southeast alaska is a very rainy place

but very green too, as luck would have it. and having been getting dusty in the desert all summer, i was very happy to be taking this weeklong vacation, nevermind that i added a state to my life list! (now i think there's only 11 states left i have yet to visit: AL, AR, HI, KS, LA, MI, MS, NM, OK, TN, WA)

anyway, the week in alaska went something like this.

friday - got up around 6 or 7am in ely. drove to salt lake city. flew to seattle. flew to ketchikan. flew to juneau. arrived in juneau around 1030pm alaska time zone, met our friends paul and susan.

saturday - went to mendenhall glacier visitor center, then to the racquet club for lunch (good sandwich), then hiked the muskeg behind paul and susan's house

sunday - it poured all day. so i stayed in my pajamas and drank tea and took naps.

monday - hiked mt roberts, great day for hiking, no rain, sunny, a few scattered clouds for effect, great view

tuesday - hiked the west trail of the mendenhall glacier. rained ALL DAY. very soggy, but very fun. we followed a trail marked solely with flagging tape and found a shortcut down to the glacier. it was an amazing color of blue. on the way back i saw a black bear, which ran away as i was approaching, and 2 porcupines were sitting in a tree. at first i thought they were some kind of witches broom or mistletoe in the tree, then realized they were moving. their faces were so cute.

wednesday - drove to the shrine of st terese and walked the labryrinth, then to eagle beach and the "end of the road" in this part of alaska. literally, there isn't any more road that leads out of there. saw another porcupine, some immature bald eagles as well as one adult, and then a marmot that looked like a weasel.

thursday - took the ferry from juneau to haines to skagway. was raining in the morning but as we pushed north the skies cleared up and it was a lovely day. on the way back down to juneau it began raining again. at night we attended an english country dance lesson and dance, which turned out to be great fun.

friday - lazy day, slept in, checked out downtown juneau, hung out at the red dog saloon, bought some postcards and fudge, then took the bus back to douglas where we met paul and susan and some of their friends for dinner at the island pub. we had thin crust pizza as well as some crackers with smoked salmon spread. delicious!

saturday - woke up at 430am and met my plane at the airport at 6am. flew to seattle. flew to salt lake city. drove back to ely. nice sunset.