Cappy in the Fog

Fog this morning - it is supposed to get up to 50 and sunshine today. If you look hard enough towards the sky you can see some blue up there.

There aren't any cruiseships scheduled but there is some big ship coming up the channel. It has been blowing its fog horn for about 25 minutes. It may be a supply barge or something else. It doesnot sound small.

We've had a small fishing boat and skiff anchored out in front of this house since this weekend. It it interesting to watch it when the tide changes. First it is right in front of the living room picture window and then it is gone - floating towards town. It seems like it is sitting right in the middle of the channel but boats don't seem to be bothered.

Oct is supposed to be the rainy month and so far yesterday was pretty rainy but today looks like a lovely, cool, autumn day - can't wait for the weekend!

Weekend with my Sister

My sister came this weekend and it sure what great to have her here! It was nice to show her more about what our surroundings are like and to experience some of things that we like to do.

And of course, a picture with Cappy was required!



There was a New York Times article printed recently that talked about what do to in Juneau if you only had 36 hours.

Here is a short list:

1. buy xtra tuffs - She already has nice hiking boots
2. switzer creek trail - We didn't do the switzer creek trail but we did go to Outer Point Trail in North Douglas. This trail goes through the rain forest and winds through a couple different ecosystems from the forest to the beach.
   
3. have fish at hangar on the wharf - we had a nice lunch at the hangar with Terry. We didn't haven't salmon though - Roxi had blackened chicken, I had Jambalaya and Terry had the seafood chowder!
   
4. perseverance theater - We went to "Skin of our Teeth" It was really long and a bit confusing but the acting was very good. We also went to the pipe organ concert that is offered at the state office building on Friday afternoon.
   
5. see sea life - We drove out to 32 mile and saw humpback whales and harbor seals from the house.
   
6. downtown bar hopping and mexican food - didn't go out drinking this time (have to save something for next time) but we had some delicious roasted anaheim peppers stuffed with blackbeans/corn/cheese in corn tortillas at the house
   
7. history: state museum/evergreen cemetery - we chose to learn our history with a tour of the UAS campus where we saw a totem pole that is in progress. We also walked back to Ernest Gruening's cabin at Amagla harbor.
   
8. downtown shopping while cruise ship in town - spend time (and money) at Changing Tides and a few other gift stores and watched all the people
   
9. bookstore
10. Mediterranean dining - is pastrami stromboli bread mediterranean?
    
11. Drink Coffee - We don't drink coffee - we drink tea and had some at the house
    
12. Mendenhall Glacier - we didn't hike back to the falls but we got a good look of the glacier, waterfall and ice bergs in the lake all from the pavillion.
    

Quite a conversation

We've really been enjoying the Herons this summer. We often see three or four Heron feeding in the tidepools along the front of the house. They are so big and skinny and it amazes me how they can scrunch down to the size of a raven or extent their bodies so far out. We recently have seen a couple of the Heron perched on the 3-story condo that is down the street.

This one decided to have a conversation with Cappy!

Southern Visitors

Had a nice, but short visit with friends Steve and Cyndi today. They are taking advantage of the inexpensive Seattle-Alaska cruise which stopped in Juneau today. Haven't seen these folks for a couple of years so it was nice to catch up on what has been going on with them. And Cappy does love posing for pictures!

Robyn goes to Juneau

We had an awesome visit with niece Robyn at the end of May. It was a busy weekend with hiking, eating, sightseeing, shopping…a bit of everything. Here Tim and Robyn look at the view from one of the foot bridges along the Dupont Trail.

A visit to the Mendenhall Glacier provided lots of entertainment. There were about 4 cruise ships in town so there was lots of activity. Its is always interesting what tourists find intriguing. We watched an older asian couple who were fascinated with the dogpoop bag dispensers.

We didn't see any glacier calving but there were many icebergs in the lake.





Nuggest falls was flowing with winter melt-off water:

We had a brilliant day-hike to the boy scout beach for our June coast survey. The weather was awesome. Unfortunately we planned our hike when the tide was really low so there was a lot of beach to cover. But it has such a nice day that we didn't seem to mind. I will admit that I insisted we should take a short cut since the tide was so low. This resulted in having to jump over a little crevass where I immediately turned my ankle. After a couple of minutes I was able to continue on the hike. It didn't really bother me until we got home. Its been a little tender since then.




and here is what they were looking at:


And what overnight stay at the Olson's would be completed without a picture with Cappy!


Thank you Robyn for your visit!

Spring is in the Air (and the Sea!)

We went to Sitka this weekend where it truly felt like spring. And there was evidence all over town too:





And then this morning I woke up to the first cruise ship in town for the season. A Fred Olsen Cruise Line ship called Balmoral. Its on a world cruise with final port of call being in England. Regular cruise ship traffic begins at the end of next week.


hmmmp: My grandfather's name was alFRED and I'm an OhLSEN - I wonder if we're related? Long lost cousin fred?

Short visit with Cappy

We had a short overnight visit with Doug, Jami and Darby from Sitka on their way towards Haines. We have often visited with them at their home in Sitka when we're visiting Tim's folks and it was nice to see them get off the island! Darby kept us all entertained by doing cartwheels, playing games, and being very funny. She was very polite and was a good sport when we took the long walk to Sandy Beach (well she did have some transportation from Mom and Dad).

Jami used to live in Fairbanks and worked for CDE for a short stint. When she moved she left us one of those big plants that I think CDE still has, although I'm not sure where it ended up in the last move.

We're sorry we didn't get to spend more time with them but we'll see them again sometime soon in Sitka!

Florida Guests

We grabbed a photo of our friends from Florida (prior Alaskans) while the clouds were high and the sun was trying to peak through the clouds. The rainy weather held off until their last day in town.

Larry, Suhtling, Lawson, and Sian kept busy sightseeing and FISHING! They brought home dinner one evening - some king salmon from Fish Creek. They also caught and released a bunch of smaller fish at various places around town. We'll be sure to visit them in Orlando in the winter!

Cappy has a visitor

Cappy had a new visitor a couple of weeks ago (sorry for the delay in posting). Thom came down as a guest performer for the symphony and played in a couple of concerts. He brought down his viola for the event–he has a very cool instrument–its an ergonomic viola. He said he read about it in the New York Times and its only one of a few and had to wait for a couple of years to get it. Here's a picture (click on picture and then scroll down to May 20 to see the picture). Very cool, isn't it! And he played a few minutes for me and it sounded awesome. It was fun to hang out with Thom, we went on several walks around the area. Tim had to work over the weekend so Thom was good company for me. We hope to see him again for another concert!

Cappy on vacation

Cappy went away for the thanksgiving holiday so our recent house guests had to pose by the Mendenhall Glacier instead of with the good Captain. Here's Claudia and her folks Connie and Frank from So. Cal, braving the elements for a quick pose. We actually had pretty decent weather while they were here - a little rain, a little blue sky and temps it the mid- to high-40s. We still don't have any snow so it was pretty easy to get around.



We did some shopping, sightseeing, exploring, driving, looking at real estate, eating, talking, laughing, and felting!

Before: The image on the left is Claudia with one of her unfelted slippers and…

After: The image on the right is one of her felted finished slipper!

Colorado meets Cappy

Shane, Jeanne, Kelsie, and Logan Holmberg visited and took time out from all the adventures for a picture with Cappy. They'll been gone almost two weeks now and we sure do miss them.


The cruise ships are zigzagging all over the channel, coming and going without fanfare, running off smaller boats, all without Jeanne's supervision!

Quick Stopover

Susan and Tipper had a quick stopover Monday night but did have time for a fast introduction to Cappy. The deck was wet because we had a really rainy day for the first time in about a week! Another long time Juneau resident it was nice to hear Susan's stories and advice about living here. We met Terry and Oso at Sandy Beach for some playtime and a visit while walking in the rain.

Hangin' with Cappy

Cappy enjoys the company of the a portion of Burton Family: Jeff, Tam, and Ty (Brittany is in LA packing for a trip to Europe). We spent some sunny, rainy and sunny-rainy days adventuring around looking at the sites, taking the tram up Mt Roberts and then hiking an addition 1500 ft to the top of Gold Ridge, and FISHING!

Cappy Independence Day!

So who would have thought that the real celebration for the 4th of July is actually on the 3rd! It all started about 6 pm when people started to gather along the beaches getting their bonfires set up. The big fireworks display was scheduled for 11:59 pm. Whoever sponsored it (probably the City and Borough of Juneau or CBJ) set it up on a barge that they moved in after the cruise ships left town. There were at least 5 big ships in today. They normally leave town around 10 but tonight they all started heading out of town around 7. Not sure why, you'd think they would want to stay around for the show!



Here you see Cappy and the beach fires that were set off along the beach on the Douglas Island side. We had groups on either side of us providing quite a show of extensive "wow" power. I don't know what the explosives are all called but these folks didn't just have sparklers. I did find a couple of lighters in our GD drawer so we flicked those a few times.

At about 11:30 there was a 10-15 minutes display of high flying sparks from someone down the beach from us. It was something. And then almost exactly at 11:59 the real show began. It was quite impressive - but then I'm easily pleased if I can be outside watching a fireworks show and not have to be wearing my bunny boots and face mask. Ok, it was starting to sprinkle so I did have a baseball cap and my anorak on. But I wasn't wearing wool socks and long underwear!



There are two parade tomorrow and a whole slew of events taking place down at Sandy beach so I'm sure we'll be adding more as the holiday progresses!


We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. ~William Faulkner

Cappy confides in Marc

Clink on the pink arrow to listen to the conversation.

An overnight visitor of the 4-legged kind

Oso spent a couple of nights with us this weekend and we had fun going for walks and eating cookies. Here, Oso and Cappy engage in a staring contest. We aren't sure who won!

CDE administrators visit CDE Southeast

Curt and Shauna meet at the southeast CDE branch this week to collaborate with Cappy. Cappy reports that the Juneau branch is working hard to meet the goals set forth and says, "…hey, it doesn't rain that much down here. I don't know what all the fuss is about."

Cappy with mammy and pappy

We had a nice visit with Tim's folks, Lois and BG Olson. Here they are posed with our buddy Cappy. After about a week of calm, the wind picked up on this afternoon and brought a cool chill to the air so we didn't linger very long on the deck. We had a nice visit and now they are safely home again. Maybe next time they visit they will take the ferry over to add to the adventure!

Cappy gone wild Juneau

Fairbanks friends Mel and Kathy are joining us this week for spring break since they heard that Juneau was the next Fort Lauderdale. We are all lucky that' Cappy's clothes are painted on.

First out of town visitor

We had our first out of town visitor this Sunday - Lillian from Fairbanks - YEA! We had a great visit with her and since she used to live in Juneau she gave us a personalized tour of downtown. Lillian met Cappy, a permanent fixture on the deck. Cappy says, "hey, where's my pipe?" Cappy likes company!

We had a nice breakfast at the Sandpiper Cafe, (aka where the Fiddlehead used to be). They have replaced the waiting area with more seating and we didn't have to wait very long for a table. Breakfast sounded pretty good to all of us: Lillian had mushroom and cheese omelet, I had ham and roma tomato omelet, and Tim had the special which was a scramble with fresh motz, ham, romas and green onions. Unlike the old fiddlehead there weren't any freshly baked breads or pastries but the breakfast was pretty good and the service was pretty good too. We did have to wait a while to get the credit card back from the waitress but figured Nordstroms wasn't that close by and we didnt' see anyone dashing out the door or coming back in with major purchases. So a definate place to go back to.

Tim had lunch here last week with a group from work and thought the lunch was good. The menu was varied and being with a larger group the service was pretty good. I think he had a hamburger and fries (those waffle type). The restauteurs must have gotten together in deciding hamburger prices because the price was similar to TK's at the Prospector! (CDE Note: I don't think the waitress chased them down outside the restaurant!)

So don't forget to include Juneau in your future traveling plans – Cappy will be here to greet you too!