Bookend Ferry Terminal Pictures

Fisherman at Auke Lake

This morning was a most beautiful morning.  When it is sunny - completely sunny - there are mountains (both snow capped mountains off in the far distance and "closer" mountain ranges) that suddenly become visible and seem to come out of nowhere.  Whenever the skies are clear, I am constantly stunned.  I see mountains and all I can think is "THAT'S new - I've never seen that before!").

On my drive to work this morning I saw the ferry in the bay close to the terminal, and felt compelled to stop for a few minutes and take some pictures.  Juneauites learn to welcome the sun when it arrives, just because there is no sure way of knowing for sure how long it will stay out, and how long it will be before it again makes an appearance.

When I first started to walk down the ramp there were dozens of seagulls perched on the rail.  Unlike the ravens I run into downtown that have a bad attitude (I scared three of them off my car hood the other day - and have actually seen one raven drag an entire bag of garbage across the street unaided) seagulls are skittish and scare away easily.

The view from the end of the ramp is unbelievable - magical - astoundingly beautiful.

While meeting downtown today I took a picture of this strange little vehicle operated by the Downtown Parking Nazi. 

I am lucky enough to have access to free parking, but those who work in downtown proper either have to utilize the parking garage or the hard-to-find and highly coveted free 1-hour parking spots.  A number of my colleagues play what is unaffectionately known as the "one hour shuffle" - parking in one spot for an hour, then moving their car to another spot for an hour, then another.

After a meeting this afternoon I stopped in at the Heritage Coffee Shop downtown, for coffee and one of their really great oversized muffins.  Surprisingly the shop had a folk singer entertaining the customers, and I sat and listened to him for a short while.  He was very good and it was.........nice.....to have him there.

Throughout town this week there has been a big annual spring event known as the Alaska Folk Festival taking place. 

http://www.akfolkfest.org/index.php

Between being very busy with work and other obligations, I have not really had time to be able to enjoy my first AFF.  I plan on changing that tomorrow - meeting some colleagues after work for beer and then heading to the Convention Center to take in some of this wonderful free event.

A link to many wonderful examples of the AFF on Youtube:

http://www.akfolkfest.org/yt.php

A couple of pictures on Egan Drive (which turns into Glacier Highway somewhere around the Valley)

Even though it was cold, after work and on the way home I stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures of Auke Lake.  I walked on the trail at this place early last week, and the lake still had a thin layer of ice on it.  No more.

This is the long metal and rubber bridge that connects one part of the trail with another.  With the ice gone the area now feels very different.

I stopped early this morning to take pictures at the Ferry Terminal, and stopped again at the end of the day and on the way home to take a couple more.