Beautiful Day and Beautiful Place

Today was a watery partly sunny and partly cloudy day, and warm enough that everyone who could find a way to be outside was out.  

It was a wonderful short sleeves day and people downtown were moving slowly - in no hurry to head back indoors to face structure and artificial light and tedious (or even interesting) work.  

There were people everywhere.  People walking, sitting on benches, laying on retaining walls and benches and grassy areas.  Reading.  Talking.  Laughing.  Napping.  Eating. 

Summers are so short in Juneau, and these hardy rugged people actively seek reasons to be outside.  And actively seek out reasons to put off the inevitable return to indoor life.

I also found reasons to be outside today - taking my time while travelling from one meeting to another. 

The beautiful eagle in the top picture was photographed at the salmon hatchery close to downtown.

I stopped at the hatchery this afternoon on the way back from a meeting in the Valley, trying to catch my breathe. 

Taking my time I walked down close to the channel and enjoyed the view of the mountains over on Douglas.  I never get tired of looking at them.  I never get tired of hearing them call my name, or of hearing them beckoning me to come walk -  high in the mountains and away from people and jobs and civilization.

I hope to get back into the mountains on Douglas Island again very very soon.

This morning I had a meeting downtown, and arrived early.  Looking for another excuse to be outside I walked over to Marine Park, checked out the three cruise ships that were in port and then looked out over Gastineau Channel.  Glistening water and noisy seagulls.  Snow capped mountains.  Pine trees and sun.

I also spent a few minutes enjoying the scene that was unfolding down on the dock beside the float planes.  A man throwing a ball and then a stick into the water, and his oversized Alaskan dog happily lunging into the water to retrieve the items.

Every time she jumped into the water and enthusiastically swam to and from the dock I smiled, and enjoyed watching this girl (Sadie) jump into the water over and over, never tiring of the game. 

And I laughingly watching Sadie's owner grab her by the collar to help her get up and out of the water.  It was a very nice, non-touristy, quiet and comforting sight down at the harbor.

Juneau is a beautiful town - rich in mining history, maintained well, and with a good deal of money and energy spent each spring in an effort to make the town beautiful, appealing and welcoming for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit this city each summer.

And the mountains..........the mountains.

I think back to the town I moved from just a few months ago.  A small rural middle Tennessee town that (as with many other small rural towns in Tennessee) is becoming mired in increasing unemployment, severe financial hardships, the loss of businesses and shopping...........

I cannot imagine ever living there again.

More pictures taken at DIPAC - the salmon hatchery located just a few miles outside of town. 

I stopped there on the way back from the Valley because I was putting off my return to my office.

Work has been demanding for weeks now with the loss of a full-time staff person, and I have spent these weeks literally running from one meeting to another, one project to another, putting out one fire after another.  No.......I was in no hurry to get back.

So I pulled into the hatchery on the spur of the moment to regroup before going at it again.  A quiet place close to town, that allowed me to do just that.

These three particular mountains seem to follow me (just as the glacier does) in many of my pictures.  I don't know the names of these peaks, but have come to think of them over these past 4 months as "the triplets".

Because Juneau is land-locked, almost everything has to be either flown in or (more commonly) barged in.  These are some of the storage containers that Northland uses to barge all manner of personal, commercial and industrial goods in to Juneau.

DIPAC hatchery.

http://dipac.net/index.html

After I had taken some pictures of the mountains and the hatchery I noticed that there was an eagle sitting comfortably on a post close to the visitors center.

The last time I stopped at this place it was an incredibly sunny day, and there was an eagle sitting on a post that I could walk right up to.  Even with this small digital camera I managed to take some wonderful pictures of this beautiful bird.

I could not get as close this time, but still love these pictures none-the-less.

There are eagles everywhere right now and I see many every day.  One more thing that I cannot imagine ever getting tired of.  They are extraordinary.

On the way home I stopped at Auke Recreation Area to take a walk.  Just to try and wind down.

I never regret stopping.  I am always reminded of how beautiful this place is, and how lucky I feel to have had the opportunity to experience it first hand.

I brought a sweater with me because I planned on walking to a point surrounded by wide-open channel.  I have been to this point twice and each time it was been very windy and very cold.

That was not the case today, and I ended up tying the sweater around my hips.  It was very warm.  And very beautiful. 

At the beginning of the point I came across this.  Another of those unexpected sights that made me smile. 

There is something almost alter-like about this - made up entirely of natural elements (shells, dandelions, twigs, rocks).  I love it.

This day was beautiful.  This place is beautiful.

My free-spirit youngest son called me tonight.  After he arrived back from Iraq a few weeks ago he drove up to New Brunswick to see his father.  He just got back to base tonight, having had a wonderful time catching up with another side of his family.

He is talking seriously about getting out when his 4 year contract is up at the end of this year.  And talking seriously about becoming a cop. 

I have not seen my youngest child in 18 months.  He is supposed to be here in a few months so I can show him Juneau Alaska.