Walking the Dike Trail

This last week we have had glorious weather here in Juneau.  People are walking, jogging, biking everywhere I turn.  With the sun out we have joined the people in enjoying the outdoors.

The Dike Trail is down the street from us and that makes it convenient  to go for walks and run our dog Rosco. That's my son running in the field, not our dog. But you probably figured that out.

 The mountains in the background are on Douglas Island.  When the tide is low you could swear that you could just walk over.  I hear there are some deep mud areas that if you tried you could get your boots swallowed.

Can you believe that this is the mouth to the Gastineau Channel which leads to the ocean.  This tree, which is huge, finally lost hold of it's sandy foundation and toppled over.

Behind the home's (bottom) is the Mendenhall Glacier.  The photograph doesn't give you the feeling of it's immense size.  It is amazing!

This is the view from the beginning of the trail.  One day my son will want to walk further down and we can share the rest of the trail.  But for now he likes to stop here and run in the sand and play on the fallen tree.

Snowball's at the Mendenhall Glacier

 

As the Pastor began his sermon the entire congregation watched the sun shine spread across the snow laden tree's.  I should explain that behind the Pastor are these great expansive windows so everyone could enjoy the excitement of the possibility of a sunny day.  Pastor Dye mentioned the sun shine and a member of the congregation said "shhhhh".  Laughter was in every pew.  Pastor Dye mentioned, in a fun way, that we could put superstition aside in the Lords house.  More laughter.

While this video is a little long, maybe a little boring, this is how we tried to catch the sun at the Mendenhall Glacier.

Mini Snow Pile Sledding

Yesterday the sun peeked through the typical Juneau haze which made for a great day to play outside.  After Oliver played on his snow pile we took our friend, Little J (16 months) out on his adorable little sled.  It was chilly and so nice to get out in the sun.  This snow pile has been created by shoveling the driveway.  It's a pretty good size pile don't you think!  Talk about a good workout ( :

A Heavy Snow

 

I woke up to one foot of snow this morning!  With more snow falling.  This is at 7am this morning.  My boys had to get up early to clear the snow berm that the street cleaners threw up.  It was huge!  The site of that was actually what made me get the kids out of bed to start clearing.  When I saw these two people walking by the house  and realized that I couldn’t see their legs; I knew that I better go out and check to see how high the snow was.

The entire family started shoveling.  Definitely a invigorating morning.

I Shot an AR 15!

I am not what you might consider a gun person or for that matter an outdoorsy person either.  But where I live it seems like everyone has a gun.  At least the people I know.  And it is highly recommended to have one.

Yesterday, me and my two older sons went with some friends to the outdoor gun range in 35 degree weather to experience the different weapons.  You know, get a feel for them.  I mention the temperature because my finger's were extremely stiff from the cold and it was a little embarrassing when using the rifle. 

Here are the guns I tried out: I started out with the hand guns.  I liken them to Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear because of there size.  I believe it was the Mama Bear size I liked best which was a Glock 22 I think.  The weight was mid range, it was easy to fire and I hit the target.  I kind of hit the target.

Your probably wondering "why would you want a gun?".  For me personally I want to have a gun so that I can go on a hike with out worrying to much about bears.  And I want to learn to be self sufficient.  Meaning that I want to go hunting.  I have many friends who hunt and use the meat all year.  Same with those fisherman out here in Alaska.  That is also something I want to do, fish.

The fun gun that I don't foresee ever needing to use is the automatic riffle.  It was a breeze.  Heavy but not to heavy that I couldn't hold it easily.  Easy to shoot.  I was a little concerned that the bullets would just fly all over the place.  Good news.  They don't. I enjoyed shooting that gun.

The one gun that I really wanted to try was the revolver but we had the wrong bullets.  That is the one I think  I would buy first.  My friend said that I could use it to protect myself and hunt small game.  Good for hikes and if your small plane crash's you have a good survival tool.

Feel free to comment about the weapons.  Which is your favorite for bear hunting?

Brimming with Candy

You know that kids are so adaptable.  Especially when it comes to obtaining handful's of candy.  See, in Juneau it rains and it rains.  Sometimes it has been snowing and raining enough that on Halloween you can ice skate to each house.  This does not stop the kids even though the temperature's are in the 30's.

As my usual I put on my long quilted coat, my Bogs with wool socks, warm scarf, and my trusty gloves.  My son however was concerned that his coat would cover up his costume.  We explained that his glow in the dark skeleton costume would be visible as long as he kept it open.  He had to wear his sneakers instead of rain boots because they are black and match.  Out we went into the dark rainy night.

We started our walk down the street to the "hot" candy district.  This is the street that almost every neighbor participates.  The streets were pretty quite.  The first house gave a huge handful of candy.  My husband and I were happy.  More to share of course.  Turning the corner on the next street there were kids and cars abound.  Looking at the cars and realizing that parents were driving the kids down the streets made us feel a little dumb.  Oh yea, and a umbrella, of course.  Can you believe we didn't bring one?  So now we felt really dumb.

My sons little plastic pumpkin was filling up.  That was exciting because I thought that meant meant we could go home.  However, Daddy continued to say "how about that house?" and "that one there".  I think he was more into candy then my son was.  Yet we continued the door to door chant TRICK OR TREAT!

Finally my son was wet and cold enough to retreat to the warmth of our home.  His plastic pumpkin was filled to the rim.  We were all very content at the amount of candy contained.  Like a bunch of hungry sugar fiends we ran into the house, turned on the TV and watched my son pour his candy out onto the floor.  I eyed some of my favorites.  My sons was so good about sharing his candy.  He even saved some for the next day.  I love that boy.   

I hope you all enjoyed the benefits of walking door to door for candy with your kids because we sure did.

Panning for Gold

Yesterday, Sunday, was a great day in Juneau.  A rare sunny afternoon when everyone drops what they are doing to go outside and play.  We went panning for gold.
One of the purposes of this blog are to encourage me to get out of the house and experience Juneau.  So just like everyone else I went outside to play.  We all jumped in the car and drove up to the Perseverance Trail.  We weren’t the only people with this idea because the mountain road looked like a city street.  Cars all lined up. 
My husband had as stroll down to Gold Creek.
We ran across the rail cars that moved  the men around the mines.  Not far from there is where we started panning.
It is great when your kids can teach you what they know.  My sons taught me how to pan.  How to swish.  All about the white sand and the black sand.  More then I ever was curious about.

I bet your wondering if we found gold. We did.  My husband said that they are gold flakes.  I said that after a year we should have a whole once.  You know that wouldn’t be too bad.  Gold prices are pretty good right now.
It was another fun family afternoon.  This is something I think I could get into.