Alaska Post 6

Thanks everyone who is leaving comments! :) I will upload pictures some time after I return. Right now it is 1:45 in the after noon Alaska time Saturday August whatever.

I'm actually at the Juneau public library. They have free internet but it is timed for 30 minutes. And I just ran into the library here in shopping downtown (cute shop area). So wierd.

Okay, last night at dinner, the waiters danced for us. Two were up on tables and the rest around. Our own waiter right in front of our table. They did the one, "She hit the floor! . . . Low, low, low." Hilarious and sexy.

Still doing karaoke. More people are coming in to both sing and listen. More people recognizing me and saying "Are you the girl in karaoke." But I swear last night, had a few others . . . one gal did some Ella Fitzgerald and another guy should be being paid 3 million dollars a year from the opera. And he was so shy.

In Sitka the air was wet although it didn't really rain. Here in Juneau it is raining. Raining, raining, raining. But it is still relatively warm (I have my coat and gloves and hat and such) and the water glistening off the vegetation is nice. We took a bus to a place called Mendenhall glacier, just a really nice nature area. Saw a few salmon trying to swim upstream. It wasn't crowded, but there were still quite a few, and they are definitely large fish. I also saw two bears, quite close, because of the way the trail is built on stilts above the water and forest. So they don't care if people are taking lots of pics and they don't bother us either. Just get to watch. We also took awesome pics of the glacier and a waterfall and the moutains. Saw an eagle flying. Hard to say every detail.

I figured out what is distinctive about Alaskan houses and what makes them so cute. Number one, wood siding. Number two, steep pitched roofs (triangles). Number three, a lot of windows and details about windows. Number four, color. Could be bright, neutral, pastel, a few whites -- but there is the house color then the trim color and sometimes a roof color. Number five. Favored toward two or more stories. Number six. Often a deck or wrap around porch -- like for enjoying the sea view. Number seven. Then with all these basics, otherwise no two houses are alike -- different shapes, layouts, sizes, colors. And number eight, they are all dotted along the shore and along the incline of the local mountain and among the trees -- each property is inclined also and so the two or more stories of the house are built into the hill of their plot. There are a decent number of apartment buildings too that follow the same basic idea.