Alaska Jan 30- Feb 9, 2024

  We got to fly up to Alaska and see sweet little Mina!  This time she is smiling and following objects.  Its amazing how much she had changed since we were up here a month ago!

Juneau has been having an unusually large amount of snow this January!  Watching the city deal with all the snow was fascinating.   In the parking lot in front of  Caitlyn's rental, there was a steady stream of dump trucks taking loads of snow somewhere.  We saw a mountain of snow in the bus parking lot out at the glacier.  On Douglas Island they have filled up a baseball field with snow.  It was beautiful, but it was a lot!

We had so much fun with this little baby!

Caitlyn, Mina, Barley (the dog) and I went for a walk, and Barley spotted a bald eagle up in a tree.  The eagle, I think, tried to scare us off by flying at us.  I tried to quick snap some pictures, while anxiously watching what it was going to do next!

Getting my walk in is easy in Juneau.  There are so many amazing places.  It did snow a lot, but what would one expect in Alaska in the winter time?!

I don't remember a time when there have been so many bald eagles out.  I don't know if the excessive amount of snow had anything to do with it, but it was fun seeing them everywhere!

It's hard to not take a million pictures in Alaska!  I'm sure I have many of this view of Juneau from Douglas Island, but had to just take one more!  That is Mount Juneau in the background.

Caitlyn and James make sure Mina and Barley get a walk in everyday.  This day our walk was down the boardwalk by the docks.

Mina time is the best!

Each time I go visit Caitlyn, there are two "must sees".  (Well three, now that we have Mina, she moved to the top of the list!)  Sandy Beach, and Nugget Falls.

This is the abandoned pump house at sandy beach.  Because of all the snow on the sidewalks and roads, a lot of people walk their dogs at Sandy Beach.  The high tide dissolves the snow, so at low tide there is actually ground to walk on.

I had the chance to make some fun "Alaska themed" cookies.

Our friend Julianna did a presentation at the capital.  We went to support her.  We learned about kelp farming, but mostly just cheering on Julianna!

Caitlyn had a list of repairs for Dean to do.  He had to fix some stuff outside, but it was too cold for me to take pictures of that, so here are some of the inside projects.

Before the end of the trip, we had to hike out to Nugget Falls!

This is Dean out on the Mendenhall Lake.  On the shore there were all these dimples in the snow.

Nugget never disappoints!

One of my happy places!

Getting in some last minute Mina snuggles before we fly home.