Life Is Good In Dog World

Today was a very long day.

Three meetings - but it was sunny out.  Sort of.  And warm.  Sort of.

Sunny and warmer than it has been for what seems like a long time, and in between meetings I walked by the water downtown and took these pictures.

There were some walkers and joggers out enjoying late fall sunshine, but not many. 

I am very glad that the streets and parks and ramps and boardwalk are quiet right now, because I need quiet right now.

And so I took my time, walking slowly, looking at the watery sometimes very blue and sometimes cloudy-blue sky, and the mountains that were all around me and now with a light covering of snow............

The ramps and piers and many building rooftops downtown are now covered with seagulls, and there is something soothing about the high-pitched noises that they make.........

Snow covered mountains behind the Goldbelt Hotel where I stayed during my interviews just a little over a year ago...........

There is a ramp right across Egan Drive from the Goldbelt that has never been unlocked in the 10 months that I have been here in Juneau.

So today, when I surprisingly saw that the gate was unlocked and wide open, I walked down that ramp to view downtown Juneau from this new and different perspective.

As usual, as beautiful as the mountains are over on the Juneau side, I stood on this side of the channel looking in awe at the mountains over on Douglas Island.

On a beautiful sunny day downtown this place is stunning - a place where (as someone said to me one day) you could drop your camera and still take a good picture.

Walking to the end of the pier I was again reminded that I am always trying to get closer to the mountains.

And so I walk to the end of piers, and the end of beach fronts, and the End of the Road, and when the opportunity arises sometimes I even make it up into those mountains...........

The boardwalk from a distance..........

Still standing on the usually-gated pier looking back towards Juneau..........

The Coast Guard station is right next door to this pier, and on this sunny day I watched for a few minutes as two Coasties busily cleaned and organized one of their vessels..........

After parking at the Sub-Port next to the Coast Guard station and then spending a few minutes on the pier, I continued slowly walking the few blocks further into town.

I am always surprised how different this town can look depending on what is happening in the sky.

I have seen fog so dense that Douglas Island was completely invisible. 

Clouds so thick weaving in and out and around the mountains that it looked like the mountains were on fire.

Days where the sun was shining so brightly and the sky was so blue, that everything looked like it was sparkling.

Winds and rain so strong that everything around me just looked ominous and foreboding.

Skies so dark and water so choppy that it seemed like the world was just.......angry.

Today was just calm and quietly pretty..........

Eventually I made it to Marine Park.

No more weekend concerts or marine festivals or people reading and lunching and visiting and sleeping on the grass.........

Heading towards the boardwalk with Douglas in the background..........

The three mountains that I nicknamed The Triplets a few months ago.........

More pictures taken while travelling the boardwalk.........

My youngest son's last day in the Air Force was Friday, and on Saturday he called me from Connecticut while he was on the road, driving to New Brunswick.

I asked him to call me anytime, but to definitely call me when he made it to NB to let me know that he had made it in one piece.

He did not call, and I have left a voice mail message to CALL HIS MOTHER.

No word yet.

Since I have not heard otherwise I will make the assumption that he is OK, but will continue to try to connect with the boy...........

Jamie did fine on her first full day alone and I took her for a walk after work.

Since the clocks turned back this past weekend it is now dark by the time I get home, but my dog does not care.

We did not walk far, and again she does not care.

She ate part of my sandwich tonight when we got back to the house, and life is good in dog world............

Marine Park

I love this place.

I love everything about it - everything that it is in the summer when the tourist hordes overtake the area, and everything that it is throughout the rest of the year..............