Adventure Guides

My Alaska cruise
Was not a laid back,
Easy going,
Eat until you drop,
Type of trip.
A wide variety
Of rugged outdoor
Adventures
Were set up
To challenge us
At every port.
The guides
For those trips
Were all characters
In their own right,
And they obviously
Loved what they did.
Each one
Had a way of adding flavor
To our experience.
They weren’t rugged
Alaskan mountain men,
Not even the ones
Who led us ice climbing
On the Mendenhall Glacier.
They were all young
College kids
From somewhere
In the lower Forty-eight,
And that was
Their summer job.
It was certainly
One of the most
Exhilarating ways
I ever heard of
For a college student
To spend the summer
And finance an education.