September Has Arrived!

Friday.  First week of September.  Life is beginning to be back to normal.  Every week seems to surprise us with routines changed and unexpected happenings.  That's ok.  It means we are human and alive.  What's important is that we are thankful to be alive and be blessed in so many ways.  Friday Fave Fives helps me with that.

1.  The local brewing company where we sometimes played Trivia Night with other locals sadly shut down.  The couple who we had started playing with on their team and with our older daughter Deb who is the aero-space engineer (she really is a rocket scientist!) found another local spot that plays Trivia on Thursday evenings.  So we have started joining them there.  It's fun!

2.  Weather this week has been scorching hot and humid.  Several days, we were under a severe heat advisory.  Today is slightly cooler and we have had rain (and thunder and lightning).  I am thankful for AC and for a safe place to live.  I know that it may be boring to read this fave many times during the summer months, but a cool safe place to live is truly a blessing.

3.  My veggie garden is beginning to come to its end of giving produce.  But we are still having kale and tomatoes every day.  And the sunflowers are still blooming.  I will always be thankful for my garden.

Even the bees are happy we are home.

4.  My lovely next door neighbor has been removing everything from her late parents' home and preparing to sell it.  She had some furniture that she needed to pass on.  Nearly new couch, chair and ottoman, and another chair.  The furniture is now in our house awaiting us to rearrange our living room and family room.  I am so thankful for her generosity in giving them to us.

5.  Fifty-four years ago today, at his parents' thirtieth anniversary celebration, The Professor and I announced our engagement!  I am thankful for all the years we have traveled the world together!  We don't look much like those two young ones anymore.

Alaska, Day Four-B

Before I share photos of our next stop, I want to explain something about Juneau. Although it is the capital of Alaska, there are NO ROADS in or out of the city/borough.  If you want to visit Juneau or if you live there, you need to fly in or out on an airplane or take a barge, ferry or cruise ship.  There are only about 200 miles of city maintained roads in the whole area.  Why?  I asked The Professor (he know everything). I assumed it was because of the mountains surrounding the city.  But he said that it is more likely the glaciers that isolate Juneau.  You can blast through mountains but not glaciers.  The fact that there are cars, trucks and trailers in Juneau means that every one of them arrived on a ferry or barge.

So... as we left Mendenhall Glacier National Park, we turned north away from the direction of the city and drove a few miles to the National Shrine of St. There's.  The road beyond this location goes only about ten more miles and then dead ends.

We did not think we could visit this place until the night before we drove to the glacier.  Since we had rented the car and had it for the whole day, we decided to drive up to the shrine.  It did not disappoint.

Located on the shore of Lynn Canal, the shrine's views of the sea were amazing!

The property was bought by the Catholic Church in the 1930s and the chapel which was built in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The interior of the chapel was quiet and calm.  Candles were lit so we knew there had been people visiting before we arrived.

A quote from St. Therese's autobiography The Story of a Soul.  "What really matters in life is not our great deeds but our great love."

After visiting the chapel, we walked the rather hilly path for the stations of the cross.

Eleanor wanted her photo taken at Station XV and asked me if Jesus died for bunnies, too.  I answered, "Of course, He did!"

After we walked back down the hill from the stations, we noticed a labyrinth near some of the other buildings nearer the parking lot.  Why not walk it, too?  So we did.  I will admit that we got a bit dizzy with all the 90 and 180 degree turns.

That was enough walking for us for the day.  We drove back to downtown Juneau and returned the car.  Of course, we still had to walk back down the several blocks of very steep streets to find a restaurant that served dinner.  Salmon fillet or fish and chips?

Alaska, Days Three and Four-A

Day Three. Sunday. Not many interesting photos. Because what we did was hop on a bus  and attend a local church in Juneau.  That sweet girl and her three boys we met in the Seattle airport? They attend that church. So we sat with them during the service and then they invited us to their home for lunch.  That is Alaska hospitality at its best.

In the late afternoon we did wander around downtown Juneau and mingled with the thousands of visitors coming from the cruise ships. Sometimes there were five cruise ships docked on the wharf!

Day Four. We rented a car for the day and drove up to Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls which is part of the Tongass National Forest. Now I will overwhelm you with photos.

Mendenhall Glacier!  It is a 1,500 square mile Glacier just twelve miles from Juneau. There is a trail that you can walk from the visitors center to a viewing area.

First view from the parking lot.

The Glacier flows into Mendenhall Lake. 

A creek along the trail.

Nugget Falls also empties into Mendenhall Lake.  377 feet!

Do you notice all the people standing at the foot of the falls? That's how high the falls are!  Actually the people are on a pile of rocks in front of a pool separating it from Mendenhall Lake, so they are safe from the rushing water.

This shows just how high the falls is.

Walking back to the car through the woods and past the streams was soothing and relaxing.

And the flowers

Our last view of the glacier and the waterfalls.

Then we climbed into the car and headed to another place...which I will share in the next post.

Home Again, Home Again!

We are home!  I have been organizing photos and trying to 'catch up' on the four hour time change difference.  But I'm here to share my Friday Fave Fives before I jump into another day of 'catching up'.  I am always thankful for how Susanne is faithful to encourage us to focus on being thankful.

1.  I am thankful and very proud of our sixteen year old grandson who drove BY HIMSELF to the airport to pick us up on Saturday night after our long flights from Juneau and Seattle.  I have called him Warrior Boy here on the blog for many years.  His real name is Liam which means strong-willed warrior or protector and that is exactly what he is especially for his family.

One of the first photos of Liam, shortly after he came to live with Nurse Girl.  Oh my, how he has grown!

2.  I am thankful that I can sleep in my own bed again.  And have my own pillow.  We love to travel, but we love to be home again.

3.  I am thankful for friends and family here in Ohio who greeted us with love and excitement to have us back from our travels.

4.  I am thankful for lovely weather.  Every day I have been outside in my gardens trying to take back control from the weeds that grew in just two and a half weeks.  Nearly every day I have been out walking my two or more miles.  Yesterday, Nurse Daughter, The Professor and I walked three miles on the path along the river with the two dogs.  (A short note here about names:  I am going to start using real names for family.  Nurse Daughter is Mia, Liam's mom.)

5.  Coffee catch-ups with our friends and family.  Just time to talk about our time in Alaska and share some of the photos.  And find out what they were doing while we were gone.  I am so thankful for those hours to reconnect.

I hope you have had a wonderful week, too.

Faves Faves from Alaska

 Hi everyone, here I am to post my Friday Fave Fives with Susanne's blog from Alaska.

No photos this week because my tablet isn't talking to my camera.  But I will be home soon, so wait for it. A blizzard of photos from Alaska!

In the meantime, here are five blessings from this last week in The Last Frontier State.

1. We were scheduled to return to Juneau from Skagway on Sunday via the ferry.  However, a problem with the ferry dock in Skagway caused it to be shut down. I am thankful we heard about the issue from a local girl at the bookstore and we were able to fix the issue by taking the 'fast ferry' which is a smaller vessel that docked at a different spot.

2. An unexpected blessing was that when we walked down to the ferry terminal office (which was closed) we bumped into a couple who had ridden with us from Juneau and we ended up having dinner with them. We arranged to keep in touch with them.

3.  After two nights in Juneau, we hopped on another ferry up to Glacier Bay.  The town is Gustavus.  I'm not sure how much of a town it is... but Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve are just beyond Gustavus.  We stayed two nights at the lodge there.

4. One day we took the boat ride to the glaciers.  Being on a small boat, we were able to ride up into the bays and be much closer to the glaciers than if we had been on one of the cruise ships.

5.  Today was our last day in Alaska. We return home tomorrow.  I am so thankful for our wonderful Alaska adventure!  We finished it off by enjoying coffee one more time at Heritage Coffee and lunch at The Rookery and visiting the state capital building and the city museum.  Again, we chatted with a young British couple who work on one of the cruise ships and enjoyed our conversation with them about our trips to England and their trips all over the world.  Meeting people is yet another of the blessings of travel. Eleanor met a young gentleman bear named Theodore who has teraveled even more than she has.

Do come back to Willow's Cottage blog soon and be inundated with all the photos that I (hopefully) will be able to share!

More Alaska Faves

 Alaska Day Three will post some time soon.  But in the meantime, I want to post my Friday Fave Fives.  Yes we are still in Alaska.  As usual, please join in with Friday Fave Fives over on Susanne's blog (susannesspace.blogspot.com)

1. I am continually amazed at the magnificence and beauty of Alaska. I am thankful for the opportunity to visit this place.

2.  I am also amazed at the friendliness of the people here.

3.  The meals are so yummy!  How many times will I eat fresh salmon before I am tired of it?

4.  Riding a ferry in the Inner Paasage of Alaska has been so beautiful.   Here is a small nugget of its beauty to entice you to return and see more!

5.  I am thankful for a lovely small hotel to stay in at Skagway.  Again, the hospitality in Alaska is the best!

Bonus: I am thankful that our family in Ohio is safe and our son's home has electricity back on after three days of no power since that heavy storm blew through our town and uprooted many trees and downed many power lines.

Alaska, Day Two

When I pulled out my Aran sweater from my suitcase and slipped it on (it was a very cool morning in Juneau), I found a tiny bit of paper in one of the pockets. I have no memory of where it came from.

How appropriate!

We wandered down the hill from our Airbnb to downtown Juneau passing the State Capital building and this sweet garden (note the native art on the bench).

After being fortified with coffee and a scone, we caught a local bus and crossed the Channel to Douglas Island.  Our goal was to hike in to the Treadwell Mines area, a relic of ruins of the mining era in Juneau.  It was about two and a half miles of mostly forest paths.

The forest reminded me of my childhood home in Oregon where my brother and I would scramble over the fences and play in the woods by our home. Fir trees. Ferns. Moss.

Treadwell Mines was a thriving enterprise and community during the late Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth Century (1881-1922) and employed more than 2,000 workers.

Today all that is left are a few old buildings and rusted pieces of equipment and piles of cement.

And the pilings from the pier which I think are quite picturesque.

A catastrophic accident basically stopped the production. An area near the ocean inlet caved in. No workers were killed but many mules and horses died. And the tunnel ddisappeared.

This is the site of the cave in. It looks like a cove.

We were told there is a waterfall near by and hiked up the steep hill to look for it.  We succeeded in climbing up and finding where we could see it. Paris Creek Falls.  Unfortunately,  all the vegetation and a chain link blocked the view. Oh well. We could hear it and sorta see it. 

Then we climbed back down and took another trail back to the beginning.  Honestly, there was so much beauty everywhere that we hardly noticed all the gray and occasional rain drops.

Something I did not expect to see in Alaska was ALL THE FLOWERS.  Everywhere.  Some are wild flowers; some are plants in gardens.

After riding the bus back to downtown, we grabbed some dinner, climbed the very steep hill back to our Airbnb and called it a day.