The Sun Came Out!!!

THE SUN CAME OUT!!!

I wasn't sure if I was being drawn into "sucker patches" or not, but on the way into work this morning I held out great hope that the dense clouds and overwhelming dampness and rain that we have had every day for the past week would lift, and that the sun would shine again in Juneau.

By lunch time the promise of a beautiful day turned into a reality, the sun shined and the clouds lifted.

And by early afternoon the promise of what Juneau can be at its very best became a reality.  It was very warm, the sun was very bright and the sky was blue and very very beautiful.

I skipped lunch today (which hasn't been an unusual occurance since taking on two jobs over the past couple of months).  What was unusual was leaving work early and making my way Out the Road towards home, intending to find my Mountain Boy and go out to enjoy the heck out of the day.

We left the house with plans to go and sit at the Arboretum, but when we arrived we surprisingly found that it closed at 5pm.

Plan B - maybe stop at the Shrine of St Therese.  Plan C - drive further Out the Road to a rocky beach that you had to climb down to after stopping at an overlook.  And finally Plan D (when we found out that road work was going on and that we would have to wait for a lead vehicle for 15 minutes in order to be escorted through the road work) was to stop at Amalga Harbor.

Plan D turned out to be the best plan of all on this day, because we had an amazing time............

LC and I walked on a gravel road adjacent to the boat harbor, and the road (as I knew it would) took us to a beautiful rocky shoreline that overlooked the water and the Chilkat Mountains.

When we arrived we found these wonderful fishing boats doing what they were made to do.........unloading many pounds of huge salmon, first onto their own boats and then transferring their catch onto a company boat. 

I had never seen these kinds of sights before, and both me and my Mountain Boy spent a very long time enjoying the warm sunshine and the wonderful adventure before us.......

I miss the Chilkats when they disappear into the clouds and fog.  The mountains were out today..........

There were many Juneauites out enjoying the afternoon.  This fisherman standing alongside the shore, kids running and playing among the rocks.  Other adults walking their dogs and enjoying the same spectacle we were enjoying - the sun, the water, the mountains, the fishing boats...........

Sometimes Juneau feels like a crazy place with crazy people that I have to wade through on a daily basis. 

But this place......THIS PLACE.......is calmness and sanity.

As the salmon continued to get drawn tighter and tighter into the fishermens' net, we could see them jumping and thrashing inside the net trying to free themselves.

At one point we saw something jump out of the net before it was completely closed up and hoisted onto the boat.  And then we saw something else jump from the net, also just in time.  Two seals - feasting on fish while the getting was good, then making a successful dive for freedom.

They happily swam away from the net and from the boat.......

While we were still standing along the shore the first fisherman left, only to be replaced by another one soon after...........

I wrote it once before on this blog. We head out from the house simply intending to get out, enjoy the days regardless of the weather, and commune in some way with the nature that is all around us.

And every day we run unexpectedly into something wonderful that we did not expect.

While we were driving towards town over the weekend we saw a black bear run across the road in front of us. It was just on the other side of the ferry terminal - a 200 pound or so bear running easily and without being in a huge hurry, from a yard on one side of Glacier Highway to another yard on the opposite side of the highway.

It happened so fast and unexpectedly that there was no way to get a picture of it. When we looked back it was already gone.

Today we saw these fishing boats at Amalga Harbor.  We also took many pictures of huge salmon blocked from swimming up stream to the lake that feeds into the harbor.  We saw eagles, ate a ton of salmonberries that we picked while walking on a trail, and watched an old man having great fun on the lake while playing with his very very fast remote controlled boat.  All pictures for next time.

Alaska.  Juneau.  With beauty so overwhelming it can make you cry.