Nice weather + 2 visitors = a busy Jill & Eric

Things have been busy out here in Alaska! Lots has been going on.

To start, I've gotten another job to start once the Chiropractic gig ended. It's actually exactly as Eric and I had planned. I am the newest Graphic Designer at the local newspaper, the Juneau Empire! Probably 1 of 10 Graphic Design jobs in this whole city, so I'm ecstatic that I got it AND that it opened up exactly when I needed it to! But I have to tell you of the story of how I got it, because it's kind of weird and a little funny. First, I should mention that I applied for the Graphic Design Supervisor position. They had asked for 5-10 years of experience, which I don't have, but also all the tasks and skills required I had. So, I figured there's slim pickings in Juneau and why not? The next day I got a call from the boss asking me to call him back. So, I thought, fantastic I've got an interview! I gave him a call and he asked if I could come in that day. Well, fortunately my job at the chiropractor's closes for 2 hours for lunch. So I said sure - thinking this would just be a quick meeting to go over my portfolio and skills. Three minutes into the 'interview' he starts telling me about all the benefits and salary. My reaction is, Why is he telling me this? Then he says, Well it was great to meet you, follow me. Thinking I would be going on a tour of the place, he then brought me to the front desk and asked the receptionist for a new hire packet. He then asked me to fill out all sorts of paperwork and bring it back to him as soon as possible - he wanted me to start in 4 days. So, I took the papers, looked at him, and said, "So... I got the job?" His response, "Yeah! I figure you'll do great, but if you don't we'll just let you go. You're from Chicago, you can't be that bad." LOL. I should mention he's from Detroit. :) I actually didn't believe I got the job, since it was a Supervisor position and he barely asked me anything, so I only told my Mom and Dad that weekend and waited until I got further confirmation before telling anyone else.

So upon leaving the building, I promptly sprained my ankle in excitement. It was raining and I was trying to walk quickly to my car to prevent my portfolio from getting too wet. My heel caught a rock the wrong way - my shoe went one way and my heel the other. Fortunately, I don't think anyone in my new workplace caught my wipe-out. I hobbled into the car, took my shoe off to stretch my ankle and immediately called Eric to tell him I got the job! Then.. the sprained ankle. I had never sprained it so bad in my life. It was my right foot, a.k.a. the driving foot, and I was concerned I wouldn't be able to get myself back to work. Slowly but surely, I made it back there and hobbled into the office, as I could no longer fit my foot into my shoe. On the bright side, I was working in a chiropractor's office - as soon as I told him what happened he immediately began caring for me. He taped up my ankle, gave me ice, and told me to stay seated the rest of the afternoon. Luckily, for me, the rest of our appointments that day were regulars so when they came in, they knew the whole drill without me having to worry. At this point, I could no longer walk, so Dr. B gave me crutches and I called Eric to pick me up.

I felt so useless. It sucked. I spent the rest of that night on the couch with my foot up and on ice. Thankfully, the next day I woke up and I didn't need the crutches anymore! I could walk on it, but I was slow and limping. Still.. better than crutches. Luckily that weekend was also rainy, so I didn't feel so bad spending most of it inside.

I was fortunate how quickly I became mobile again because on Monday morning Eric was leaving for Sitka, Alaska to fill in at the Pharmacy there. He would only be there 5 days. The original plan was for me to go with him, but then I got this receptionist job and since I would be working through the week I couldn't. I'll make it there another time.

The immobile weekend gave me a bunch of time, though, to fill out this giant stack of paperwork I was given and to write up all the questions I had for this new boss. I didn't even know my hours! Plus I also had to drop the bomb that I need 3 weeks off for our honeymoon. So, during Monday's lunch I headed over there to return the paperwork and ask my questions. Everything went well and he answered everything the way I wanted. Honeymoon got approved! The only downside, even though I don't really consider it one, is I wasn't hired to be the Supervisor - just another designer because I have no newspaper experience. However, he just wanted to see how quickly I picked up on things and then we could later discuss the promotion. With only 2 years of experience, sounds great to me! It was now official! Wooohoooo!!!

I was to start the next day. So the week that Eric was in Sitka, I was going to be working 2 jobs. As I teased him, I never thought by marrying a Doctor would I have to work 2 jobs. :) The chiropractor's office is only open for half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I was going to work the opposite shifts at the newspaper in order to hit the ground running on my first full day. That next day, I got a new boss. The company was merging 2 departments and so oddly enough the guy who hired me 4 days prior was no longer my boss. My new boss had not even seen my resumé. A little weird... maybe there's just a lot going on. He was excited to have me and so I wasn't concerned, just with everything else that happened.. it was just strange.

Eric didn't so much enjoy his week in Sitka. For those of you who aren't too familiar, Sitka is about 90 miles west of Juneau, but only plane or ferry can get you there. We've heard from people here that Sitka is the most beautiful city in Alaska. He said work was boring and the weather was rainy. He got out to hike a little, but was happy to come home. I still haven't seen the pictures he took.

The weekend he came home we had the most perfect weather we've had here all summer. 75 and sunny for 6 days straight. Lovely! We tried to spend every minute we could outside, but Eric's parents were coming up 3 days later and we still have stuff on our spare bed that we needed to find a place for. Well.. we figured we could do it all at night and went out during the day. :)

There were about 30 of these bright yellow birds flying outside our window. Since I keep my camera on the windowsill, I got some good shots. I don't know what this bird is, but I had fun watching them all.


On Saturday, the weather was so nice that we had to get out. But to safely test my ankle we went on a flat and short hike. We headed to the glacier to hike the Nugget Falls Trail. The skies were so blue and clear!


The hike to Nugget Falls was easy, but with such a great day it was filled with tourists! Not a big deal, I mean look at what we saw!


It really was super easy to get there, especially with how close you were able to get to the falls. As you can see by the other tourists. They're also good to see how large this waterfall was. It was just beautiful and the glacier was just right next to it. Surrounded by a full circle of beauty.

We've been watching a lot of the travel channel lately and have been surprised at how much Alaska is on there. Hey, we're new to cable. :) But where we didn't expect Alaska was on the country's 10 Most Extreme Beaches. Mendenhall Lake beach makes that list. Why? Because that is the lake with the glacier in it. Which means you can swim with icebergs and the water never gets warmer than 40 degrees. Apparently, though, on the hot days this is what the locals do. Some even on the cold days and they bring hot chocolate in thermos' to warm up. After the hike, Eric was pretty hot so he considered going in. First, he tested with his hands - not bad. Then he took of his shoes and tested with his feet and calves - a bit chilly, but he still thought he could handle it. After 30 minutes of contemplating...


He finally went in!! He told me to take a bunch of pictures because he wasn't posing and he wasn't going this alone again. He walked in to his waist, dove all the way in and promptly walked right back out.


But you can see - he had a good time. :)

The glacier has been a popular place for bear sightings, if you remember in my last post or two. We were still on the hunt for the Mama and her 3 cubs, but had slowed down on search with the ankle sprain. We decided to walk the popular trail for bears just to see if we'd see any. Too our surprise we got to see the Mama and her 3 cubs!!!!!! They were hiding under a tree, eating their freshly caught salmon. Look, I got one peeking out!


There was a small open space next to the tree and the Mama was out checking out the area and if we were any threat. The humans were the caged animals in this park, but this bear could easily hop over the fence if she wanted to. Fortunately, there was a ranger making sure nobody got too close. This was good because a lot of tourists can be dumb. Most people know to never get between a Mama and her cubs, yet these tourists were sticking their hands through the fence just to get a good picture. The Mama was even popping her jaw as a sign of anxiety.


But look at how cute these little guys are!!!!!!! Gosh, I just want to grab one and take them home with me. I can't get over how cute they are! They walked into the open path and we were fortunate to see them just going about their day for about an hour.


We even got to see the cubs wrestling and playing around with each other. One cub even went up to the fence and poked his head through. But I had my camera on manual focus and I couldn't focus it fast enough. They are just too dang cute!!


This was by far the best bear experience we've had!! And as Eric put it - probably the best experience we'll ever have. (Well, stay tuned for the next post because it DID get better.)

On Sunday, we decided to do another somewhat relaxed hike. The ankle felt fine yesterday, I just walked slow. This trail we decided to do a trail with a little incline. With Eric's parents coming in just a couple days, I didn't want to be sitting on the couch while they went out and explored. So we headed out to Douglas Island for this trail. To our surprise it was a wide open meadow. Not something we've seen out here before. With no trees it was super hot, but it was nice to feel the warmth. Eric will disagree with that statement. :)

The rest of the weekend we tried to sit outside, read and fly the super kite Eric's Mom bought us years ago. Soaking up the sun. I even got a little color! It was a perfect weekend.

Remember how I said we'd clean. Nope - the house was a disaster by Sunday evening. Luckily, my last day at the chiropractor's I only needed to work a few hours. I happily said goodbye and went home to clean! I knew what it was going into it and while I didn't like the job I did get to meet a lot of new people and learn more about Juneau. However, the weather was perfect again Monday and so I spent the better part of the afternoon outside. Which meant we were up late that night cleaning for his parents arrival the following day.

On my way home that day, I stumbled across an eagle walking in the brush outside our stairs. It scared me a little, as I thought it was a bear, but it was neat to see him so close. It is scary how large they actually are, they're HUGE! This was a young one - not bald yet. You can see him sitting on the branch.


Eric's parents arrived last Tuesday and they leave shortly. We've been so busy showing them around town that I started writing this blog a week ago. I thought, in order to keep this short and so I actually get this posted, I will make a new post for their stay. It's been nice having family up here, but it's also been busy! Until next time...!

I'm really starting to love this place

Of course, we still haven't experienced the fall's heavy rain or the winter's short days, but my goodness the summer is just amazing up here. I know I had my doubts and frustration a few weeks ago, but we've had some fantastic weather here lately that has completely shifted my views. With sunny days and temperatures in the high 60's we've really been getting the opportunity to go out and further explore our town. With every new trail there's always a new beauty to be found. With every new area of town explored, a spectacular new view is awaiting to be seen. With every new experience there are fond memories that will stick with me for the rest of my life.

I know I skipped my usual posting last week, so one would think that we've been busy, but mostly just lazy. This new job has lied to me. The 30-hour supposed weeks have turned into 37 hour weeks with 10 hour days. The weird thing is that the office is only open for 30 hours each week, but the Dr. likes to overbook himself and then run slow and I'm stuck there until the last patient leaves. Not what I signed up for. Sadly I haven't been able to do the things I had hoped while working this job, like look for new jobs and write my blog. I hate this job. There are only me and him on a daily basis who work there and when he keeps me there an hour later than I'm supposed to be there it would be nice if he could at least turn off the bulk of the lights while he rushes out the door just to help me out a little, but no. It is so slow and so boring there that I now look at it as getting paid to read my book and become a master at Solitaire. I have 9 days left and I cannot wait to be done.

On the bright side I am meeting some new people and making some new friends. I'm getting my design background publicized and getting some great tips on things to do here - clubs to join, trails to hike, art studios and classes to sign up for, etc. And you can't beat the commute, a 7-10 minute highway ride with no traffic ever! I even met a guy from Juneau who went to Columbia College in Chicago for film and lived in Logan Square! :)

In other news, we were finally able to find our crab source two Saturdays ago. But the mistake we made was fall for the deal - we came home that day with 7, yes 7, crabs - probably about 20 lbs. I had wanted 4, but the deal saved us a few bucks and I thought, 'What the hell I'll find recipes for all this meat!' Part of the reason too was because crab season (and maybe just Dungeness crab season) ends August 15th. So we thought if we could freeze some it would last a little longer. Afterwards we tried going to some of the grocery stores looking for a larger steamer pot so that we wouldn't just have to cook one at a time. No luck. So we headed home and started cooking. From cooking, to cleaning, to cracking, I think it took us a solid 5-6 hours. It was exhausting! You can see below the bowl on my left is just filled with crab meat, to the right the plate with the crab that still needed cracking and there was still a full crab in the sink.

Eric is officially a master of cooking these now and I got pretty good at the cracking. We filled, to the rim, an entire 1.5 quart bowl of crab meat or, roughly, a 2 liter. So let the recipe experiments and week of crab begin!

- Saturday night we just had fresh crab.
- Sunday lunch was a crab and artichoke dip. Sunday dinner was a red pepper and tomato pasta sauce (also known as Fancy Pasta) with fresh spinach and crab tossed over pasta.
- Monday lunch was the crab artichoke dip again. Monday dinner was crab cakes. My second attempt at those, with a new recipe. These were better but still lacking something. I will continue to perfect.
- Tuesday dinner was crab and artichoke pizza. This was my favorite. It was so flavorful and delicious!
- Wednesday, we froze the rest of the crab. lol. We were officially sick of it and needed a break.

Over the weekend we also finally bought hiking boots! They have become our trusty trail companions and I wonder how we did without before. Maybe we just turned around at the sight of mud before? :) Now we just tromp through it! So in order to break in our new shoes we decided to do the airport trail, which was not even 2 miles (one way) and mostly flat. Below is one of the views - a new mountain view we hadn't seen before. There were sea lions swimming in the water here.

Below if you look closely, you can see the airport runway with the glacier behind it. What a cool airport, don't you think? This was one of my favorite views on the trail. I just found it entertaining and awesome.

The trail wasn't much but it's a nice walk and it was the perfect length because my shoes started bothering me. We got high shoes for their ankle support and I can't remember the last time I wore gym shoes with ankle support - so I just wasn't used to it and my ankles wanted to breath. Although, this trail did remind me a little of Savannah because it was marshy with little waterways going through it.

During the week, we got invited by Eric's boss to join her and her dog, Cooper, on a trail on North Douglas. Douglas is the island across the channel from Juneau. We had yet to go anywhere on North Douglas and so we happily accepted. This has become my new favorite place. The trails in this area are just beautiful and the views you find are just stunning.

You can hear waves crashing, which is always relaxing, along with eagles singing and the views are completely uninhabited - no houses, no bridges, just beauty. There's not even hardly any people there either, making this the perfect peaceful place.

This past Friday evening we decided to head out to Mendenhall Glacier because the newspaper had printed a photograph of a Sow (Mama bear) and her 3 cubs walking across the road to get to the glacier. The article also said that because the Sockeye salmon are spawning in creeks off the glacier, that bear activity in the area has increased. So we went out to see what we could see! Once we got there we hiked the most common tourist trail, but also the one that follows the creek, with no luck. However, we did see something we never have before...

Can you tell what it is? It's a porcupine! In a tree! Who knew they could climb trees? Because I sure as heck would've never looked for them there. Another man on the trail pointed it out to us. I need to research this more. Do they fall out of trees? Because if so, we're going to have to start looking up..

We ran into a student that was working in Eric's Pharmacy who told us we missed a bear and a glacier calving (when parts of the ice break off of it) by about 40 minutes. Argh! So close! But apparently, it was one or the other - they both happened around the same time. We would've probably been in bear territory, but I would've rather seen the calving. The glacier was a beautiful deep blue when we got to it, where the ice broke off.

This past weekend was supposed to be nice weather and Eric was trying to drag me to the top of Mt. Roberts. Now, it was going to be a cheater hike, because we were going to take the Tram half-way up. But what remains was 2-3 miles with a 2000 ft. elevation gain. I can feel my lungs tightening in my chest just thinking about it! Luckily for me, the weather was cloudy and rainy. Since we had hyped ourselves up for a hike, we decided to do the Lemon Creek trail because it is covered with high evergreens and so can be used as protection from the rain. This is where our hiking boots came in handy! The trail was filled with mud, muck and muddy puddles. We had hiked a bit of this trail before, but hiked a lot further that day. It looked like a rain forest in there. Okay, so Juneau is a rain forest. But when I think rain forest I think of the Amazon. This trail made me feel like I was in the Amazon with all it's plants, trees, streams, falls, and puddles. It eventually started raining harder and our makeshift tree umbrellas were no longer being useful, so we headed back home.

Sunday was cleaning day. Another bad weather day but we had a lot to do around the house. Eric's parents are coming 2 weeks from today and our spare bed still has stuff on it that we need to find a place for. Plus with me working and us hiking in mud, we needed to clean. Later in the afternoon the rain stopped, so we decided to go out to North Douglas, where we heard there was good fishing, and continued to attempt this new skill.

As you can see, Eric caught one! But with our limited knowledge as to what fish is edible or not, we put him back. You see we have a little book that has the most commonly caught fish - mostly salmon - and this guy wasn't in there. While walking out to our fishing spot we met some other fishers and asked if they were having any luck. They told us they only caught a few 'double-uglies'. Well... this guy is pretty ugly.. so we assumed that's what it was. This spot was a good location, Eric got a nibble just about every other cast. He then got a fighter on the line and that fighter ate Eric's lure. We lost that one. While Eric was putting a new lure on, I realized that the tide had come in a lot - almost to the point where we were going to lose our only path back to our car. He tried a few more casts with no more luck (bad lure?) and then we headed home.

After another great day in Juneau we decided after dinner to head back out to Mendenhall Glacier in search of the Sow and 3 cubs. Most of the activity was happening around 8pm at the Glacier so we got there at 7:45 just to make sure we wouldn't miss anything. The activity was almost non-existent when we got there. We saw another porcupine up in a tree and heard that the cubs were in that same tree Sunday night. (Almost!) So we walked around that same creek trail, amid way too many tourists, and finally got our bear. Not just a sighting, but a 30 minute show of this little guy eating his dinner!!

Then going to get a drink of water...


I love this picture, he's just so cute! We were hoping when he went to the water that he was going to catch another salmon (even though he had 2 large ones already), but he was just thirsty.

What a show! And we were only about 6 ft. away from him, behind a fence at least, but had he wanted to attack the fence would not have even slowed him down. He was not at all phased by everyone watching him, nor their constant camera clicking and flash. He was just happily eating away. I have about 60 photos from this 30 min. dinner - it's almost like a still-motion film. Eric and I both had fun taking pictures. What a show! What a place! We found it interesting that he didn't even eat the meat we eat on a salmon. He mostly ate the skin and the fins, the fattiest areas on a fish.
It's just amazing how close you can get to the wildlife here. We watched until he headed into the woods and then headed back home on cloud nine.

And this is the reason I'm really starting to love this place. :)