I'll Take It

A couple of meetings this morning, a few more issues to tie up at work and now I am a free agent until Monday.

I stopped briefly at Twin Lakes on the way home - a now-frozen outdoor ice-skating and ice-hockey haven for Juneauites only a few miles from downtown, and located immediately off Egan Drive.

Heading closer to home I again stopped, this time at one of the docks close to the ferry terminal in Auke Bay.

I snapped pictures of both of these places on a warmer and still sunny early afternoon, and will post them over the next couple of days.

As I made my way down the hill from where I am currently parking my car near the house, I surprisingly ran into my Mountain Boy and Jamie walking in the snow.

I walked with them back up the hill and for a few minutes along the side of the road until we got the bright idea to grab the car and head out towards Eagle Beach.

Out the Road is absolutely covered in a layer of beautiful postcard-worthy snow, and when we pulled into Eagle Beach I was pleased to see that the water still looked as it did just a few days ago when Jamie and I were out there.

The tide was so high that again there was still very little beach, and with the wind blowing the water looked aggressive - strong and filled with animated waves that spoke of winter in Alaska.

We could see seagulls far out in the water balancing precariously in the wind on small remnants of sand dunes in the channel.

So DIFFERENT from what I am used to seeing. 

So different from what I have seen hundreds of times in hundreds of visits to this place over the past almost 12 months...........

He's back.

And Alaska does not seem like a cold and dark place anymore............

Even though it was early afternoon and the sky was bright and beautiful, and it was cold, the sun was already beginning to set over the mountains.

It is December 23 and the days are short.

But it is December 23 and every day from this point forward the days will continue to get longer.........

My Tennessee dog has turned into an Alaskan dog..........

One of the most beautiful, most accessible, most wonderful and wide open places in Juneau.......

The so familiar pine trees and mountain views across the channel at the Boy Scout Trail.........

With the tide so high and the waves crashing almost right up to the road there was no beach front to walk along.

We walked from where we parked the car down the long drive way, past the picnic shelter and then headed towards the river portion of Eagle Beach.

Again, I was stunned at the change to this place.

For the past 11 months there has been a trail and sand-filled place to walk beside the river, and then acres and acres of sandy beach.

Today there were only short snow-covered portions of land. 

Almost the entire area was filled with raging icy water - the river and channel now becoming one..........

Probably my favorite picture of LC that I have ever taken...........

We ate lunch at this picnic table over the summer, Jamie waiting patiently for one of us to toss a piece of something tasty her way..........

The Chilkat Mountains - all kinds of beautiful..........

I tried a few times during our visit to take pictures of the many flocks of geese that flew right over head.

My timing was always just a little off, but I'll keep trying to get that one picture that will have them all wonderfully centered in my lens.......

Walking from the beach and heading towards the river.

Land had all but disappeared and we were surrounded by water and ice and snow and the sound of only geese and crashing waves.

It was spectacularly beautiful, and I cannot describe how glad I was to have unexpectedly had this gift of a visit to Eagle Beach...........

LC and James standing along the shore beside a large chunk of ice from the river..........

In addition to us, there were a couple of other guys also walking on this beautiful day in the snow, also taking pictures of this beautiful place..........

One late afternoon during the summer LC and I walked hundreds of yards out onto the sand and walked among many hundreds of birds.

That was the same day that LC communed so closely with the eagle.

The day I took pictures of the eagle in full extension as he flew from the log in the sand where he had been sitting listening to LC talk quietly to him for a long time.

Where I took other pictures of ravens and seagulls and loons and eagles and other birds whose names I do not know.

This is what that same place looks like in the dead of winter on a cold and sunny afternoon just before Christmas.........

One more slightly-off-timing picture of geese in flight..........

We stayed at Eagle Beach until both of us had freezing cold hands, until we ran out of land to walk on, and until it was time to leave and go home for coffee and some warming up.

On the way home I looked out over the channel and realized that even though it was only 2:30pm the sun was indeed beginning to set.

We pulled off Glacier Highway on the way home, at an overlook close to the Shrine of St Therese, so I could photograph the sunset.............

Tonight we drove back into town to share a Christmas meal with some co-workers of mine.

I ate too much, actually laughed and meant it, and feel good about life at this very time.

As I write this Jamie is sleeping while resting on one of my legs, and I am typing this while balancing my lap top on the other leg (with me trying not to smack her in the head with the corner of my computer).

She has 2/3 of the couch as is usual.

LC is sitting channel surfing between football highlights and some comedy movie on TV and this crazy, tough, strange year is almost over.

My life feels good at this very time.

I'll take it..............