juneau

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lucky

August 26, 2011 in juneau, little bird | 10 comments

It’s been so nice to have some solo time with my girl again.  She has such an assertive personality around her brothers (naturally), but when she is alone with me, a whole different attitude comes out… she acts like such a big kid!  So sweet and full of stories.

Yesterday, we went downtown to have lunch and a walk with Daddy.  We walked down Basin Road to Perseverance Trailhead, got a hot chocolate and goofed around at the old Capital School.  We rarely go into town to explore, and even though it’s a relatively small downtown, she appeared so wide-eyed and bewildered.  You’d think I took her to Manhattan.  Except that one end of town had  us along a creek in the mountains watching gold panners and the other had the capitol building and a few massive cruise ships.

She kept telling me, “I’m such a lucky girl!”  I’m such a lucky girl to get a hot chocolate! I’m such a lucky girl to be alone with you and Daddy!  I’m such a lucky girl to get a lollipop from Daddy’s office!  I’m such a lucky girl that it’s a beautiful day! I’m the lucky one, sweet Lola.  I “lud” you.

I also really love our little downtown. Isn’t it pretty?

a tiny adventure

January 25, 2011 in juneau, photography techniques, tidepooling | 12 comments

My new macro filter kit arrived a few days ago. It’s going to be a learning curve for me. I thought at first that I was doing something wrong because I could NOT get anything in focus. Not even close. Then I realized that close was the problem–I had to get SO close with my lens to capture anything. Is this the way a macro lens works? I have no idea. But once I figured that out, I had a bit of fun.

We took a family outing to the Shrine of St. Therese on Sunday, both to escape the house in the pouring rain and to try to find a dry spot to use the new filters that were burning a hole in my pocket. The Shrine is a Catholic retreat out the road in Juneau. There is a gorgeous stone chapel built on a small island that is connected to the mainland by a manmade causeway. A very spiritual place. I mean, really.  It’s kind of hard to get my point across here about just how unique and magical it is. I’m not Catholic, but I love to walk the Stations of the Cross path that winds through the wee island’s forest. It’s also a perfect place to watch sea lions off the coast.

So I tried out my +10 macro filter on the beach. It was a nasty, wet day so I didn’t get too many shots before I had to stow the camera away. What fun though!  I see a whole new intimate world unfurling to me!

Here are some images that I shot without a filter using just my 50mm lens (I love that pink seaweed!):

And here are a few of the same spot of beach using the +10 filter:

One thing that I really loved about using the filter is that I took a moment to contemplate the small things underfoot. I have walked the beach here many times, searching for critters and pretty shells with the kids. Never before have I noticed that what appears to be a beach of broken seashells, is also made up of a whole lot of broken urchins. The pieces are so intricate and delicate and amazingly gorgeous to study.

It was after this observation that I noticed that we have the seagulls in part to thank for these bits of beach beauty. Urchin appetizer, anyone?

gallery walk

December 6, 2010 in art, christmas, friends, holidays, juneau | 5 comments

This weekend, we enjoyed some merrymaking with friends at Juneau’s annual Gallery Walk. It was long a tradition of ours before children, but this is the first year we’ve had the kids in tow. It was a whole new experience! Photos with Santa, watching the train in the Canvas window, cleaning up a giant mustard explosion and broken glass at dinner. Not so much hanging out in galleries drinking champagne and socializing while gazing over the local holiday gift options. But, with kids, there is something about this time of year that feels so much more like… Christmas. Watching their excitement over the sparkly lights, toys in the windows and snowball fights between stops. It’s pretty good stuff.

And for the record, on this exact day last year, we were on the ferry moving back to Juneau. One whole year ago. It’s so nice to be home again!

Also, this is the final week of my semester! And a busy week it is… sigh. When it’s over, I have lots of catching up to do!

historic trail

November 23, 2010 in alaska, hiking, juneau | 6 comments

I’m suffering from an incredibly annoying and terrible head cold, so bear with me as I go off on yet more geeky history stuff. I’ve been stuck in the house for days, which seem like weeks at this point. Today at least the snow is falling peacefully outside. I forgot how beautiful snow is. It would be a great time to revisit learning how to knit, but instead I am trying to snap out of my haze and focus on a final project for school. You see, I’m taking a class on Museums and Archives and it’s got me digging into the vault over local history. Much fun for my nerdy side, but not so great while sick and tending to the normal day-to-day, plus all of the holiday craziness.

We recently took a walk over on Douglas Island on the historic Treadwell Mine Trail. At one time, this was the largest gold mine in the world. There’s over 100 years of history living in these woods. We used to live near the old mine and I always found this area to be overwhelmingly haunting. Thoughts of miners who sat on familiar beach rocks, dreaming of families they might have left behind to follow the Gold Rush. I get a chill when I’m there. Regardless, there are fascinating relics to explore: some obvious structure skeletons, other small treasures buried in the sand or overgrown by the forest. It’s really quite amazing at how much stuff has managed to survive out there in the brutal Alaskan weather for so long.

The old Treadwell Mine office building (here’s what it used to look like)

The trail runs for miles, but this particular area is in the woods right behind “Sandy” Beach. The sand is made from mine tailings and it’s full of beautiful blue clay that makes the old potter in me want to get out my shovel.

The beach is littered with pottery shards, bricks and rusty meal objects. This trip, I even found an old leather shoe heal. I never take anything home; it just doesn’t seem right after it’s been there for so long.

Ok, I’m done with my historical ramblings. Thanks for the patience!

I have lots of ideas for Christmas goodies that I want to get started on. We typically get our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving–which is THIS weekend! Totally crept up on me. Time to deck the halls! But first, I must get well and get cooking for our Thanksgiving feast. When I was in kindergarten, I was quoted in the local paper saying, “I love Thanksgiving because I love turkey!” and not much has changed.

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving.

fliptown

November 19, 2010 in alaska, juneau | 3 comments

On my latest visit to the City Museum, I learned that one of Juneau’s former names was Fliptown. I wonder why… I bet there’s a story in there somewhere.

Whenever I venture downtown, one of my kids always falls asleep in the car and I am left to drive around aimlessly. I usually grab an Americano and just wander.

I stumbled across a few of our modern city’s founding father’s graves. I don’t know much about Joe Juneau other than his uncle founded Milwaukee… which I’m assuming is why there’s also a Juneau, Wisconsin. Must have been an adventurous family.

This new mural is across the street from my old office downtown, and right where I recently saw Paula Deen standing and smoking a cigarette. Brian told her that there wasn’t enough butter in this town for her and she replied that she preferred salmon pâté anyway. Who knew?

This is Basin Road. The speed limit is only 5 mph but the rotting wooden planks kind of make me want to drive really fast while closing my eyes, hoping I make it across in my big SUV.

I want to live on this street if hula hooping is the issue.

Have a fun weekend!  Hope there’s some exploring in there somewhere.

little icebergs

October 20, 2010 in alaska, autumn, exploring nature, juneau, little bird | 10 comments

My girl and I explored the West Glacier beach at Mendenhall Lake yesterday. There are so many brilliant blue icebergs on the lake right now. I actually really love to experience the glacier area when it is dark and stormy out because the ice really pops in the ominous lighting. It’s really quite spectacular and makes for a striking scene with all the contrast. And check out all the snow creeping down the mountains! It’s quickly moving from autumn to winter. Can’t you feel the chill in these pictures?

Snow-Capped Bullard Mountain Reflection

The Medenhall Glacier is fed by the Juneau Icefield (which also feeds some of the other glaciers you’ve seen here, like Herbert Glacier). You can think of the glaciers like frozen rivers, always slowly flowing and moving down between the mountains. Sadly, most of the glaciers from the icefield are retreating faster than they are advancing, due to global warming, and soon they will disappear from view. We have photos taken of this glacier from when we moved here originally in 1997 and it looks completely and frighteningly different. These small lake icebergs are formed when the glacier calves and pushes ice out in to the lake. I feel like I wrote about this before… but I can’t remember so forgive me if I’m being redundant :)

Natural Ice Sculpture (do you see the bird taking off in flight?)

The reflections in the lake were amazing. The grey sky is really beautiful in it’s own right. I mean, who wants blue sky all the time? It would make my moods so predictable.

Bird asked me to wade in the water with my big rubber boots to pull some ice to shore for us to see. They are so crystal clear and come in the most beautiful, organic forms.

Ice and glacial silt clouds in the water. Silt is apparently really good for mud baths (see below!).

At the end of our icy adventure, we came upon this bald eagle. He was such a ham for the camera–too bad I had on my 50mm lens, because he was so close to us! He was also so extremely covered in mud… a real dirty bird. I am guessing he must have been bathing in the mineral-rich mud around the lake.

He was super chatty, which kind of unnerved me. I got the sense he was sending out some kind of warning. Then he startled and took off. It made me feel like we were being watched by a big scary bear or wolf, a feeling I don’t often get… time to leave!

Bird and I had lots of fun. The sun is making a rare appearance here today. Time to get back outside! Until next time!