Five Months And One Day

Yesterday I had a very long lunch in the sunshine downtown. 

For the first time I walked up the other side of the back hills of Juneau (as opposed to the Basin Road side that I have walked often, and that leads to mountainous trails such as Perseverance and Mt Roberts)

And finally I had a chance to see the Governor's Mansion.  Nice house.  Big house.  Pretty and old and well landscaped - all the things I would have expected in a mansion that is residence to the state governor......

One more totem pole in a town that is covered with totem poles and so many other native Alaskan icons.  I love them. 

I used to see them fairly often when I lived in Victoria BC, but that was many years ago and another lifetime ago - when I was young and ideal, and before children and divorce, and moves to New Brunswick and various places in Ontario and Tennessee and grown children and another divorce.

Nice old bike downtown......

And another look at the Governor's Mansion.  Somehow I managed to dodge the tourists enough to be able to take this picture.  With one more totem pole.

This is the road leading to the Governor's Mansion.  It is a beautiful road full of state buidings at first, but then eventually very old and stately residences, that are full of wrought iron fences, fancy water fountains in the front yard, and lots and lots (and lots) of beautiful flowers.

By the time I got to this place I could smell flowers everywhere.  It was really wonderful.  The smell of so many flowers, everywhere, in tandem with what was a truly beautiful, warm and sunny day, lightened my heart. 

This picture does not show it well, but by the time I reached this part of the walk there were literally thousands of wild flowers growing along the very tall rock retaining walls, and even more thousands of flowers and flowering bushes growing in people's yards.  Very very cool.

I found this bench while walking.  I notice it time after time when the weather is beautiful - a large number of small green spaces downtown, and people laying in the sun, sleeping in the grass in the sun, reading books and eating in the sun. 

For a city that is located in a regional rain forest, Juneauites worship and relish the sun whenever it appears.

I was at a training for a couple of days this week, it was near the end of the day, and all the participants were ready to be done.  The facilitators unexpectedly had one more exercise to present before springing us from our indoor classroom bondage. 

One member of the class finally yelled "Please hurry!  Don't you understand??  The SUN is still shining!!!"

We all understood exactly how she felt..........

One more museum - one more totem pole.....

My last stop before heading back downtown was to an outdoor gear store:

http://www.foggymountainshop.com/

It was expensive, and I had a long conversation with a nice man who was in a hurry to purchase a pair of trail running shoes.  The ones he was considering were very expensive, as was all of the gear in the store.

I mentioned that I usually buy my gear online, and even though I believe in supporting local businesses whenever possible, their gear was too expensive for me. 

He asked me where online I usually bought my gear and I gave him the names of three places.  By the time I was finished with my short list the shoe-guy was back with another pair of shoes. 

Judging from the look he gave me I decided to move on before I got kicked out.........   

I did buy a topo trail map before I left though - a very large comprehensive series of maps actually - that included all of the large hiking trails in the area.  Waterproof paper.  Looks something like a 1:60 scale.  Much more detailed than, and a good complement to, the Juneau trail books that I have used so regularly since I arrived here.

The state capital.........

I am getting on the ferry in a few hours and heading to Ketchikan.  My Mountain Boy is getting on the ferry in Bellingham tomorrow evening.  We'll meet up early Sunday morning in Ketchikan and finally travel back to Juneau together.

I left Tennessee five months and one day ago......