It's All About Friends

          The fun part about Juneau is that it does feel like a small town so if you're relatively outgoing, it's easy to make new friends.  The people are nice and cheery and happy to get to know you, provided that you aren't a tourist.  Locals can be spotted by a few key items-their xtra tufs, the fact that they own a good hiking raincoat, but often walk around without the hood on, and/or the fact that they drive a Subaru.  The Subaru even has the obligatory crack in the windshield (Yes, it's the first follow-up question asked by locals to see if I'm truly "legit").  Now that I have all three, I'm pretty much as authentically Alaskan as they come.

          This weekend was once again a flurry of activities with friends and I definitely benefited from the information transmitted by word of mouth.  I also spent most of Saturday driving around in Lester, a somewhat terrifying adventure in itself.  I'm getting better, but driving a stick on these mountain roads definitely requires some patience.  The road is too narrow in front of my house to do a 3-point turn so every time I want to go out, I have to drive up the road to one of the trail parking lots to turn around.  I'm also contemplating just going in reverse down the block, but it's easier said than done with the stick.

           Earlier in the week, my co-clerk Gina and I had agreed to run a 5K this weekend.  There was a big organized race that started at 9 AM Saturday morning, but we decided to forgo that option for sleep.  Instead, we heard about a community race at Sandy Beach (on Douglas) that started at noon.  It occurs right before the high school invitational (where all the "local" teams compete).  The meet is pretty cool because even though these teams are "local," they all either have to fly in or take the ferry and most of the kids miss tons of school during their sports seasons.  Sadly, the team from Kake only had 1 runner.  All of the local parents put on a huge potluck for all the families and guests.  SO after running our hearts out (mind you, this whole course basically consisted of trail running, up and down hills, hopping over logs, etc.), we got to feast on delicious homemade food.  YUM!  I promised myself that I wouldn't race, I'd just jog this one, but of course, I took off as soon as the gun went off.  I think I was either the first or second female to finish (there was one person of questionable gender who finished ahead of me).  Once the official race results are posted, I'll let you know ;)  Besides not having to pay a registration fee and getting free food, I also got an awesome free Alaska shirt.  Priceless.

Anyway, here's a pic of Gina and I post-race.

Also, Gina lives on a houseboat so I got to check that out.  It actually was a lot roomier than I thought.  Here's what the exterior and part of the interior looks like:

Saturday afternoon, I was lucky enough to have some other new friends sneak me on their zipline tour.  The other three tourists each paid like $140 each.  I paid 0.  Oh, how I love the "local rate."  The zipline is on Eaglecrest, the huge city-owned ski mountain.  We did two smaller zips and then five big zips and a suspension bridge.  I mostly goofed off with my friends (i.e. I had them chuck me off the platforms to see how fast I could go).  It was TONS of fun!

Sunday was filled with activities too!  After a big brunch at the Sandpiper (probably the only place in Juneau worth paying for the food), some friends and I decided to go check out the Harvest Fair out in the valley.  It was "interesting" for about 10 minutes.  However, here was my favorite part:

After that, I met another friend for coffee and after walking around town and peeking in bookstores, I had the genius idea that we should go get library cards.  So we did!  And now, I'm ending this post so I can start reading one of my recently-checked out books.  Sweet!

Here Comes the Sun...

An amazing thing happened yesterday...the sun started peeking through the clouds as I went on my after-work run.  I was so excited that I just kept running and ended up doing 10 miles in what satisfies for sun here (a fuzzy yellow orb behind the clouds).  The best part of my run was looking at my running watch when I finished and realizing that it takes altitude into account so my workouts are now 33% more efficient!  I may be racing in a local 5K this weekend because why not?!

Today, the sunshine (or lack of rain) continued and it was beautiful!  My co-clerks and I immediately decided that leaving work early to go for a hike was a must.  I convinced them to do the Perseverance trail, which is the major trail that picks up behind my house.  Here are a few pictures from our amazing hike...yeah, this is what my backyard looks like!

If you're wondering where my lips went...well, it was a little chilly by the time we got to the top and all this rain has drained my tan pretty quickly (I think it lasted about 10 minutes here).  

I also picked up Lester from the shop so I officially have some wheels.  Don't be jealous of my sweet ride!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

I ended up hiking the Salmon Creek trail on Sunday despite the pouring rain.  (We were originally going to do the West Glacier trail again but it was flooded all the way to the parking lot so we decided to go to higher ground).  Once we got in the trees, the rain let up and the trail was beautiful.   (Although we did have a ton of fun slipping and sliding while hiking up the trail.  I think the parts with wooden planks and ricketty stairs were the most difficult.  Anyway, the path was filled with moss covered trees.  Basically, it seemed like we were in a Jurassic Park movie.  We saw some cool blue and black birds, but no bears.  At the top of the path is the dam; it is set at the base of a lake surrounded by the tops of mountains.  The view was amazing so we just camped out for a bit and took it all in.  Apparently, there is a canoe that people leave there so you can canoe around the lake, but we did not see it and it was likely on the other side of the mountains (not a short hike).  Sadly for all of you, I left my camera behind because I did not want it to get damaged by the rain (literally, everything was soaked by the end of the day).  However, my friend Amber and her brother and sister took some great ones so hopefully they'll come your way soon.

Sunday evening, my co-clerk Gina and her boyfriend Rich arrived and they have been staying with me until tonight (although they arrived in Juneau this weekend, Gina could not get into her houseboat until Tuesday).  It was fun having my first houseguests less than a week after move-in!  Rich loves to cook so he volunteered to buy food (yes, my kitchen is still stocked) and play executive chef.  On Sunday, some of my other friends went fishing and caught some HUGE salmon.  Since these friends were leaving town soon, they filled up my freezer.  Literally, I probably have 10 pounds of fish...all for free.  We all decided to have a big dinner at my place, which is obviously the place to be (both native Junebugs and transplants agree that my place is awesome and I did a great job in finding it.  Many have asked how I did it and/or if they could contact my landlord about the other apartment so I'm feeling pretty proud of myself these days.)  Anyway, I got to have my first meal of freshly caught salmon and it makes a huge difference (I usually don't like salmon because it tastes too fishy, but not when it's fresh out of the water!).    After cooking a huge meal on Sunday (while the rest of us went through WAY too many bottles of wine for a Sunday night), Rich decided to make salmon tacos last night.  Of course, they were amazing, but he also made his own slaw, his own salsa, a yogurt chipotle sauce and toasted the tortillas.  I supplied the guacamole and it was quite a feast.  In fact, I ate so much that I had to ask myself if perhaps I had had too much salmon lately.  Of course, the answer to that question is no, but I'm pretty sure that I'm well on my way to mercury poisoning. 

Gina, Rich, Jimmy (my other co-clerk) and I  also went climbing after work yesterday.  They are all from California and go to all these cushy climbing gyms...they even have their own special shoes and harnesses.  I, of course, decided to just climb in running shoes and we all had a good time despite the fact that these paths were a lot tougher than the rankings in California (that's right, they don't mess around in Alaska).  I liked it, but my arms and body still hurt.  Even typing is painful...

On the work front, today was the first day that Bud (my judge) was actually in the office.  He's flying out again tonight so we're back to jeans for the rest of the week (woo hoo).  I also finished my first memo (in record time, apparently).  I'm aiming to be super efficient so that I don't have to cut back on my 1.5 hour lunches, come in before 9 or stay after 5.  So far, so good.  Toodles!

So Many Firsts!

 I know, I haven't posted in a few days, but that's only because instead of sitting around, I've been out with friends having fun and/or getting wet. 

Let's see-I finished my first week of work on Friday.  Work has been really good and fulfilling and although it's daunting to realize that I'm supposed to be the competent one here, I think my brain is rising to the challenge.  I have my first big memo due a week from Tuesday, but I will probably be done in the next 1-2 days.  I also did my first tech edit this week (editing another clerk's and Bud's opinion before it goes out for voting and eventual publication).  Although I had a crash course in learning some quirky Alaska citations and other technical matters, I churned it out pretty quickly and felt like I was actually contributing to something and making productive comments.  All in all, it was a great week, but I was exhausted by Friday night (this whole "full-time" work week is tiring...who knew?).

Friday night, I learned to drive stick.   That's right, sometime this upcoming week, I'll have my very own car (I have decided to name it "Lester" because it looks like the creepy kind of vehicle where you could kidnap children and throw them in the back).  It is a 1992 Subaru (everyone here drives Subarus because they have all wheel drive and are good on the hills)...it will allegedly be very handy in winter because I can downshift on the hills and stay in control on the snowy mountain.   Anyhow, I'm sure I'll take a picture of the gem at some point.   I actually was amazingly good at driving stick (I was doing fine shifting right away and did not stall much).  After about 30 minutes into my "lesson," I was on the highway, driving myself to my friend's house.  I also made Daniel (the guy giving me the car) teach me about hills and other quirks.  He seemed pretty confident that after 2 days of driving, I'll be a pro.  Yay for new skills!

After a dinner with friends on Friday night, we went out to the bars.  Of course, this meant The Alaskan (which I'm realizing is pretty much the "cool" bar in town).   They had a really good live band playing swing?, jazz?, bluegrass?....some kind of fun dance music.  Obviously, I was busting out some pretty sweet moves.  The neat thing about the bars here is that there will be young people mixed in with older couples and people of all sorts of backgrounds and ages.  However, after a while, my friends and I had to stop dancing because the smell of BO became overwhelming.  (Apparently in Juneau, "dressing up to go out" means showering and people will often go out without even doing that.)

Here's a self-photographed snapshot from that night.  Sam and I were TOTALLY sober:

 

On Saturday, I had my first visit to the town recycling center (yes, you have to bring your recycling here, separate it and throw it into the appropriate piles).  I took this fab pic of the wall:

The sign says "all children must remain in vehicles at all times," but they let ME walk around and wreak havoc.  Sweet.

I also had some friends over for dinner at my place (now that it's set up and I have food).  I made my first soup of the year and although it turned out great, I REALLY miss that immersion blender (shout out to my former roommate Sarah Solomon).  I had to use the real blender and I made a huge mess in the kitchen....several messes, actually.  Eventually, I realized that I have to puree in shifts, not really filling the blender over a 1/4 of the way unless I wanted to cause steaming veggies to fly everywhere.  You live, you learn.  The end result was colorful and delicious:

I'm going hiking in the rain this afternoon (ice caves-woot).    As always, more to come!

Somebody Loves Me!

Somebody loves me.  Her name is Sara.  She bought me Glee DVDs while somewhere between Vietnam and Laos.  Now, I am super happy.  You could make me super happy too.  Just send something here:

Becca Sherman
873 Basin Rd.
Juneau, AK 99801

My hope for the future (aka tomorrow) --> Wake up in the MORNING to run (so far, I'm 0 for 4 this week on morning workouts).  I'm learning to drive a stick tomorrow so that I can take the possible beater car I may purchase up the hill (mountain) I live on.  Yeah, life moves fast in Juneau.  Oh, and I finally bought some xtra tuf rainboots (http://www.xtratufboots.com/) so I can feel like a real Alaskan and have dry feet.  Life is grand ;)

Picture of the bar that I played trivia in last night:

It may be blurry, but I think you can make out the GIANT animal heads on the wall.

Oh, and here's one of the "important stuff" board in my office:

That "prom" picture is of my favorite irresponsible teens, Jennie and Patrick Escobedo.  

And It All Starts...NOW

I know, I skipped a day, but I started work yesterday and finally moved into my new apartment today so a lot has been going on.  Here's the recap:

Work is awesome.  I have my first big memo due in two weeks (which is kind of a tight deadline since you usually get 6 weeks from the date they're assigned).  Between yesterday afternoon (after we got the official tour, info, etc.) and today, I've already read about 800 pages of briefs, documents, and excerpts.  It's enough to make anyone's head spin, but luckily, I have an awesome salmon-colored couch to read on (and/or nap)-

And what the rest of my office looks like...plus, the view in a hazy mist of pouring rain (it's actually beautiful and I waste a TON of time staring out the window):

If you're wondering, those chairs are mustard yellow with rainbow striped seat covers.  Our administrator person asked me today if I wanted her to remove them.  I responded with the only obvious answer:  NEVER!  Every time I look at them, I think of the person who created them and thought it was a good idea; they were either super eccentric or on drugs.  Or since it was the '70s, probably both.

Now that I'm finally moved in, I'll put up pics of the apartment soon.  Here's what you really need to know- it has a dishwasher and a jacuzzi bathtub.  Point for yours truly!  I also have a king size bed, which may not have been the best idea since it takes me forever just to walk around the thing, let alone put sheets on.  Then again, I can have all my coupled friends (those "in a relationship") visit and snuggle with both members of said couple.  Point 2 for Becca!

For all the haters, yes I've been running despite the fact that I live on the top of a mountain and rain is mama Juneau's favorite activity.  I hear it actually rains more downtown than "up the road."  Since Juneau only has one real road, "up the road" is also a favorite phrase of Junebugs.  I'll explain it to you when you're older. 

Suffice it to say, the rain just doesn't bother me as much here.  In New England, our horrible hurricane-wannabe rainstorms would produce pouring rain for days, gray ominous skies and the feeling of impending death.  Literally, it felt like the world was coming to an end.  Here, it rains but life goes on as if it's no biggie.  The daylight still continues until about 9:30 PM and it's more of a constant drizzle.  Instead of impending doom, this place breathes life.  Everything is green except for the occasional punctuation of the reddest berries you've ever seen and multi-colored flowers of beautiful purple, pink, yellow and orange.  It also helps that literally around the corner from my house is a picturesque nature view of snow-capped mountains.  The path (road) leads to several hiking trails and there is running waterfalls above and a basin below with a huge stream running through.  If I want to get away from the city and civilization, I just turn the corner and I'm in one of the most beautiful places that I've ever seen.  It's magical. 

Until next time...

It's My Birthday and I'll Hike If I Want To...

So my first weekend in Juneau has been amazing!  Saturday, I woke up to a rarity- a beautiful, sunny day where I could wear shorts and see all the scenic views Juneau has to offer.  For example, this picture was taken from the place where I'm staying (the purple glow is coming from that beautiful sun):

And here's a great one of the city (you can see the cruise ships in the background):

Oh, and by the way, I'm living on a mountain.  Literally.  How do you get up and down a mountain?  Lots and lots of stairs.  Or, I can take the street option pictured below.  Yep, that is the hill I will walk up and down every day.  By the end of the year, my glutes will look fab!

I've been staying at the Judge's house until my lease begins on Tuesday.  He and his wife went out of town early Saturday morning so it's been just me in this gorgeous 5-bedroom house (complete with a half-basketball court).  They only asked that I take care of their dog while their gone.  By some twist of fate, their dog looks exactly like my Sammy (in fact, I sometimes call him Sam when we're walking...oops).

The judge has one other pet that they forgot to mention....a carpet python!  (No biggie.)  Luckily, I don't really need to handle him although a family friend came today to give him medicine and I got to hold him while he was out of his tank.  That's right, I'm moonlighting as a snake charmer.  Feeling his scales move across my skin was really neat because their skin has such a unique texture.  He was super friendly and not poisonous so woo hoo.  You can see his head peeking out of his favorite shoe box here:

Yesterday, my new bestie, Sam, and I decided to go hike the glacier trail because the weather was gorgeous and who doesn't love glaciers?!  Here's one of my fav pictures from that hike (Yep, that's the Mendenhall glacier.  Note the floating ice in the water.):

We also saw bears!  That's a bear cub in that tree.

Last night, I also went to an awesome house party in Juneau and our whole group ended up at the bars.  There was birthday celebrations, karaoke, live music and so much more.

Today, my friend Kendri and I had a delicious brunch and then hiked up Mt. Roberts (the mountain that Juneau sits on).  After hiking up, you can see panoramic views of the city, learn about the Tlingit (native tribe here) and take a tram down.  Here's a pic from our hike:

I've taken a ton of pictures this weekend so I'll be posting the rest on facebook later.  As for right now, it's time for a birthday barbeque complete with Alaskan king salmon and halibut.  Mmmmm....

Tomorrow, I start work and as always, there's more to come!

Home Sweet Juneau

Yes, that's right.  The stuffed bear in a glass box will mean home for the next 12 months.  I finally arrived in Juneau after 10+ hours of travel and got to meet my judge and the outgoing clerks.  They fed me pie.  Obviously, I'm enamored.

Despite the fact that my parents' internet went out last night while I was trying to download movies to watch on iTunes, the journey was remarkably okay.  I had two smooth flights (after dealing with some maintenance and power issues) and the skycap in Chicago let my 53 lb bag go without the extra charge.  I did not even have to pull out any tears!  However, the movie that did finally download was billed as a drama...iTunes somehow left out the part about the gratuitous sex scenes.  Literally, nothing censored.  I'm watching this thing on my laptop and could not stop thinking about how many people around me were wondering why I was viewing soft core porn on a public flight.  Don't worry, I made sure there were no children around and fast forwarded when I felt the burn of leering eyes.

Once in Seattle, I realized that the airport there is wonderful.  Maybe the anticipated 7-8 hour layovers won't be so bad after all.  Here are some of the most amazing parts:

1) Indian artifacts

(Followed up by the most amazing rattails ever witnessed on men...even better than in Chile.  Out of respect for the native peoples, I restrained my picture-taking impulse...but trust me on this one!)

2) A wine bar located right next to a fresh fish place.  Mmmmm....

3) THIS!

FREE WILLY! 

Oh, I also found a "talking fountain."  It looked just like a regular water fountain until I started filling up my water bottle and it made strange gurgling noises.  Since it takes a while to fill up the whole bottle, I drew quite a bit of attention with that one.  I really hope they did not expand the concept to the "talking toilet."

The flight into Juneau was literally the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.  There were snow-capped mountains to my right and out the left window, mountains and water and clouds.  There was a thin pink/orange line on the horizon but except for that marker, you could not tell where the sky ended and the land began.  If there is a heaven, I'm pretty sure it looks like that.  Unfortunately, I did not have the window seat so no in-flight pics were taken, but I plan to capture it out in nature sometime soon.

I've been here for about 2 hours.  I have not found any mountain men yet.  I have found a cute boy that does Indian law...if he wears flannel tomorrow, I'm sold!

Off I Go!

       You can keep your "culture," I'll take my fresh air, clean water, scenic views and exciting adventures any day.  That's right, the big day is finally here!  After almost a year of waiting, including two marathons, graduation, the bar exam, multiple moves and a whole lot of other stuff in between, I'm moving to Juneau, Alaska.  My bags are packed (it's questionable whether they're under 50 lbs, but that will be tomorrow's headache) and I'm ready to go.

      For almost one year, I've been telling people that I'm moving to Juneau.  I either get one of two responses:  "AWESOME" or "Why?"  The initial response is then followed by a ton of questions. 

"Have you ever been there before?"  No.  "Are you going to live in an igloo?"  No.  Juneau has a moderate climate that stays roughly between 30 and 65 all year.  They are actually a semi-tropic rainforest so they get a lot of precipitation, but not a lot of freezing temps.  "What will you do in winter when it's dark all the time?"  Buy a flashlight!  Actually, it's not very different from winter in Chicago when I woke up in darkness and left work in darkness.  "How do you feel about bears?"  They're like big dogs, but you can't pet them...

And it goes on and on until the person wraps their head around the fact that I'm actually going to live in Alaska or they give up after hearing the disappointment that I have no plans of becoming besties with Sarah Palin.

After much research and investigation though, I do have some idea of what I'm getting myself into.

Things I expect: rain, bears, alcohol, lots of fish and seafood, scenic views, happy lights, whales and more rain

Things I do not expect (or at least not a lot of it): diversity, sunshine, roads out of town (ta ta national highway system), culture

With that in mind, I could not be more excited to begin my next adventure!  I will try to update frequently and add tons of pictures, but I am new to this whole blog thing so you'll have to bear with me while I figure out all this technology stuff.   Oh, and feel free to comment liberally...after all, it'd be nice to know that somebody is reading this blog.