Worst Blog Writer

As we’ve all learned… I’m apparently a terrible blog writer. While ultimately it comes down to laziness, spring and summer weather is now among us and it’s time that us Alaskans get out and enjoy all this light that we now have! We’ve been really busy the past couple of months, but busy with enjoying things here… not busy because of work. (Thank goodness!)

Now I know I never finished our New Zealand photo/story blog, but uploading photos to this blog can be rather tedious and slow – part of what deters me from writing. So this time, just an update, with maybe only one or two photos. :)

We made it through the hard part (winter of darkness), and in hindsight it really wasn’t that bad. Ask us this again in January and I’m sure we’ll beg to differ. The nice thing is once the end of January hits we significantly gain light, 5 minutes each day (or 35 minutes of light every week) – and that quickly adds up. Once Spring hits (March 21^st) we gain even more. Currently I think we have about 17.5 hours of sunlight, maybe 18, and we’re still 3 weeks from summer solstice.

In March we had a few visitors, Eric’s parents came up in the middle of the month and spent a lot of time cross-country skiing at the glacier. I was stuck at work, but sounded like they had an awesome time. Eric’s Dad, Emil, made a fast friend in Sadie. He would take naps on the couch and she wouldn’t stop licking his face. Unlike him, he misses her now. A few days later, we had a friend get stuck in Juneau for a day while on her way to Sitka, AK for a pharmacy rotation. She was with a friend of hers and so we spent the whole day showing those two around. A few more days after that our friends, Matt and Meagan, were next to come up and visit. Unfortunately they didn’t get the best of weather, and only saw the mountaintops on the drive to the airport. But we had a good time cooking, drinking and laughing. We did not have a good time taking Sadie to the vet – she got porcupined.

Over 200 quills were pulled out of her snout, mouth (yes, in her mouth), front and back paws and legs. We were hiking near the glacier and while still trying to train her off the leash, she got a scent of one and didn’t come back. Eric found her shaking the porcupine in her mouth and then had to drag her back to where we were. We were, unfortunately, 2.5 miles into the trail and had to hike her back to the car to get her to the vet. Funny thing is, the whole way back to the car she kept sniffing around like nothing had happened. Only every once in awhile would she stop and look at us with sad, sad eyes, as if to say, “Ok guys, can you take these things out now?” The vet was done within 2 hours, and outside of sleeping for the rest of the day she was fine.

After they left, we did absolutely nothing! We were so exhausted of hosting guests and cleaning for pretty much 3 weeks straight. For the next three nights I think we just spent the evenings on the couch watching the TV shows we wanted to watch. :)

Then, it was time to get to work. We (Okay I) devoted April to Home Improvement Month. There were tons of projects I wanted to do, that I just got tired of never getting done. We painted the master bedroom, installed some new lighting, painted the kitchen - was going to install a backsplash and then became too scared to do it on our own so returned everything and settled with paint – picked out new carpet, ordered new blinds for the bedroom and found black-out curtains. Then we also did some spring cleaning and CraigsList selling.

In May, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary by attempting to make Chicago pizza (not perfect, but pretty good) and eating the top tier of our wedding cake that we froze and flew up here (in case you were wondering, it was DELICIOUS!).

We also took lots of advantage of Juneau Appreciation Days – weekends where local businesses and tours offer locals very heavily discounted prices. Our first tour was a whale and bird watching boat cruise up to Berners Bay, north, in hopes to catch a fish run that the humpbacks love. Well, we missed it, but saw a few whales and learned a lot about the birds up here. Our next tour was the Taku Lodge, Flight and Feast. We got to take a float plane (or sea plane as my Dad calls it) over the Juneau Icefield, saw tons of glaciers along the way, and landed at a remote lodge that has a pretty stellar view of No Name Glacier. I got to fly co-pilot on the way there which was pretty awesome and the landings were the smoothest we’d ever experienced. Once there we got to explore the area while some staff cooked us a massive salmon lunch. We had glacier water, pink and white salmon, homemade breads, beans and salad. Everything was so delicious! After lunch, Eric met up with a worker who he knew through the Pharmacy. While they were chatting, I was just sitting on a picnic bench enjoying the views and the perfect weather we were having when all of a sudden a very large black bear appeared only about 20 ft away from me. I briefly panicked, slowly stood up and while the dogs ran away the bear kept moving towards me. I should note, that the salmon they cooked us for lunch was cooked on a grill outdoors, only about 8 ft. from where I was sitting. The bears, we were told later, were accustomed to it and would usually stop by for the burnt on pieces. So while I thought the bear was coming towards me, he was actually going straight for the grill and could’ve cared less about me. Once some of the big guys came outside with big sticks I felt safe enough to slowly walk farther away from it and then watch him from a safer distance. When the tour was coming to an end, we were invited by Eric's friend to come spend a weekend there - something we are planning for June.

Our last tour of Juneau was a helicopter ride to a glacier, where we could walk around on it. Fortunately they flew over a different area than we did with the float plane so we only got to see more of the beauty that surrounds us. Being on the glacier was, of course, fantastic, though not as cool as the one in New Zealand. We were fortunate to have had beautiful weather for all trips except the boat tour. Which means we were walking around he glacier surrounded by snow, without any coats on.

That about catches us up I think. We went to Anchorage for the long Memorial Day weekend and had a great time there - we ate good food, shopped, and climbed to our very first peak. I haven't gone through any of my photos from anything mentioned in May so perhaps the next time I will post some. I might look into a new type of blog - one that makes uploading photos easier. Anyone have any suggestions? Or maybe I should just look for a photo gallery that I can create and then link it here.

But now we start our busy summer season of family coming to visit and us going to see family. Tomorrow marks one year since we've been in Chicago and yesterday marked one month until we get to be there again. We cannot wait and hope to see as many of you as possible! Until next time...

New Zealand, Part 1

Well, we're back from Hawaii. The bags are unpacked. Fred has gone home. So, as I promised - a more detailed look into our fantastic honeymoon!

Ok, keep in mind I started writing this on our way back. Some things may sound a little outdated.

After 3 weeks, we are back. Sadly. :) We had so much fun on our honeymoon and even though we were gone for 3 weeks, it barely feels like we were gone for one. I wish we could have stayed longer… and going back to snowy/cold Juneau has been no easy task. I have been dreading the winter here, with it’s no sun, lots of snow, and gloomy days. Spending 3 weeks in perfect weather, while fantastic, just makes returning home all the harder. Normally after two weeks on vacation I get homesick and find myself ready to come home. That didn’t happen this time. Maybe it’s because we’ve been all over the place this year or because it took us three weeks to move to Juneau or maybe because Juneau doesn’t quite yet feel like home. In any regards, I take that to mean that if I’m not homesick after three weeks of travelling, then it’s because I’m having a pretty good time.

Our first two weeks on the South Island of New Zealand were absolutely fantastic. Two weeks there is not nearly enough. I don’t even feel like I saw half of the South Island, and that’s only half the country! We could’ve easily spent the entire three weeks there and I probably still would’ve felt the same. New Zealand is just gorgeous! And the people are so friendly! I loved it there. I won’t go into too many details, but I will give you the highlights – which in Jill’s writing terms, means it will probably be a lot. :)

It took four flights and a whopping 28 hours of travelling for us to arrive in Nelson, NZ – right on the north central tip of NZ. I know this may be hard to believe, but it was a lot easier than I expected; probably because I expected it to last forever! NZ Air is voted as one of the top airlines to fly with and I can definitely agree with that.

After spending one night there to catch up on sleep we then headed NW up to Kaiteriteri and Abel Tasman N.P. You can only see the park by boat or by hiking. We did both. We took a boat up the coast of the park, where they dropped us off and we hiked our way back. We got to see a seal colony along the way and some penguins swimming in the water. It was a beautiful day and we had a great hike. From there we headed further NW to visit The Spit. The Spit is a very thin stretch of sand dunes. Thin because it’s surrounded by water on both sides of it. What makes this place interesting is that it is a natural bird sanctuary. We got to see Spoonbill birds, herons, jellyfish, and Black Swans that we didn’t even know existed, along with some other birds. Where we stayed here we had the best lamb either of us have ever eaten.

From there we drove back through Nelson, to head NE to the Marlborough Sounds area. We stumbled upon a hidden B&B that offered us a very heavily discounted rate to get our own apt. on the cliffs of the sound because we just showed up last minute. We were also welcome to join them for dinner, so of course we said Yes! Our stay in Marlborough Sounds was definitely one of the highlights of this trip. We did part of the Marlborough Track hike to see this:

This is a screen shot taken from the photo book that I made, in order to properly share the beauty. Remember - I think you can click on an image and it will enlarge in a new tab.

A wraparound view of the sounds. It was breathtaking. One of my favorite spots. We sat there for hours just looking around. Our hosts were fantastic and we decided to stay a 2nd night because we were having so much fun with them. They had a beautiful home and even though we had our own apartment, they welcomed us to join them whenever we wanted. Our first home cooked meal from them was Whitebait, a very expensive local fish, so small and not much flavor to them on their own… so I don’t really understand the high price for them, but they cooked them nicely for us. Followed by Hoaki – another local fish, which was great. Our 2nd day there we were invited to join Terry on his boat to collect fish for dinner. A free boat ride in the Marlborough Sounds? Sounds awesome to us! So he tells us to hop on his tractor to ride down to the water – I thought we were going to die. The roads in the sounds are steep with very sharp curves and here we are hanging on, essentially, with our own balance. Once in the water, in a very small boat, we got splashed with freezing waves, but motored right next to some penguins! Our first mission was mussels. Look at the size of the mussels up here:

HUGE! This picture was taken at a restaurant, but is necessary to see how large and how green they are. Apparently in NZ they don’t even eat the black shelled ones. Anyways, has anyone ever watched the show “Coastwatch”? It’s a show based on the NZ shores because some people collect too many fish and the police catch them. I’ve only caught the show a couple times and don’t actually know what they are trying to catch. But our experience getting the mussels almost made us feel like we would be appearing on that show. Terri took us to a mussel farm in the water where he told us that individuals were welcome to collect a bucket of them every so often. Yet, once he was filling the bucket he kept looking all around – as if preparing himself for a “Coastwatch” police officer. It took us awhile to get a whole bucket full and my mind started freaking out – foreigners stealing mussels?

We got our bucket safely and then moved on to collect his fishing net. He caught a few Flounders and a Monk Fish. All three items, were then later prepared for our dinner. Once we got back home, utterly freezing, we were guided by Jackie to have a glass of wine or beer and head into the hot tub to warm up. The hot tub’s locale had a gorgeous view of the sounds and was equipped with a TV to also entertain us. The way we were treated there was like Heaven. Despite it being slightly over our budget, frugal Eric was enjoying every minute of it. For dinner that night we were served a thai-coconut mussel soup, pan-fried flounder and monkfish. Breakfasts were just as delicious. All homemade and all fantastic.

Wanting to stay a third night, but figuring we should move on we packed up and drove to Pounakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks.
I think you can see why they are called that. You’re supposed to visit these at High Tide because the water swells up into holes and creates a geyser-like effect with water.

We didn’t stay here too long, as that was the main attraction. Then finally, we headed toward the West Coast to Franz Josef’s Glacier. This was our next highlight, as tomorrow we were going to be hiking the Glacier. I really didn’t expect it to be as cool as it actually was, and I Highly recommend everyone do this once in your life. We had our first bad weather day but the hike continued on. Fortunately, the company we booked the trip with provided you with all sorts of water-resistant clothing and extra warmth layers. It was grey, gloomy, and pouring down rain. Despite the bad weather, we still enjoyed every minute of it. We did a half/day hike, or about 4 hours, with about 2 hours on the actual glacier. First, you have to climb up. Then, you have to climb up some more. Then, you put your cramp-ons on to walk safely on the glacier. Then, you get to the ice caves with the beautiful blue ice shining inside. These were tight little spaces that even I had a hard time getting through, let along Eric. But that was the coolest part. The ice caves were such a blast.

Despite the cold, the rain, and all the ice surrounding you I didn’t even notice I was cold until the bus ride back home. I was also exhausted. They carve steps in some areas on the ice to make it easier to climb up, but the steps are about as high as my knees – I could not properly use my thighs to walk anything but a straight-line for three days afterwards. But as soon as I got off the ice, I was ready to do it all again. It was such a blast. The next morning we woke up to this:

In that valley is the glacier. What a difference, huh?

Next, was Wanaka - my favorite town throughout the whole trip. The drive from Franz Josef to Wanaka is a must do for everyone. Within 20 miles we saw about 15 waterfalls – not measley little ones but large, raging ones! You could hike 5 minutes off the road to stand right in front of some of them. Then the closer you get to Wanaka you see beautiful snow-capped mountains all around you, with a lake and town in the center. There was not a bad view anywhere in that town. We stumbled across another great B&B there that gave us a stellar deal – better than their local campsite and free breakfast because we were on our honeymoon. Here’s one of my favorite shots of the town:

Wanaka had a similar trail to the one in Marlborough Sounds, where you could take a short hike to get a beautiful 360˙ view of the town. We had perfect weather here and the views continued to amaze us.

Later that day we headed to PuzzleWorld – a house of mind games, mazes, and puzzles. And the best part? Most of it is free! We spent hours there until our heads hurt. They have probably close to 40 board game-like puzzles that you just sit at their tables trying to figure out. If you get stumped, an employee will help teach you the trick.

Next post will cover our visit to Fjordland. I loved this area - another memorable part of the trip. And I have so many amazing photos from here, that I thought best to save for the next post. :)

A Short Update before I go into more detail..

Well, I know it may seem that I have completely abandoned this blog, but I haven’t! In actuality, I stare at a computer all day long and when I come home I don’t want to look at the computer screen anymore. Instead of making excuses, perhaps I should just get to the updating.

I think I last left off way back in early October, shortly before leaving on our honeymoon. Gosh – I’m almost hitting 6 months from my last update? Sorry guys. Well, we had a fantastic time on our honeymoon. It may have taken us 28 hours to get there, but we are already discussing going back again. Funny enough I started writing a blog on our way home from our 3 weeks, giving a detailed description of what we did. But I never had a chance to finish it and so I never uploaded it. Perhaps after this one I will put that up. A short recap, then.

We flew from Juneau to Seattle to L.A. to Auckland to Nelson, at the North tip of the South Island. We spent our 2 weeks there road tripping along the Northern coast and then down the West coast. Everywhere we went was absolutely stunning. We had some pretty awesome experiences – stealing mussels from a Mussel Farm with a local and fearing that we might wind up on that show Coastwatch; hiking on a glacier; seeing a 360˙ view of a beautiful Sound; seeing baby sea lions, baby dolphins and penguins; seeing an adult dolphin jump 6 ft. out of the water; spending 2 perfect days on a boat in Fjordland with still waters, clear skies and beautiful scenery. I could go on and on, but I’ll save that for the next post that goes into more length and has photos.

After 2 weeks there, we flew to Raratonga in the Cook Islands for a week of sun and beach fun. While the temperature and relaxation were great, the island and beach were only so-so. Florida has better beaches than Raratonga. We don’t ever feel the need to go back here, except maybe for the bananas. They were the freshest, sweetest bananas we had ever eaten and probably consumed about 20 of them while there. When we first ate one back home, I couldn’t even finish it – it tasted awful. We also rented a scooter and Eric had a blast driving that – he had to get an official Cook Islands driver’s license in order to do so and proudly shows it when at a bar and is asked for an ID. Another highlight was we got inked by a squid and then got to see him swim quickly away – we think we woke up him and he got startled. We did have fun, don’t get me wrong but Florida or Hawaii is closer. J

Once returning home, life was utter chaos. Work consumed my life through the rest of the year. I was working long days every week trying to get everything done. Around Thanksgiving, since we have the holidays off, we had 3 days to get out 6 papers. And of course, normally have 5 days to get out 6 papers. On top of all the daily’s we also had to build our Juneau Guide – the tourism magazine for the year and the Legislative Guide - for the legislative season. On top of all that I had 2 designers leave and finding a replacement even now in February has been a hard task to accomplish. There is a lack of designers in Juneau, and an even harder time finding one with any experience.

Around Thanksgiving, we decided that we would drop into the local animal shelter and see what dogs they had available. I don’t remember if I ever mentioned this, but dogs hardly ever exist in the shelter up here unless they are old or have a serious medical problem. Most people will adopt their dogs in the Lower 48 and fly them home to Juneau. Well, on the one day we stopped in they happened to have a dog they found on the street just go up for adoption that day. Once they find a dog, they give the potential current owners 10 days to claim their dog. If nobody calls asking about them, they go up for adoption. We came in on day 9 or 10, before this dog was ever even listed as an adoption option. After 3 days of them checking our references, we adopted Awesome – of which we have changed her name to Sadie. She’s a 1-1 ½ year old mutt with short black hair and a white chest with glacier blue eyes. The shelter thinks she’s a husky/lab/hound mix. She’s become our baby – totally spoiled.

In other news, I successfully cooked my very first Thanksgiving – not only was everything delicious but everything was ready at the same time. I was impressed with that and how much easier it was than I thought it would be. We had our first big snow storm and found out our car could not handle the hill we live on or really even the roads, so we bought a new 4-wheel drive Subaru Forester. Mom and Dennis came up between Christmas and New Year’s to spend the holidays with us. Unfortunately, they were here during some of our shortest days and didn’t get to explore too much. But they had fun and relaxed and Mom now misses Sadie more than me.

Winter has been tough for us, but now we have about as much sunlight as Chicago does. Our shortest days were about 5.5 hours of daylight. But if it rained and was cloudy – it almost seemed like it was night the whole time. When we have sunny days, even if it was only for 6 hours Juneau covered in snow with the sun shining looks like a Christmas card. It’s just beautiful. Fortunately, we got Sadie just in time because she forces us to go outside to walk and play with her. One of our favorite things to do here in the winter is to go ice-skating on the frozen lake down the street from our house. We’ve started taking Sadie with us and are trying to teach her how to mush. She loves running and she’s got husky in her – so she pulls us on our ice skates and we just glide along. Eric’s training her on the ice in order to get her to go cross-country skiing with him. The glacier lake froze too, so we were able to go walking all over icebergs – that was pretty awesome! And we’ve taken our first snowboarding lesson – it was rough! I was sore for a full week afterwards, but we had a lot of fun. We spend the daylight hours of the weekend taking Sadie on trails and trying to teach her how to walk off the leash. Weather wise, the winter has been great. We’ve had only one really cold day and during the big Chicago blizzard we had 2 days of record high temperatures in the mid-40’s. That is something I love, because we can go out and play outside without freezing our butts off after 20 minutes.

In the New Year, work has calmed down some. It still remains busy, but more so because we are trying to get organize from all the chaos of last year. Eric’s job suddenly got really busy in January, but it’s since calmed down. He still enjoys it all.

As I write this, we are on a plane to Hawaii – my bribe trip of the year. (Eric said if we moved to Alaska he would take me to Hawaii once a year.) We’ll be spending a week on the Big Island of Hawaii, the one with the active volcano. Fred, Eric’s brother, came up to Juneau a couple days ago for 2 weeks and some winter fun with Eric, although now he’s watching Sadie while we’re gone. He was super awesome and brought us some Chicago pizza! And from this point on we have a guest coming through August. We also officially have 2 trips home booked, July and October, and are planning on another one over the holidays.

I think that just about covers everything exciting on our end. We hope everyone enjoyed their Holidays and survived the blizzard. Stay tuned for the next couple blogs for my full detail and pictures from the honeymoon.