"Uh Yeah, Your House Is Still Open..."

This past week, the weather has definitely made life here more difficult.  After 3 days of snow, we had clear skies (a rarity in Juneau).  The problem is that whenever it clears up, it gets SUPER cold.  On Friday and Saturday, our highs were in the mid-teens and lows were in the single digits.  Perfect time for a hike, right?  My friends and I had already rented out a cabin for Friday night so I took a half day on Friday (the only way to be able to hike in daylight since the sun sets around 3:30 PM) and out the road we went.  Neil and I tried to snowshoe at first, but there wasn't that much on the snow so it was a lot more work than it was worth.  Eventually, we just carried the snowshoes and hiked like all the other people in our group.  Although it was cold, the views were worth it.

Our night at the cabin was great and when we woke up, the lake had frozen over.   Our (stupid) friend, Ben, decided to try it out.  Made for a pretty awesome picture, huh?

The real fun began when we tried to leave.  One of our garbage bags broke on the hike out so that was annoying to say the least.  The real fun began when we returned to the car.  My dear friend, Amber, has been driving around with a flat tire for quite some time.  Instead of getting it fixed, she just stops every few days to put air in the tires.  Overnight at the cabin, it had snowed a few inches.  As Amber pulled out of the parking lot and tried to get back on the trail access road (which was all ice and snow), her car got stuck.  REALLY stuck.  She tried flooring it, backing up, etc...no movement.  Luckily, we had a shovel and between us digging around the tires and three boys pushing the car, we got her moving again.  By the time we got to the main road (about a mile later), her tire was so flat that you could hear it going ker-plunk, ker-plunk.  Obviously, it was not a good idea to drive the 25 miles on the highway back to town.  We pulled over and the boys got out to help.  Then the real fun began.

Mind you, it was no more than 14 degrees at the warmest time of day and everyone but me (who had no circulation and fingers that were turning blue) was standing outside.  Amber had a spare...but it had somehow frozen to the trunk.  Eventually, with the help of a friendly stranger, the boys managed to yank it out.  But at that point, they acknowledged that there was no way that they were going to be change it on their own.  Since none of us had cell phone reception (again, we were out the road), we decided the best thing to do would be to pile 7 of us into a small sedan and drive to the waffle place to get breakfast and call AAA.  After some delicious waffles, I drove the girls (in Ben's stickshift car) back out the highway to meet AAA and Amber's tire got changed.  We finally made it home, in one piece, around 5:30 PM on Saturday.

It finally warmed up when it started snowing again yesterday (and yes, it's still snowing).  As I've mentioned previously, I live right near a really popular hiking trail.  A lot of the state workers like coming up here and walking Perseverance during lunch.  On Monday, I was coming back from my lunchtime jog (the only time I can jog outside in daylight) and this guy goes "turn around, you can't go up there, Perseverance is closed off."  I said, "Thanks, but actually I'm going to my house.  I live right there."  (And I pointed the 3 houses up the block.)  The guy seemed a little embarrassed and informed me, "uh yeah, your house is still open."  THANKS.  I'll keep you posted on whether an avalanche does block off access to my house at some point (a very real possibility).  All this snow means our ski slope is opening early so on Friday, I'll finally be able to use my snowboard again!

I'm Dreaming of A White November?

Friday was a state holiday, which meant we had the day off from work.  This holiday luckily coincided with the Bald Eagle Festival in Haines, the largest congregation of bald eagles in the world.  SO, on Friday, my co-clerks and I (and a few other friends) were up, on the way to the ferry docks.  I was tired and just wanted to sleep, but the views of sunrise were amazing.  Obviously, I had to wait a bit before I could justify closing my eyes.  Here's one of my favorites:

I must admit, watching the moon reflect over the water was even cooler than the sun peeking out from behind the mountains.  We really lucked out with the weather.  On Friday, it was clear and not raining (this is very uncommon in Southeast) so we were fortunate to be able to view the entire inner passage all the way to Haines (or at least for the 2 hours that I was not asleep).  Haines is about 75 miles from Juneau, but it takes 4.5 hours on the ferry to get there (yep, travel in Alaska is not cheap or easy).  It was worth the trip-

After arriving in Haines, we immediately went out to the Bald Eagle Preserve, 48,000 acres of protected land.  Once we pulled over to one of the lookouts, it was crazy, there were eagles EVERYWHERE.  We'd think it was black spots in the distance or tree stumps...nope, just eagles perched in the snow.  Turns out, eagles are lazy...SUPER lazy.  They come to this spot for 2 reasons: 1) the water stays warmer than surrounding areas and doesn't freeze because of percolating something or other and 2) dead salmon.  Yep, that's right.  Eagles prefer to not have to hunt their food.  They wait until it comes floating up to the surface and then will maybe expend the energy to bend down and fish it out.  Oh, and if that eagle buddy nearby has a salmon, they'll just take his instead of getting their own.  And this is our national symbol...Go Team USA!

Despite the fact that they're lazy, eagles are still really cool to watch.  There were so many eagles in the preserve (literally thousands) that we could watch them in the trees by the side of the road, see them across the river or in the far trees (with binoculars) or see them soaring overhead.  We also got to see them pooping...literally, it seemed like there was a communal poop time when they all just let it flow.  I saw one bird poop on another guy lower in the branches (often several birds would hang out in the same tree).  I guess he figured his buddy would get mad so he decided that was an opportune time to scamper off and fly away.  That's right, I saw a bald eagle poop and dash...LOVELY.

On Saturday, we woke up to over 6 inches of snow.  Everything was blanketed in white and that's the way it would stay the rest of the weekend.  Haines is the quintessential charming small Alaska town.  It has one real main road and a cluster of houses, but mostly it's just mountains.  If you didn't know anybody, you could miss the tiny town tucked into a cove and just soak up the views of the inlet.  I went for a run on Saturday (snow running, woo hoo) and it was absolutely breathtaking.  Yes, I slipped a few times on the snow and ice, but the views were worth every bruise.  That mountain air really does something good for me.  Besides, I expected to see Santa and his sleigh flying by at any minute...

We spent our leisurely weekend enjoying the town (and the snow), getting out to see the birds at the preserve another time, visiting the Haines brewing company twice (and other local shops), and savoring Chai lattes at the local health food store (yep, even a town that small has its Whole Foods type wannabe).  Unfortunately, the hammer museum was closed.  On Sunday night, we returned to Juneau.  Although it had snowed here basically all weekend, there were already 3 inches on the ground when our ferry arrived and it hasn't really stopped yet.  I think I had to wipe over a foot of snow off Lester today...but he started so yippee!

 *More pics of the Haines trip are on facebook.  Enjoy!

Where's My Mommy When I Need Her?

I may be in my mid to late 20s but nothing makes me miss my mommy more than when I get sick.  Really, I'm usually fine being independent but when I feel horrible, I just want to lay on the couch and have my mom cater to my every need.  Isn't that what they're for?

Today, I had my first official sick day from work.  Well, I didn't actually take the day off, but I did spend it working from home (exciting...reading on my couch here instead of the couch in my office!).  I even got to go in for one of those same day doctor's office appointments.  I wanted my mom to arrange that, but I had to call.  Then, I got the goods.  I wanted my mom to drive me to said doctor's appointment...but no, I walked.  I wanted my mom to drive to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions, but no, I walked.  (However, I did call her to whine while waiting for the prescriptions to be ready.)  Now, I'm feeling better (after a day of feeling sorry for myself).  Anyways, I'll write more soon :)

Baby When The Lights Go Out...

SOOOO, I was originally planning to write this post on Tuesday...but Tuesday was challenging to say the least.  The power went out on me three separate times that day: (1) at 12:15 PM, while Gina and I were trying to get in a workout (literally, I got on the stair master and it slowly died until I dropped to the floor); (2) around 1:30 PM for an hour while at work (so much for "returning to productivity," but great for my ping pong skills) and then (3) about 8:20 PM for over 1.5 hours (meaning no blog post for you guys).  What's more fun is that apparently all of Juneau is on one circuit/grid (okay, so I don't know that much about electricity) so when the power goes, it goes everywhere.  Literally.  Even the street lights were out.  Since Beth and I have yet to stock up on candles and matches, this game became quite interesting.  Lucky, I'm a quick thinker so we got to recline by the light of headlamps.  Oh thank you, Lord REI.  Fortunately, the power eventually came back on (this was very fortunate since our heat is electric as well and we had some rain/snow mix that evening).  The next morning, the Juneau Empire had a picture of some electric box (a transformer, maybe?) on fire and reports of mudslides causing power outages.  I do not know how anything could be on fire here with all the rain, but it made for some awesome images.  Hope all is well with you!