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Before I can start getting checked out as a guide, I need to pitch five tarps, practice my "beach speech" five times, and try out five glacier talks. I discussed these glacier talks a little while ago in the context of thematic interpretation. I need to be prepared to give two different "glacier talks." The first is an introduction to glaciers, and the second is elaborating on that to feed into a theme. Imagine that I'm delivering these out on the water, in nearby Aialik Bay.

On our training trip, we all learned a ton. Much of that learning came from our peers. Sometimes that meant someone "flipping their boat" (jumping out of it) because they were left unattended on a launch. Sometimes it meant our friends feeling cold because we'd forgotten hot water. But one learning experience stands out as entirely provided by mother nature. We had an unplanned lightning drill on our third day. It was a nerve-wracking experience, but it also showed us how well our training prepared us, and brought us closer together through a shared experience.

Our season started yesterday! I was lucky enough to shadow a trip with Erin and Tyler, another new guide. We were told in no uncertain terms to sit back and let Erin do her thing. It's important for us to learn packing strategies, interpretation outlines, and client interactions before we dive in and try it ourselves. I was pretty surprised, though, at how hard it was to sit back and absorb. We're both just so excited about sharing some of the many things we've learned recently!

A few things I got out of this first shadow:

Yesterday night we got back to Seward from our five-day training trip. It's hard to describe how amazing this trip was. I learned a ton, practiced important skills, and generally forged intellectual and emotional connections to these amazing fjords we call home. I'm planning several posts about it – there's no way it would all fit in one! For now, I just want to set the scene and give a glimpse of how awesome it was.

At Kayak Adventures, we are proud members of One Percent for the Planet. That means we donate 1% of our annual sales to environmental groups in our area. To be clear, that's sales, not profits, which is a pretty big deal. Regardless of whether we actually make money, we donate 1% of the money guests pay us to Alaskan foundations. We have three that guests can choose between, and today we were able to visit one of them: the Alaska Conservation Foundation (ACF).