Let's Try this again! 6-4-2010

Okay - it has only taken me a little over an hour to get these pictures to download and have only been knocked off the Internet once (so far) - let's hope that I can get this written before I get knocked off again.



I'm starting with yesterday - we rode out "to the end of the road" which is 40 miles from downtown Juneau - which means it about 30 miles from the 'house'. It was an absolutely beautiful drive along the coast with a lot of views of the ocean and mountains. When you reach the end of the road there is a small park which is where this picture was taken.


The trees at this park were HUGE as you can tell by this picture of Dan standing by one. There was a boat ramp and some people were wading and fishing along the coast. It was pretty neat and we enjoyed the ride out - the pups did too!



On the way out we stopped at the Shrine of Saint Therese which is right on the coast - it was a beautiful chapel that is still maintained by the Catholic Church. There is a lodge on the property that is used as a meeting place and retreat for the priests. It certainly was a beautiful setting to have a retreat. They had many flowers planted in front of the lodge and that is where the picture I was able to download yesterday was taken.



We came home last night - made our rounds then I cooked dinner - fiesta chicken - a new recipe and it was YUMMY!! Something I would do again. Then came the frustration on the computer and it was time for bed.



Today was clean the campground day before our weekend visitors show up. We were out in the campground cleaning for about 2 hours - maybe a little less. Then we decided to brave downtown for "The Celebration of 2010" - which is a Native American Celebration of their heritage. Native Americans from all across the One good thing that we got was Proctor and Gamble is on site giving away jugs of Tide laundry detergent and Head and Shoulders shampoo. Well, we got two jugs of Tide and Dan got two bottles of Head and Shoulders - that saved us about $25.00 at least. Not too bad for just driving into town. Dan said we could go back tomorrow and pick up a couple more but I don't want to be greedy.

There was only one cruise ship in port today, so things were pretty tame - we were even able to go into the Red Dog Saloon and sit down and have a drink - Dan had an Alaskan Amber and I had a coke. It was fun to be able to just sit and relax a little - we even talked to the guy who waited on us -Josh - working at the Red Dog is his second job - he also teaches preschool. We have found that most people up here had at least two jobs. There is a real good reason for that - everything is VERY expensive.



We walked around town and found a used book store - Dan was out of reading material and he did find something he is going to try and read. I want to download Laura Bush's book onto my nook - but so far, I haven't been able to get a signal to be able to download. I may have to take into town and see if I can get it to pick up a WiFi signal there (or maybe McDonald's). Just one other thing that we have to try and figure out.



On the way home we decided to go by the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor's Center - we had not gone over there since we had been here and we thought it might be a good idea to do that.



A nice man there took our picture - so you can see the glacier and the waterfall in the background. Then we went into the Visitors Center - Dan asked if we had to pay the $3.00 admission fee since we were park volunteers - well, the one ranger said we did - but then asked if we had a Golden Age pass (which we do, but it was in the car) - well, another ranger heard what was going on and when the first ranger turned her back she gave us wrist bands so we didn't have to pay. It is a really nice visitor's center and there is a nice film about the glacier that we went to (it only lasted about 15 - 20 minutes) but it explained about how the glacier was formed - why it is melting so quickly (global warming as well as climate change) - and how the scientist study the glacier. Pretty informative.



Then, on the way back home we had to pass this little lake on the side of the road and lo and behold, look what we saw --------------------------------





a BEAVER!!!! I was able to get up pretty close before it slapped its tail on the surface of the water and dove. I was very excited as I had been wanting to see the ones that are suppose to be in one of our little lakes (there are two beaver lodges) but I had yet to see them - so this is very exciting for me.



Oh, one other thing - I told you a couple of nights ago about the movie Amelia freezing up on us and not being able to see the end of the movie - well, when we took it back yesterday I told the manager and he gave me another copy of the movie so I could see the ending - so we watched the last 20 - 25 minutes of the movie last night - I know that she was lost at sea - but I didn't know that the signal beam that was suppose to be available was not - nor did I know that she could not hear the radio on the Itasca (the little island where she was suppose to refill). It was really a very sad ending - but one that you knew was coming. Anyway, the point is, I was able to see the ending which I was glad of - if you are wondering I would recommend this movie to anyone - it was really pretty good.

Well, I guess I have bored you enough for one night (in case your wondering - we had chicken noodle soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner tonight - it is cool and rainy so it was a nice way to warm up). I hope that you have a great weekend - all my teacher friends and kids - hallelujah you are done for another year!!! Schools up here closed yesterday - but we will still be here when they start up again in the fall (August 24th). You guys take it easy and -------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!!