Are we Juneauites yet?

Okay, so I would not call us locals yet.  But we're getting closer.

Ways in which we are blending in:

• We have added a Subaru Forrester to the household vehicle fleet, which after purchasing someone told us is the official car of Juneau.  
• Heard around our house - "I should go change before we head out.  This is my dressy fleece; I don't want to get it dirty."
• We had a few days of absolutely beautiful weather, almost enough to make us completely forget the gray, gloomy, wet days that came before it.
• Got the scoop on the local fishmonger.  Pulled in the parking lot - one door for customers, one door around the side for you to bring your catch.  Purchased fresh sockeye salmon for $11.98/lb. and it was DELICIOUS!
• Ask Cora where to shop for just about anything and she will loudly proclaim "Fred Meyer!"

But then there are some things that I hope never lose that feeling of "wow, isn't that amazing."  Like when we were sitting at dinner the other night and these two flew in and took up post looking out over Auke Bay harbor.

Or the ability to just walk out and experience nature at its best.  That was probably the thing we were most excited about in moving to Juneau and we're trying to get out and hike or explore as often as we can.  

Always remembering to be brave enough to try new things.  Adelaide not only survived but enjoyed soccer camp, making a new friend or two along the way.  And this week is off at Girl Scout day camp, which is "out the road," truly in the great Alaskan wilderness.  

Cora and I went on our first adventure with a Juneau outdoor family network.  After finding a tidal pool full of hermit crabs, snails and little fish, Cora called out "Friends, friends, come here and look at all these animals!"  

So we may not be Juneauites yet, but we're definitely settling in.

And then this happened...

"Earthquake" was all I heard Graham say as he nudged me awake around 3am Friday morning.  And for the next minute or so our house creaked, swayed and shook.  What an absolutely weird feeling.  I remember experiencing an earthquake back when I was in 2nd grade but I had forgotten what it actually feels like.

Routine tossing and turning, or was it the 5.9 magnitude earthquake? We'll never know how Addy ended up on the floor :)

Oh, and this...5.9 earthquake causes telecom outage in Southeast Alaska so no phones for us or most of Juneau.  An underwater fiber optic cable, now that doesn't sound easy to fix. Hmmm...

All joking aside, just glad that were was minimal to no damage, other than a loss to communications systems.

"Blueberries for Sal"

Kurplink.  Kurplank.  Kurplunk.

...go the blueberries into the buckets Little Sal and her mother use when they are blueberry picking on blueberry hill in Blueberries for Sal.  Little Bear and her mother are also there, enjoying the tasty berries.  Little Sal and Little Bear are both so enjoying blueberry picking they get mixed up and Little Sal follows Mother Bear and Little Bear follows Little Sal's mother.  All ends well, though.

We couldn't help but recall that story while blueberry picking tonight.  Thankfully no one in our story got mixed up.

The hillside was full of sweet and flavorful blueberries

Doesn't everyone end blueberry picking with a little creek walking?

Mendenhall Glacier, Nugget Falls & Our Junior Ranger

The sun was still shining a few days later and so off we went again...this time to the glacier.

So the lake and streams are fed by the glacier, right?  Without any scientific measurements, any guesses on the water temperature?  Let's just say ICE COLD.  Did that keep our girls out of the water?  Nope.  

The water is such an interesting color.  In this picture, it almost looks muddy but it's this grayish color and as soon as you look at it, you can tell the color comes from all the silt generated by the glacier.

So at this point, we made it as far as the Visitor's Center.  Adelaide has been at soccer camp for 3 hours of pretty much nonstop running for the last 4 days.  She recognized, to her credit, that she'd prefer to stay at the Visitor's Center with Grandma Sherry and explore that while Graham, Cora and I hiked out to Nugget Falls. 

So off we went on a 2-mile round trip hike out to falls.  Cora led the way.  The entire mile out there.  I carry a bear bell because it makes me feel better (clearly not a true local yet) but there was no need for it, as Cora talked and sang the entire way there.  Here she is leading the way - 

The falls, the views of the glacier, the wildflowers, and the special time that Graham and I got to spend with Cora individually...all spectacular. 

As we turned to hike back, I began to wonder if we would find a disappointed Adelaide.  Sorry that she'd missed out on our adventure.  I could not have been more wrong.  I walked into the Visitor Center to see her looking out a telescope and talking to the park ranger.  She ran up to me telling me how the ranger invited her to become a junior ranger if she completed this workbook and she already had two things checked off and on and on.  Oh, and she mountain goats.  Which she really did, through the telescope.  7 of them.  Turns out it was the perfect adventure for her.  

First Trip to Mt. Roberts Tram

The rain stopped!  And so we went out on our first Juneau adventure...a trip up the Mt. Roberts Tram.

We ate dinner at the restaurant up top, visited the nature center (sadly weren't there in time to see the raptor center with a rescued bald eagle so that's on the list for next visit), and then went on our first family hike.  We went easy and just did a short loop trail to see how the girls did.  

Pretending to be eagles in a nest

We were treated to beautiful views at the top.  Here's the channel that leads to Juneau, so if you come to visit us by cruise ship, here's your route.

 Satisfied hikers :)

So, it's been a week

As of today, we have been official residents of Juneau for one week.  And it has been a week...full of ups and downs.

The trip here went far better than even I expected.  The girls (& adults for that matter) slept very little on our overnight flights but in the end, I think that has helped us adjust quickly to the time change.  Due to a small miscommunication with the electric company, we didn't have any power when we arrived but that was quickly corrected by the end of the day.  And then there was the glacial flood, just to keep us on our toes (Jökulhlaup).  

But it's been more about the everyday.  So here are some of my reflections from one week in:

• Everyone we've met has been very, very friendly.  Regardless of the context in which we meet the person, whether it's at the church we visited or the cashier at Costco, we've been greeted with smiles and welcomes (and some interesting accents).  That said, coming from the streets of Shaker Heights where we could hardly walk out our door without bumping into a neighbor who wanted to chat or hang out at the playground, we are missing that community feel.  I'm reminding myself that we've only been here one week (a theme that will come up again)

• Our house is wonderful!  Despite the fact that we have very little of our personal belongings here with us, it is beginning to feel comfortable in that way that only your home does.  

• And when the sun is out, even the smallest bit, the landscape is beautiful.  Truly, truly beautiful.  We can drive to a glacier, have seen countless bald eagles and there are tree covered mountains every direction you turn - doesn't get much better than that!  I even got out on my very first small hike with Graham.  One day, we really were heading to the grocery store and I turned left out of neighborhood instead of right and ended up at the Mendenhall Glacier.  Absolutely break taking, and we can't wait to get back for a proper hike and visit.  And I think we may even have discovered the world's largest rhubarb in our backyard :)

The forest view on my first hike.  Graham & I joked it looked like the Ewoks should be coming through any moment.

• But, it has been so rainy and gray.  Thick clouds have blocked the sun for days.  I was anticipating the long sunny days to be a challenge, particularly with trying to get the girls and myself to fall asleep, but because it's been so overcast, it's hardly been a problem.  I knew it would rain a lot, but man, this has been tough.  

• We've made our first trips to the neighborhood Alaskan outfitters store...our purchases:  bear bells, bear spray, rain pants, Muck boots, and a rain hat for me.  I don't wear hats so for me to buy a rain hat, particularly one that looks like some sort of all-weather cowboy hat, tells you how much it's been raining!

• We have enjoyed moments of happy in finding the normal - visiting the library and seeing Adelaide absolutely ecstatic at getting her first library card.  Enjoying the park across the street from our house.  Finding an awesome neighborhood playground.

Watching the ducks at Riverside Park across the road from our house.

Climbing wall at Twin Lakes Playground

• But we've also been struggling with the pains of adjusting to the new.  Adelaide has probably been challenged the most.  Knowing that making friends will help with the transitions into a new home and new school, we signed her up for a soccer team through the city recreation department (so focus on fun and learning the game) and a soccer camp this second week.  But that doesn't make getting out there and participating in those activities for the first time any easier.  Some of her most challenging anxiety-induced behaviors have resurfaced.  We watched her essentially paralyzed and unable to take the field with her soccer team, despite the fact that she was so excited about the game an hour earlier.  Fears of new people, people cheering (which I think to her is a pressure about having to do well and not making a mistake), and it just generally being different than playing soccer at recess got the better of her.  We're recalling back to all we did as a family to get through the transition into kindergarten and it seems to be helping.  Tonight she had a soccer practice and we watched proudly as she went out there and ran around, talked with the other kids, and smiled.  Again, we're reminding ourselves, we've only been here on week and this has been huge change, so we just keep digging down to find the strength and energy to support each other. 

Pretty scenic view for soccer practice, huh?

Jökulhlaup

Jökulhlaup.  The newest word in my vocabulary.  Wikipedia defines it as a glacial outburst flood.  As the article from the local paper explained: "Jökulhlaup is an Icelandic word, and if you want to impress your friends (or at least that easily impressed one), use the Icelandic pronunciation: Yo-kull-hloop. The ‘h’ sound is just a quick exhalation before you go on to the loop."  

Turns out, we arrived just in time to experience one.  

We took this picture of some flooded riverbank about a ten minute walk from our house.  The picture doesn't show it well but the water is such a unique, cloudy color, which Adelaide promptly explained to me is because of the glacial silt in the water (turns out she had an interesting conversation with some locals the night before about the water!)

There had been warnings about the possibility of this flood for some time.  The water levels in the basin behind the glacier have been monitored for a few years now, particularly since the last time there was a major flood from a glacial burst.  And conditions this year indicated that the water levels were even higher.  The Juneau Empire story explains it better than I can, if you're interested: Juneau Empire: Jökulhlaup erupts from glacier

See, when we were house hunting, there was a house we found on a road called Meadow Lane that we liked a lot.  But it was right on the Mendenhall River and we were concerned about flood issues.  We talked to a bunch of people who said it hardly ever floods; nothing to worry about.  Turned out we didn't get that house.  Well, now we're here and we saw these warnings and cocky us, all we could think is, phew, glad we didn't end up buying that house by the river.  Then Sherry was reading the paper on Thursday morning...she saw the lists of streets possibly impacted and started searching for Meadow Lane (#1 in photograph, caption "aren't we glad we didn't get that house by the river???").  But then she also found our street, Parkview Court (#2 caption "oh, crap").  

Graham went out to run a quick errand and on the way back they already had our neighborhood closed off to non-residents and were telling residents we were under an advisory evacuation.  We weren't worried at all about our house, but the streets we use to get to our house are close enough to the river to potentially be in the flood zone.  

So in a way it's good that all our household goods aren't here yet because packing an overnight bag was really easy.  We had just unpacked it.  Repacked it, threw it in the car, but thankfully never needed it. 

Razor scooters, a coffee pot and fleeces

We are just under 24 hours to departure, and I'm packing our luggage.  Technically repacking.  We moved out of Shaker home June 18 and our household goods are not projected to be delivered to our home in Juneau until July 30.  So aside from the standard clothes and toiletries, what do you take with you in your luggage to set up home and life for those first few weeks?  Here's what's in our bags (I can only imagine what TSA is going to think when it screens some of these suitcases!)

For the kitchen:

• 12" skillet & saucepan with lid
• Coffee pot
• Set of 6 dishes, bowls & cups
• Set of silverware & a few wooden spoons for cooking
• Measuring cup, can opener
• Mixing bowl
• Wine bottle opener

For the bedrooms:

• 3 sets of sheets & some blankets
• Flower wall decals from the girls' old bedrooms

For the girls:

• 2 Razor scooters complete with helmets & knee pads
• 2 sets of soccer shoes, shin guards & socks (Addy has soccer camp the 2nd week we're in Juneau, and we all know Cora will want to play around, too)
• Girl Scout vest & day camp gear (Addy has Girl Scout day camp the 3rd week we're in Juneau)
• Toys, a few board games and books

As for clothing, we had to pack both for a few weeks at the lake and a few weeks in Juneau, so, barring a freak heat wave that allows us to wear our bathing suits in Alaska, the new neighbors might come to know us as "those people who wear the same fleece everyday." 

And of course all Graham's bar exam study gear.