there are hundreds of eagles that come around trying to catch the crabs that get thrown back into the water. Tino went on it last year and got some awesome photos. I want that.

Here’s a photo of some downright beautiful people. From left to right it’s Dorrance, Beth, Hana, Amber and Zach. Unfortunately Beth, Hana and Zach have all finished their contracts and are now either on vacation or on another ship. Dorrance and Beth were both with me on the Ryndam. It’s likely that as long as you’re working on ships you’re gonna meet someone you know on your next ship. And the longer you stay on ships the more people you start to know.

Well I’m back to Alaska. To be precise I am sitting in a Mcdonalds in Ketchikan enjoying the free wifi. I received my replacement camera and lens in the mail when I got to Juneau. Thank goodness! I was really getting tired of that backup camera because it just wasn’t quite up to snuff and it’s not good to have bad photos when you’re in the business of selling photos! Anyways my new one is here and it’s so nice.

Although Alaska can get really annoying and very cold and frustrating when you’re half way through the season and just tired of life being so crazy all the time, right now it feels very nice and familiar. I was at all these ports so much last year that it almost feels like home.

One of our photographers went home as it was the end of his contract, and we got two new ones on board. Our team is really good right now and I expect we’re gonna have a really great season.

In case you haven’t seen them all yet, the remainder of my Asian photos have been posted to my photo gallery. Enjoy!

I’ve never done one day twice before, but there’s a first for everything. We crossed the international date line last night and at midnight it went from May 11th to May 11th. So I’m currently in the middle of doing the same day twice. The ocean is super rough and I think most people are sick. It’s supposed to be formal night tonight, but we’re only going to be setting up one studio. Bering Strait….yikes.

Well I do have an update for my address while I’m in Alaska. It is as follows:

MS VOLENDAM – Ian Kee – 77538
Cruise Line Agencies
1330 Eastaugh Way #4
Juneau, AK 99801