Some People Walk In The Rain

On the way home from work tonight I pulled off Egan Drive on the spur of the moment, not quite ready to head straight home, and drove down to DIPAC - the fish hatchery.

Over the summer this place was packed with long lines of tourists, and the place was decorated with hanging baskets.

Tonight the place was completely abandoned and empty.

A shell of its former summer self when the place was buzzing with excited visitors to our town.

The weather was awful. 

It has been raining very heavily all day, and the winds have been blowing mightily.

At the end of the day, and on the way home, the rain had slowed to a drizzle but the winds were still incredibly strong.

Generally a cold, wet, windy and miserable sort of Monday.

Regardless, I had this place to myself, and the weather did not dampen my enjoyment of this now-quiet place and of being outside after being stuck in front of a computer and a calculator for most of the day.

I parked by this ramp leading down to the water, fought the wind to open and then close my car door, and began to make my way down to the water...........

As I started down the ramp I excitedly realized that I was not as alone as I thought.

Late in the spring, on a very beautiful and wonderfully sunny and warm day I headed down this same ramp and snapped pictures of an eagle resting comfortably on top of one of the posts at the end of the ramp.

On that very warm day I very slowly made my way down the ramp, snapping pictures every few feet and wondering when I would finally scare the eagle into flight.

Surprisingly I made it all the way down to the bottom of the pole, and took more pictures of my eagle, who by that point was only 15 feet directly above me.

He knew I was there.  But he was comfortable and safe up high, and was unperturbed by my presence.

Tonight, in this awful weather I only made it half way down the ramp before my unexpected companion decided that he did not want to mess with me, and took flight............

I was disappointed that my eagle from tonight decided to leave so quickly, but as I continued down the ramp I noticed yet one more eagle on top of a perch on the opposite side of the dock.

I excitedly slowed my walk down, trying hard not to disturb this second unexpected companion.......

Unlike my spring eagle, my two late fall eagles were not sitting quiet and contededly in the sun.

These eagles of tonight were fighting the high winds and constant rain.

The second eagle of my trip allowed me to make it down to the bottom of the ramp before he also decided that I was too close, and he also flew away........

Too grainy and too zoomed in, but I like this picture anyway.........

I watched this second very beautiful eagle for a few minutes, ducking and diving and fighting the wind gusts.

He was lovely to watch, and I both relished the sight of him and was jealous of the freedom he must have felt in the air..........

Choppy water, rush hour traffic, Juneau and Douglas mountains, rugged and angry sky, and the Juneau-Douglas Bridge...........

The fish hatchery.  One of these days I'll take a walk through this place. 

I almost made it there in the spring, but elected that beautiful sunny day to take the tramway up to the top of Mt Roberts instead.............

The Juneau Empire (the city's daily newspaper) office with an American flag blowing in the high winds..........

This beautiful bear statue is located directly in front of the DIPAC building.........

When I was here in the spring I saw many many fish fighting their way upstream at this place.........

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. ~  Roger Miller