Today was an excellent day for a trip through Alaska. The goals were to: get down to Juneau, to scope out our new, up and running, office in the Sealaska Building, a second visit this year with Shaun, Emily, Briana, JJ and Cy, and to take in all of the beauty of Juneau area. The only disappointment was that the office was not as far along as we had hoped, but we did make big strides in that direction.
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| From JuneauJuly10-09 |
The first problem of the day came with the plane I came down to Juneau in. It was painted with some odd cartoon characters that do not seem to have any connection to the real world. Take a look, see if you can figure out what this plane is supposed to represent.
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| From JuneauJuly10-09 |
Again, on this trip I got to see huge glacier flows from the air. The attached picture is of an area that seems to be area where a few glaciers are spawned. Only from the air can you appreciate the enormity of the glaciers that are flowing through British Columbia and Alaska.
After landing in Juneau, and cabbing it to the office, I had discovered that poor Chris was still fighting the bureaucratic cluster f*** demons in Washington, DC. Lots of people had lots of instructions, but no one new what they were supposed to be doing. Maybe we should have certified project managers running these office openings. By the end of the day all of the phones and data lines were up and running so we did not leave frustrated.
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| From JuneauJuly10-09 |
During lunch Chris took me up along Perseverance trail towards some old gold mining operations. The view in this valley was breath-taking. We took some pictures with my Blackberry phone camera, but digital images just do not do justices to the experience. There was a fast flowing clear water stream coming off of the mountain that made me pine for Montana. On our way back to the office Chris drove me through some interesting hillside communities that grew up on what looks like impossible cliff sides.
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| From JuneauJuly10-09 |
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| From JuneauJuly10-09 |
Then the real highlight of the day was visiting family. Shaun and Brendan(Rob's son) picked my up at the Sealaska building and then we went out to the Mendenhall Glacier to make up for our dismal picture taking experience of last March, when we could not even see the glacier. Again, digital pictures do not do justice to the real beauty of the place but I was so glad that it was a sunny day. We could literally feel the chilly air flowing off of the glacier. A local was standing there and was anxious to tell us a story about his experience of flying up on to the glacier with a helicopter, being left there for 20 minutes to stand there and appreciate the sheer size of the of the flow. Then Shaun took us out to Auk Lake to get a nother perspective on the glacier and it made me think of the opening scene of the Andy Griffith show. With its tall pines along a lake shore, you could go traipsing through with fishing pole on shoulder whistling the tune we all know so well. Then we went to a filed for another view, with fields of fireweed in the foreground and the Mendenhall Glacier in the distance. Quite beautiful.
I am so happy that I was able to spend so many hours with Shaun, Brianna, and Brendan driving around. Shaun made a yummy dinner of steak and tatter tots, while Emily, JJ and Cy played and laughed in the bedroom.
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| From JuneauJuly10-09 |
I was sent off to Ketchikan in the morning after a nice big breakfast at the Valley Restaurant with Shaun, Brianna and Brendon.
1 comment:
you're so funny! that plane painted in all colors/images was designed by a young girl in sitka i think. it was a contest alaska airlines had.
tz
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