Happy Anniversary, Juneau!

We've been here for a year...can you believe it. It seems like a short time ago that we were on the ferry out of Haines going down the Lynn Canal with a blazer full of essential items we thought we'd need right away and/or didn't trust to have shipped to us. But here we are, 365 days since we first arrived. So looking back, what have we accomplished, what have we seen, how many miles have we put in during our year here. LOL too bad I haven' been keeping better track and I could tell you.

Walking/Hiking: based on the 90 short walks of Juneau which lists most of the trails around here we have walked about 34 of them for about 118 miles and this doesn't count the ones that we've done more than once and all the miles we've walked along the beaches. Our favorite biking Trail is definitely the Herbert Glacier Trail. Our favorite walk that's an easy walk with a big payoff (a long sandy beach) is the Boy Scout Trail, and our favorite after-work walk would be at Sandy Beach.

Birding: we've seen at least 9 new bird species to add to our life list: Golden Crowned Kinglet, Eurasian Widgeon, Lapland Longspur, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded Merganser, American Redstart, Western Wood Peewee, and Heidi's favorite, the Northern Shrike. Tim chooses the Mountain Bluebird because there were so many of the them and they seemed to want to hang out and give a good show. There might be a few others but these are the ones that easily come to mind. We've seen 35 species just from the couch looking out the front window.

Food: Haven't eaten in all the restaurants in town yet! Actually we haven't been eating out very often at all. Heidi's favorite restaurant is the Island Pub (I don't think they have updated their website since we've gotten here) for beer and pizza. Tim casts his vote for the Zephyr: a Mediterranean bristro. Our favorite brewery would be Alaska Brewing Company!

We'd have several people come and visit us here and have taken 11 pictures of groups with Cappy, our house mascot. We've been to Sitka twice on the Ferry and have been to Fairbanks and Anchorage at least 4 times. We have driven to the end of the Thane Road and to the end of the Douglas Highway but have not driven to the end of the road towards Echo Cove yet!