ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS

As we prepare to head "home" I thought I should update this blog with a few favorite memories. Clearly time with family tops all other activities and "Eli" time was our priority (See http://www.wyattjourney.com/ ) but outings like the glacier tour were highlights. Dana and I walked atop Herbert Glacier just above what shows here from Lynn Canal some ten miles west.

On another outing - whale watching - we had opportunity to see local places like the Point Retreat Lighthouse and this one: Sentinel Lighthouse, the oldest in Southeast Alaska

Nearby we passed a historic, annual haulout of Steller Sea Lions. These huge marine mammals - up to 1400 pounds - gather here for weeks to fatten up prior to the breeding adults moving toward outside waters for that gala season. Immature animals remain behind and just dream, I guess. The remarkable thing at this haulout is the deep gutteral rumble that penetrates the area.

Did you ever bug your teachers for a chance to hold class outside for a change? That is not too uncommon up here as all of the outdoors is a big classroom. Here you see the combined third grades in activities at Lena Beach some 15 miles north of the regular classroom. The combined list of all the critters and beach items these kids showed me would easily fill a pile of scientific data notebooks, but the kids seem to take it all in easily and are full of the details of whether these oddities are safe, edible, useful, or hazardous in various ways. How would you use a huge hairy worm on a muddy beach at low tide?

How odd it is to feel like leaving home to "Go home". Well, That's Juneau!!