Memorial Day: Herbert Glacier Hike

The weather this weekend has been amazing in Juneau.  Sunny, hovering around 70 degrees, and 17 1/2 hours of daylight.....it's mania, folks.  Pure mania.  Everyone is out and about and smiling big!  I even laid out on a blanket on our deck on Sunday.  It seriously is the best weather we've seen in the past 10 months.  Now we finally got a glimpse of how this place sucks people in :)

Needless to say, we were outside a lot.  Here are some pics from our hike yesterday to check out the Herbert Glacier.  It was about nine miles round trip, and flat and easy with this beautiful view:

Herbert Glacier

Yes, it was warm enough for Brian to hike shirtless!

My attempt at a "group" shot when there weren't any other peeps around

Then we found some nice people to take our picture :)

Love!

Brian is ogling over this very happy Golden Doodle enjoying a swim

Not a bad way to spend a Memorial Day!

A Sunny Saturday Walk

Yesterday we went exploring on North Douglas (the island where we live) and found a nice, easy, beautiful loop to wander around, Fish Creek Trail.  We have been planning our upcoming roadtrip to Banff, AB and this was our break from looking at laptops, maps and travel guides.

Mendenhall Glacier in the background (and two really nice houses!)

An old, washed up boat of some sort...

Evidence of an old boat dock, with the glacier in the background

A great "Brian" shot :)

Two bald eagles perched and posed for my camera :)

We're guessing someone built this as a platform to jump into the water, and of course Brian had to check it out.  I was content just looking, but he wanted to see how sturdy it still was.

Gettin' Touristy

Cruise ships are coming through Juneau on a regular basis now, sometimes with 4 or 5 docked all at once.  Here are some shots from this past Wednesday while walking across the bridge down to the docks to have dinner.

Mt. Roberts Tramway

The Twisted Fish restaurant.  A tourist trap!  We ate there and now we know...

Lots o' visitors roaming the streets of downtown.

We watched the guys pull these ropes off the dock and they look soooo heavy.  I'd love to know how much they weigh; I could see how they'd carry someone right over into the water if they weren't careful!

This is a statue of Patsy Ann....read on and see why she's so cool :)

A float plane landing!  These are a really common sight these days, too.  They go right past our kitchen windows.

Brian On Ice

During our last stint of sunshine, Brian got to get up close and personal with the Mendenhall Glacier.  If you've seen the documentary, Chasing Ice, it's glacier #10, and you can also see it listed here as a super cool place to visit.

He's befriended a fellow faculty member who studies these kinds of things and was invited to go along with a couple guys for some sort of sample-finding trip.  They told him he was a natural!  Needless to say, he was pretty darn stoked about the whole thing.

He got some great pictures on his iPhone:

Girls Picnic: Out the Road

A couple weeks ago we had a string of nice sunny days.  It was so nice!  My friends Megan (math professor) and Lora (sociology professor) took a picnic out the road, about 40 minutes away.  All I can say is sunshine and friends are good for the attitude and whales don't hurt either :)

Here are some glimpses from our "only-in-Juneau" afternoon:

As soon as we scoped out our spot, we saw whales and I whipped out the camera.

Megan excitedly pointing out that there are indeed three(!) humpbacks out there.

whale tail!

Even when we couldn't see the whale, we could hear their sprays.  

Lora is happy about sunshine and whales...and the semester being over!

Lora and I relaxed in the sunshine...

...while Megan tried her hand at fishing for herring.  No luck catching anything, but got this good shot of her attempt.