Eventful Weekend!

Happy Monday everyone!
I had a wonderful and very eventful weekend to launch me into a very long week of orientation. It feels funny to be going to work again, I must admit. Which is strange for me to be saying since it was something I was SO accustomed to, working all of the time. Even though I am in 8 hours of training in a classroom setting for 2 weeks it still feels good to be doing something again, and getting paid as well. I'm very much looking forward to learning more about my job, and finishing the training so I can go experience the real work.
Back to the weekend however... Friday we all went over to Beth and Josh's house, they just moved earlier in the day and already had things set up and had us over for a bbq. We ate delicious food, played ping pong in their yard, harvested so much rhubarb and had a great time. Saturday rolled around and Bekah and I chopped the rhubarb and then when Eric got home Eric, David, Ted and I went over to meet Josh and the 5 of us went rafting on the Eagle River. It is only about 15 minutes away from our house which is a crazy fact for all of us to realize. It feels so weird to head out and 15 minutes later be somewhere so wild and lovely where activities like that can take place. We had no idea we'd be gone for so long but we were "floating" from about 4:30 to 9... The start was slow. We essentially had to push and scoot our raft to get it moving in the shallow water, but it soon picked up and we had a very easy slow float for a good 2 hours. We hit some class 2 rapids for a while, though no where near long enough. Those are easy to get through, just some fun movement under the raft. I could have gone on like that a lot longer! Well it came time for the rougher waters to hit, in the book about the white waters in the area it said class 3+ rapids, and you have to get out and go scout the waters before you hit that section. It would be too dangerous if you didn't know what your action plan was, where exactly you wanted to aim etc. because the waters were to quick and rough to just luck out. So we got out and spent about 30 minutes scouting this section of water, Josh was not sure if we should go because he said there was a good chance one of us would be hitting the water and swimming back. No worries, because it would be a pretty quick swim as this was near the end, but also a VERY cold swim. He was the only one in a dry suit, though the rest of us were prepared enough we would have been ok. Anyway the trouble was that there was a huge log blocking the middle, and big rocks scattered about, so we had to decide how to get around the drops and such since we definitely didn't want to hit those, and decide whether we were going to try to go right or left of the log. Both were tricky because right was a little rougher, but left would have taken a LOT of work to get over there. Well we decided to go right, and luckily Josh was a guide a few years ago so he got back into that role and shouted commands and we made it. He said if we messed up we were outa there but it turned out very smoothly and it was very fun, and gave us all quite the rush. It felt good to get out of the water however, put dry clothes on, and head home for a very late dinner. Bekah and Beth had cooked dinner and made pie from our earlier work, and we had no clue we would be so late. Needless to say it felt good to have some food in our stomachs. Yesterday was also eventful. Eric went to work at REI and David and I had a very lazy start to the day, but when we all got back together we went for a little hike with Brian and the dogs. We went up to the air strip that is near Brian's house, and my gosh it was beautiful. It was an entirely different scene from the hikes we've been doing. It wasn't wide open at all, it looked like rainforest. So much bright green all around, wild flowers etc. We were walking along the trail and all of the sudden Brian comes to a hault... We looked through the trees and about 30 feet away from us was a healthy black bear looking at us. We grabbed the dogs (none of them noticed her which is a tad nerveracking! and surprising!) and we yelled for her to go. But she didn't seem to mind us, she just looked. So we just went on by and hiked up to the air strip on the peak. It was sunny and beautiful and we were sitting there resting when over our heads comes a little private plane busting off the strip. Scared us off our buts and then he came back around and waved. We walked back down and on our way we saw the bear again (this time she was at the bottom so we were no where near her) and we saw two little cubs tumbling after her. Of course, it was the ONE day neither Brian or I brought our cameras. Just our luck, and SO disappointing. When we got down to where they had been all the dogs smelled them and had a fun time searching around, and Finn so kindly came back up the hill with fresh bear poop smeared on his neck and head. He had taken a secret roll, so he got the hose down back at Brians. That was about it, we came home, went to bed early, and everyone went off to work this morning for the first time since we've been here. I hope I have not chatted everyone's eyes, off, but it was a very eventful weekend! We didn't catch photos of the two things I really wanted to, the rougher waters we went through, and the bears. Oh well, there will be more opportunities I hope. What I would give to see those cubbies up close...

That's all for now, we're off to my favorite dog park, and then some errands and relaxation. Ted and Eric are heading out late tonight to the Russian River a couple of hours away, to go fishing at the crack of dawn. Hopefully when they come back tomorrow afternoon they'll have some salmon for us :) Wish I could go.

Ciao!