As always, I am behind in my posting. The spring and summer weather in Juneau, and Alaska in general has been amazing. Some would say too hot with high temperatures into the mid 80s here in Juneau. It seems this type of wonderful weather only comes around every 5 years or so. The next year too follow is usually warm too, but then the year after is very wet! We will have to see what happens.
After our vacations, I remained really busy with traveling all over SE AK for work from Gustavus, Glacier Bay, Sitka, Port Alexander, Pelican and Taku Inlet area in late May and early June. Almost every trip was full of sun the whole time. The most eventful trip was the brown bear in Glacier Bay. Surprising I was able to get a clear picture thanks to image stabilizer on the camera. My time in Sitka was a great history lesson about the Russia's time in Alaska and SE Alaska native culture.
When, I was in town I was pretty busy visiting multiple cruise ships. Not much down time to work on projects around the house while Xander was living it up in GA and keeping his grandparents very active. David and I did find some time to enjoy the break with a few outings to the movies and downtown Juneau.
In early June, Xander came home and my parents stayed with us for a week. They finally got to see Alaska together for the first time. Of course, they enjoyed every minute of putting 31 candles on my birthday cake, and I enjoyed eating my ice cream cake.
Xander had grown taller, talked more and changed so much in the 4 weeks he was away from home. He is about 3 feet tall now and weighs 32 pounds. Xander now is good at telling us what he wants to watch, and he really enjoys the pink elephants in Dumbo.
With all the sun, we enjoyed a lot of time playing outside as a family and going to the city park. Like all sunny periods in SE AK, they have to come to an end with some rain.
I had to add another trip on to my list this summer and go to Hoonah for 1/2 day (no complaints here). This time the trip was not full of sun-- more like clouds and rain. The flight was a bit more bumpy than I would have liked. It was a nice little town that averages a population around 800-1000 people and has the highest Tlingit native population in the state. While I was there, I got to see a humpback whale--no pictures through. The next day I had to go inspect Coast Guard Cutter ships in port. Enjoyed seeing a NOAA weather buoy, which is massive and anchored by a 12,500 pound cement block.
Another warm spell came, but I only had time to get the roof and gutters cleaned off before traveling to Haines and Skagway, my last work trip for four days. I finally decided I would get some hiking in during the nice weather before leaving town. So, I attempted to go explore the ice caves with a few young co-workers (I say young because they could have hiked circles around me), but never did reach the caves due to starting to late and falling in a stream. Kuma helped me find my way back as my sense of direction in the woods is awful. Then after about hour of rushing around I had to catch the ferry to go up North. I did a ship visit, so I got enjoy the majority of the ride on the bridge watching the orca pods. Haines was fun as always, and I even had time for short hike up Mt Ripensky. Then I was back on the ferry 24 hours later to head up to Skagway. This time I enjoyed the hour long ride (only 14 NM) as a passenger. Skagway is Skagway, nothing new, but always relaxing. I found time to do a hike to Lower Dewey Lake.
I spent about a week at home before heading out to Anchorage for a week to spend time with friends (without the family) and a reward to myself for getting my bachelor's degree. I enjoyed about 15 miles of walking/hiking and canoeing across 7 lakes. Juneau welcomed me home with lots of rain and localized flooding. The few none raining days we have had since then, we have played outside with Xander or taken him to explore local sites (like the glacier). It is evident that fall is getting underway in SE AK and that our sunny days will become rare to late winter. As, always I am doing this post at some early hour, so please excuse my grammar errors that I missed.
After our vacations, I remained really busy with traveling all over SE AK for work from Gustavus, Glacier Bay, Sitka, Port Alexander, Pelican and Taku Inlet area in late May and early June. Almost every trip was full of sun the whole time. The most eventful trip was the brown bear in Glacier Bay. Surprising I was able to get a clear picture thanks to image stabilizer on the camera. My time in Sitka was a great history lesson about the Russia's time in Alaska and SE Alaska native culture.
When, I was in town I was pretty busy visiting multiple cruise ships. Not much down time to work on projects around the house while Xander was living it up in GA and keeping his grandparents very active. David and I did find some time to enjoy the break with a few outings to the movies and downtown Juneau.
In early June, Xander came home and my parents stayed with us for a week. They finally got to see Alaska together for the first time. Of course, they enjoyed every minute of putting 31 candles on my birthday cake, and I enjoyed eating my ice cream cake.
Xander had grown taller, talked more and changed so much in the 4 weeks he was away from home. He is about 3 feet tall now and weighs 32 pounds. Xander now is good at telling us what he wants to watch, and he really enjoys the pink elephants in Dumbo.
With all the sun, we enjoyed a lot of time playing outside as a family and going to the city park. Like all sunny periods in SE AK, they have to come to an end with some rain.
I had to add another trip on to my list this summer and go to Hoonah for 1/2 day (no complaints here). This time the trip was not full of sun-- more like clouds and rain. The flight was a bit more bumpy than I would have liked. It was a nice little town that averages a population around 800-1000 people and has the highest Tlingit native population in the state. While I was there, I got to see a humpback whale--no pictures through. The next day I had to go inspect Coast Guard Cutter ships in port. Enjoyed seeing a NOAA weather buoy, which is massive and anchored by a 12,500 pound cement block.
Another warm spell came, but I only had time to get the roof and gutters cleaned off before traveling to Haines and Skagway, my last work trip for four days. I finally decided I would get some hiking in during the nice weather before leaving town. So, I attempted to go explore the ice caves with a few young co-workers (I say young because they could have hiked circles around me), but never did reach the caves due to starting to late and falling in a stream. Kuma helped me find my way back as my sense of direction in the woods is awful. Then after about hour of rushing around I had to catch the ferry to go up North. I did a ship visit, so I got enjoy the majority of the ride on the bridge watching the orca pods. Haines was fun as always, and I even had time for short hike up Mt Ripensky. Then I was back on the ferry 24 hours later to head up to Skagway. This time I enjoyed the hour long ride (only 14 NM) as a passenger. Skagway is Skagway, nothing new, but always relaxing. I found time to do a hike to Lower Dewey Lake.
I spent about a week at home before heading out to Anchorage for a week to spend time with friends (without the family) and a reward to myself for getting my bachelor's degree. I enjoyed about 15 miles of walking/hiking and canoeing across 7 lakes. Juneau welcomed me home with lots of rain and localized flooding. The few none raining days we have had since then, we have played outside with Xander or taken him to explore local sites (like the glacier). It is evident that fall is getting underway in SE AK and that our sunny days will become rare to late winter. As, always I am doing this post at some early hour, so please excuse my grammar errors that I missed.
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