Sucker Patch

This is the same boat harbor that LC and I visited last weekend, when it was beautifully sunny and warm outside.  The sky was blue on that day, the water was gorgeous, and people were out in short sleeves fishing, boating, walking, loving the opportunity to be outside.

The weather was very very different on this visit, but I look at the picture above and I realize that there is an untamed, rough-around-the-edges beauty about it.  I like this picture....

Today is the third straight day of rain, but by the end of the day the skies were just beginning to clear a bit.  Maybe.

When we were both on the ferry Columbia, on the way home together from Ketchikan almost two weeks ago now, LC and I saw a small blue patch in the sky and someone called it a "sucker patch". 

We looked at the woman and asked curiosly what a sucker patch was.  It is that one small blue patch in the sky that suckers you in and makes you believe that the weather will clear. 

Oh look!!  There's blue sky!!!  It's gonna be nice out!!!..............I have fallen for it time after time after time since arriving in Juneau.  

Yup. Sucker patch indeed. :-)

Weather watching and weather guessing is a favorite Juneau pastime.  Someone from work said to me the other day that by Friday there was only a 20% chance of rain in the forecast.  "That means it's going to be sunny" he said.  Such is weather forecast interpretation in Juneau. 

I met my Mountain Boy at Statter Harbor in Auke Bay after work today.   And we walked in the drizzle - talking, wandering, winding down before thinking about heading home.

We watched these two eagles fly in circles around the harbor a couple of times together before landing.  They are obviously mated together, and stayed on these posts for the entire 45 minutes or so that were there - resting on their high perches and all the while talking with each other.

As much as I love taking pictures when everything is obviously calm, beautiful and blue, there is something very serene about these almost black and white pictures - this harbor, as with every trail, park, beach, mountain I have seen since I arrived, looks different to me every single time I see it. 

Another rainy day, but the harbor was very calm.

I returned to the craziness of my workplace this week.  Still doing two jobs, as I have for the past two and a half of the five and a half months I have worked here.  Still trying (and mostly, but not always completely succeeding) to hold everything together until we can hire another manager.

Thankfully we are almost to that point. 

My hope is that soon my work will return to a state of normal disorganization, instead of the precarious and sometimes overwhelming disorganization of the past while. 

My Mountain Boy has been left to his own devices during the days this week, and has taken a few days to rest and a few days to explore.  He is beginning to find his way around, and knowing him as I do, soon he will know where things are better than I do. 

This weekend we plan on taking in some of Juneau's Gold Rush Days over on Douglas Island:

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After leaving Statter Harbor we stopped briefly close to the ferry terminal and then Lena Beach on the way home.  More pictures for another day........

Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think. ~ Robert Henri

Skaters Cabin

When I was living in Ontario Canada and the boys were young, I remember going to the lake with them in the dead of winter.  I was single at the time, the boys were quite young, and we went on the spur of the moment one weekend day when the weather was calm, it was cold and there was a ton of snow on the ground.

The three of us walked along the shore, built a snowman, climbed some snow hills, and took a lot of pictures before heading to a petting zoo at the lake, where the boys happily fed the goats with food they got out of a small vending machine - handfuls of goat food for a quarter.

At one point while still walking in the snow my camera fell out of my jacket pocket, and the three of us spent more than an hour searching in that snow for my camera.  Surprisingly we did end up finding it.

When I look back on that time and place, I realize now how much I have always loved going to outdoor spaces at times that are quiet, and that usually do not draw a lot of people.

Like to the lake in Canada in the middle of winter.

Like running on trails in Tennessee when the sky is full of freezing rain and I joyfully know that I have the woods and the entire trail system to myself because no-one else wants to be outside in such crappy weather........

It has rained hard and non-stop in Juneau for the past 48 hours - more continuous and hard rain than I have seen in all of the five and a half months that I have been in Alaska.

I have changed my routine in the past couple of days - going straight home after work and not stopping......somewhere.......to do something outside. 

I have decided that I like my regular routine better.

I have found through experience over these past months that being outside centers me and slows down (or at least helps to slow down) my speeding brain.

After work this afternoon I met my Mountain Boy in the Valley for pizza at Bullwinkles.  Cheap pizza - OK pizza - but I am finding that after living on cereal and sandwiches for so many months I just cannot bring myself to eat a lot of "real" food anymore. 

Part of the problem is that I am not used to eating so much food, and part of the problem is that I have not worked out in almost three weeks.  I am feeling heavy, weighed down and out of shape right now.  I need to do something with that..........

After we finished dinner we began to head home in the pouring rain, and (of course) on the spur of the moment I pulled off Glacier Highway in Auke Bay and onto the Back Loop towards Montana Creek and the Skaters' Cabin.  My Mountain Boy followed me in his truck.

Skaters' Cabin is a stone park cabin located along Mendenhall Lake, close to the West Glacier Trail.

It is right on the water, and overlooks the lake, the glacier, small icebergs that have calved from the glacier, and is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

It was cold.  It was pouring with rain.  And it was just great.

After we left the Skaters' Cabin we headed further Out the Road, and made one more stop at Auke Village Recreation Area before heading home. 

There are a couple of small three-sided wood and stone enclosures at this place, but the one I wanted to show LC was occupied, and we sat on a picnic table overlooking the water under the second enclosure instead.

The first one has a huge fireplace along the entire length of one wall, and everytime I have seen it over the past few months I have pictured me and LC sitting there enjoying a huge fire on a cool night.  I hope that we get to do that one night soon. 

The one that we occupied for a short time today contains a smaller fireplace, as well as a firepit outside.

We sat and watched the ducks, the lone otter who playfully appeared then disappeared regularly during our visit, and all of the small and large/fast and slow boats that were still on the water today regardless of the weather.

A good part of the trail at Auke Village Rec Area is an open and easy gravel walkway, which eventually turns into a moss-covered easy-on-the-joints dirt and root covered trail.  All of this eventually leads to this point jutting further out into the channel.

I walked out to that point the second day that I was in Juneau.  It was very early in January, some of the trail was covered in ice, and it was very windy and cold. 

By the time I wandered aimlessly out to the point and looked around me to see stunning mountains and seemingly endless channel, I remember standing in the cold and wind wondering what the hell I was doing so unexpectedly in Juneau Alaska.

My Mountain Boy was in Tennessee.  I was in Alaska.  I had no idea how this was all going to work out.....how I was going to like Juneau or my new job......whether or not LC would come on board for the ride.....wondering what we were going to do with our house down there......overwhelmed by questions, doubts, homesickness, the logistics of moving so far to such an isolated place.  Not really sure if this was truly the right thing to do.

Much has been resolved since that day in early January.  Some of it still has not.  But I am still "Living the Adventure".  

Different....But Good Different

Jamie's two favorite spots in the house are being curled up on the couch, and being curled up at the end of the bed.....

Over the past week we have unloaded two trucks, visited with LC's brother Gary before he headed home to Minnesota, gone to and explored some of my favorite places in Juneau, and have begun to get used to living close to each other again.

My Mountain Boy and my dog have been a tight duo over the past five months down in Tennessee. 

And I have gotten very used to living alone. 

I'm not used to the dog hair, and the noise, and the dishes and the trash, and the seemingly non-stop cooking and eating.

It will take me some time to get used to living with others around me again.  It's different.  Not bad different.  Just different.  Some of it is unsettling and some of it is very very nice.

Gary and LC out at Eagle Beach Out the Road.  I think that this beach has become LC's favorite place that he has seen so far.  I fully understand why.......

We have been to the End of the Road twice since my Mountain Boy arrived in Juneau.

The first time we were there the weather was very cloudy and cool, and we did not have to share the beach with anyone else. 

We went for a drive a couple of days ago and the weather was very warm and sunny.  There was a lot of people, and a lot of noise - picnicers, fishermen, ATV drivers, kids running and playing, motorcycle riders.........I liked it better when the weather was cloudy and cool. 

I have not done any real exercise for over two weeks now, and feel a strong need to head out onto either trails or go up into the mountains. 

This skeleton was sitting exactly where I pictured it, and I have to assume that it washed up on the rocks when the tide came in. 

I am not sure exactly what it is, but think it may be a dolphin skeleton (?) based on the shape of the tail.

Taken at one of the overlooks on the way home from driving Out the Road to the End.

Since my Mountainn Boy arrived in Juneau we have seen a bear, eagles, otters, seals, whales, ravens. 

He is enjoying these experiences as much as I have greatly enjoyed them over these past months. 

And I am enjoying sharing these experiences with him.

Gary and LC at Rayco Gun Shop in the Valley.........

LC being his happy inquiring self in a type of store that is so familiar to him.........

Amalga Harbor.

The last time I visited this place the tide was low, and I could walk easily from one point to the other.....

A very beautiful and very peaceful place close to home.

There is a small seasonal restaurant open right now down at Statter Harbor in Auke Bay called The Bite Shop.

They make burgers from scratch, have awesome fish and chips, and tables situated both inside and out.

We have eaten at this little summer restaurant a couple of times over the past week, while sitting outside enjoying the day.

When it is sunny and warm out, when the eagles and raven are out, and when the water and sky is bright blue and the way-cool boats are heading in and out of the harbor, hanging out at the harbor and walking along the pier is a great way to spend an hour.

I have walked this place many many times alone.  It is strange to finally be able to share it with my guy. 

Another one of those things that feels strange right now......good but very different.

Fishermen young and old standing along the pier enjoying the day.............

After we dropped Gary off at the airport on Sunday, we took a drive over the Mendenhall Glacier.  It was early (about 7am), promising to be another beautiful sunny day, and we took our time enjoying this place while it was dead quiet, and before the bus loads of cruiseship passengers predictably invaded the area.........

LC cleaning and oiling guns on the porch at the house.....

At the End of the Road again on Sunday late afternoon.  This guy had caught this fish from a small boat using only a small rod and reel.  Good stuff.

On the way back to the house we stopped at an overlook for what was supposed to be just a brief reprieve, before moving on.  We ended up sitting on a rock close to the edge of the drop-off for almost an hour, watching the mountains, the birds, the whales, and the fishermen.

There were many many commercial fishing boats sitting in the calm water for the first day of salmon fishing.

This boat was close to where we were sitting, and we watched him lay out his gill net.

We had also been watching two seals swimming happily in the same area, and as were getting ready to leave we caught a glimpse of the boat, one of the seals, and heard sharp voices.......

One of the seals was joyfully swimming around the net eating up as much fish as he could eat.  Such fun to watch this whole thing unfold - the seal swimming in circles and jumping a little out of the water whenever he got himself a fish.  And the fishermen running their boat in circles trying to scare the little guy away!

I can't begin to really describe how much "nature" I have seen since I arrived in Juneau - things I either have never seen before, or have only seen in zoos........

Mountain Boys' Trip Across Country - Part 3

When the ferry docked in Ketchikan a middle aged man who I had never met before surprisingly approached me as I was waiting outside the terminal, and asked if I was Karin.  I told him that I was, and he told me that LC was getting Jamie out of the vehicle, and would be ashore soon.

His name was Buc, and he is from Petersburg.  A fisherman.  And he and LC struck up a friendship somewhere between Bellingham and Ketchikan.

LC has a way of doing that, and as predicted, although I was pleased that I had even made the effort to carry on brief conversations with a couple of passengers on my ferry down, he on the other hand had easily struck up extensive conversations with many people on his trip to that point.

By the time we arrived in Juneau I had been introduced to a bunch of people, who told me that they had heard a lot about me.  And my Mountain Boy had exchanged emails and phone numbers with many of them.

I look now at the pictures that he took on his trip before he reunited with me in Ketchikan, and they are absolutely beautiful. 

LC bought his digital camera not long before he left Tennessee.  Taking pictures can become a newfound source of great enjoyment.  It did for me, and after looking through the 1300 pictures that he took on his very long journey across country, it did for him as well.

When LC left Bellingham it was a beautiful afternoon, and turned into a beautiful evening.  The rain, high winds and white caps that I hit on the way down to Ketchikan did not reach the Columbia ferry until sometime overnight that first night.  In the meantime, I truly love his ferry sunset pictures.......

My Mountain Boy has now been in Juneau for almost a week. 

In that short time we have seen a young bear, many eagles, many whales, many sea otters.  Mountains - trails - glaciers - rivers - lakes - more - much much more.  And we are beginning to find our way around each other again.  We have missed each other so much......

So far he loves it here.  Yesterday and today were very very sunny and very warm and we have spent much time outside - choosing to explore and experience, rather than unpacking the multitude of boxes that are sitting unopened downstairs.

Very warm and very sunny days require enjoyment.  There will be plenty of days to unpack belongings.

And after the past few months, I sincerely hope that he can now really slow down and relax.

His brother, although he speculated with us that he may stay up here for at least the summer and possibly for good, is now already back in Minnesota.  A man who needs something that he has never been able to find.  I think that he thought he may find it in Juneau, but that was not the case.  As the saying goes "no matter where you go, there you are". 

Alaska is not a place to run from things.  It is a place to run to with open arms. 

Gary found Alaska to be a beautiful, peaceful place.  He said a number of times in the few short days that he was here that he had "found paradise".  I know that he had a great trip across country, and a wonderful few days here visiting with us.........

And Jamie has already made a break for freedom twice in the past week.  The second time was today when she surprisingly climbed out of an open window in the living room right after we left the house.  She climbed onto the couch, climbed out the window, walked along a tin roof and jumped about 12 feet down to the ground.

Apparently she ran down the gravel road until she responded to a neighbors' calls to her.  Our neighbor brought her back to the house for us, and closed her in on the porch which is where we found her when we got home about three hours later. 

After reading our neighbors' note and calling him to thank him for bringing our puppy home, we realized that we are going to have to come up with some kind of system to keep our dog in one place so that she does not run off.

I guess that she just wanted to be with us - but I am grateful as hell that she did not break her legs, or her neck, or get lost.

Climb through a window, walk along a tin roof, jump 12 feet down to the ground, and rescued by a good samaritin neighbor..........it sounds like a freakin' movie.

The ferry terminal in Auke Bay right outside of Juneau, at about 4am last Monday morning.  It was a lovely morning.

I have walked around this terminal many times - taking pictures of the ships, boats, birds, mountains, sky, channel.  It was a good day to come home with my Mountain Boy.....