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A casualty of the divorce…


Well, it’s official… the house is now on the market.

4449 Julep Street, Juneau, AK (you can see more pictures via the listing/link)

Sad to say, the house has to be sold as part of the divorce.  I bought the house 10 years ago. Funny story really… I didn’t want to even look at it.  When we moved to Juneau in 2001 we lived in a 4-plex for a year and during that time we looked at 56 different houses.

Prices were high, houses were horrible.  They really were.  Juneau’s housing market is tough and there is a shortage of housing in the community. Finding reasonably priced housing is even more difficult so when something like this comes along it doesn’t last long on the market (I hope that is the case this time too).

Our realtor kept saying… “you really need to look at this cute little ranch style house”… I had driven by it a few times and was not at all interested.

Why? It looked like a box car!  It was long and narrow and brown. Finally the realtor convinced me that I needed to look inside. I did… I set one foot in the door and fell in love. It was perfect. It gets light all day long. We watch the sun come up over Thunder Mountain and set through the trees in the evening. I loved sitting in my floataway chair on the back deck enjoying the sun and the day. It was awesome!

It’s even better now. The bathroom was remodeled a few years ago and I just had the carpets replaced after we moved to “America” last week.

The house has a huge back yard.  It is cleared but I never got to do anything with it.  My dream was to have a garden against the neighbors fence where the sun hit perfectly and then I wanted cobbled paths and raised beds along with a fire pit. It never happened. Oh well, a girl can dream can’t she?!

I also like that it sits back off of the street. It is a BIG lot! So many possibilities…

I moved back to Washington state last Friday… not what I wanted to do, but again the divorce has been dictating a lot of what is going on in my life right now. Everything works out the way it should.  I was planning on moving back to Washington for a while to assist my father and mother.  My daddy ended up passing away sooner than we expected but I came down anyway. No time like the present. Luckily my current position allows me to work from a distance, for now.

Juneau, Alaska is an awesome community. I just love SE Alaska. It makes me sad that I had to move. Luckily I have to return regularly for work so I’ll be able to at least enjoy the beauty of it when I am there.  Fred and I also have family there… grand kids, Tlingit family, and friends (who are like family). That is just the way Juneau is.

The opportunity for outdoor adventure is fantastic… here is my blog about my hiking adventures in SE Alaska (and beyond). Actually the opportunity for all sorts of things is right at your finger tips.  Juneau has a huge arts community including theater, symphony, arts… one potential negative?  If you like to shop this may not be the place for you. Yes, we have some awesome local shops in town but if big stores and shopping malls are your source of entertainment you are in for a big let-down.

The Juneau Economy isn’t doing all that bad either… here are the Economic Indicators.

If you don’t live in Juneau now, you need to know that we are located in a temperate rain forest – the Tongass National Forest. It is beautiful but it is wet. I have two things I say about that – 1) Rain – nothing a little gortex won’t cure & 2) well, I can’t remember the second thing but I am sure I will as soon as this post is published. Did I mention that you can see the Mendenhall Glacier from my front porch? (No it’s not Russia, it’s better).

This is not the view from my house, but it is within walking distance... pretty nice don't you think? Nature's playground!

If you are interested in relocating or if you live in Juneau and possibly interested in the house please contact my realtor – he’s awesome!

Juneau by Moonlight…


What a beautiful day. I’ve been in search of sun to see if my new transition lenses are working… no luck on the sun – or at least direct exposure to the sun – but I did get some photos of the sun on the mountains. I’ll have to wait for another day to see if my glasses are doing what they are supposed to.

With today’s full moon I wanted to attempt to get some night scenes.

I have absolutely no idea what I am doing and most often just point and shoot.

Sometimes I get lucky and most of the time I like my photos -  fortunately with digital cameras I can shoot and delete and shoot and delete.

It is fun to experiment with different techniques and even though I have no intention of doing anything other than enjoying my photos I am continuing to learn how this whole digital camera thing works.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The coolest thing about tonight at the glacier? It was very dark and the moonlight made the glacier glow. After I stopped taking photos we heard a very loud rumbling. At first I thought it was the sound of the airplanes taking off echoing against the mountains.  It wasn’t.  It was the glacier calving – something I have yet to see in person.

We were standing nearly a mile away from the glacier but after a minute or so we could see the waves coming toward us across the lake and then we heard the ice cracking and moving as the waves hit the shore just a few feet from us.

It is a pretty awesome experience, I just wish I could have seen what must have been a large amount of ice breaking away from the glacier.

I just may have to go back tomorrow to see how the glacier has changed since the last time that I saw it.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Let it Snow… Winter Storm Warning… Another beautiful day/night in SE Alaska


…WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 AM AKST THURSDAY… *

Winter Storm Warning - 11/23/2011

All I can say is AWESOME!!!

We just got back from cross-country skiing at the Mendenhall Glacier.  Great powder, up to my knees. It was snowing so heavily at times that we could not see very far down the trail. Yes, we were skiing at night… with headlamps…

The great thing about living in SE Alaska is that you can pretty much do whatever, whenever and you don’t have to go very far to do it.

Mendenhall Glacier/Nugget Falls Trail

My house is just about three miles from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. I love driving in the snow. You just have to take it slow.

The streets had not been plowed when we took off from the house. Fred has had to use the snow blower four times today already and will have to do so again tomorrow morning.

I love this time of year. If we aren’t skiing we are snowshoeing.  It is awesome!

Aristotle went with us, he’s sound asleep at our feet now… well he was, Fred just woke him up and they are playing peek-a-boo. I’m sure he’ll be sore in the morning and we’ll be sure to give him Rimadyl tonight. We skied just under two miles and he probably romped for about 10.

Aristotle - buried his head in a snow bank...

Well, this was the first ski of the season and it was great.

One thing I love about this area is the great memories that I have. I have skied, snowshoe’d, kayaked, swam, and hiked in the area.  I have walked my dogs on the ice when the lake was frozen over and on the trails when it wasn’t.  There is a plaque on the Nugget Falls Trail now to honor Romeo… Romeo was a friendly wolf in the area and Tucker (my dear departed friend) and Aristotle played with him a few times (not intentionally by the way).

I love my life… I have the best of all worlds. Not everyone can say that.

Being that Thanksgiving is tomorrow I know that this is just one thing that I am thankful for.

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