Hike to Heart Lake

Today we took the dogs on a hike. The trails up here are the only places they can be off of the leash. They LOVED it. Deuce ran through every stream and checked out every waterfall on the way up. Then both Paco and Deuce swam at the lake. They didn't even notice the water was cold (and it was 55 degrees out). Since we've been back they haven't moved! On the hike up we did see lots of bear scat on the trails, but we bought the dogs bear bells so we didn't run into any unexpected company. That's a good thing!

A little update

Not much has been happening here, so I haven't really blogged in a while. We're just settling in and loving it here. Not in our house yet, but hopefully soon. Maybe that's why I've been putting off posting something because I thought I would be able to post our new address and pics of our house! Keep your fingers crossed for us. I went to Anchorage earlier this week for some training for my job. It's very laid-back and of course, beautiful. They have tons of float planes that dock at this lake near where I stayed so I took some pics of that. The other pics I'm posting are just some random pics from this week. We are really enjoying it here, meeting people, and really starting to feel at home. Sitka is a great town!

Rainy Sunday take two

Today we took advantage of the rainy Sunday and checked out the movie theater here. It's actually pretty good. Two screens (in two totally different locations) AND they change the movies out each week, so you've gotta move fast. Afterwards we went to Whale Park and took the dogs walking around. It's just a nice area where you can view whales when it's the right time. It's also just a really pretty area with lots of stairs. The dogs are still getting used to being out and about in the rain. Poor Paco's fur just soaks up all the moisture in the air! I don't think the picture does his hair justice, but anyone who knows him knows that his fur gets the crimped look when he's wet. Check out the ears!

Hope all these pics of scenary aren't starting to look the same! :) These are taken from our island looking at surrounding islands. They are a little more misty today because it's been raining pretty steady all day.

Blue Lake

After dinner last night we went driving up to Blue Lake, which is our town's reservoir. It's up in the mountains, so it was a nice drive up. It was a rather misty day but very beautiful up there. The dogs love driving around with the windows down. Beats the Super 8! We didn't see any bears, or any other wildlife for that matter. It was really quiet up there.

Pull tabs-a new obsession

We've been introduced to the Alaskan version of scratch-offs. They are called pull tabs, and they sell them at the bars here. Instead of scratching the tickets, you just pull the paper tabs back to reveal if you have a winner. It is very addictive. I won 3 whole dollars last night (which I put back into less lucky pull-tabs), so here's a pic with one of my winners for the Crown Royale pull tab game.

Rainy Sunday

Today we just laid low because it was pretty rainy. We did go out to try and bear watch after dinner. Our first attempt we didn't see anything, then we went back out about 845 and BINGO!

We saw a sow and two cubs by the river eating fish. I got the best pics that I could because it was overcast and getting dark. We were just across a stream from them. They were SO cute, but that's the closest I want to get! The other pics are from our first failed attempt (just so you won't forget what we look like! :)). I'm sure I will eventually get sick of the rain, but it was still so pretty this weekend. The clouds get SO low, and I think that is really beautiful.

Today was the first non-sunny day since we've arrived. It was considerably cooler, but MC still wore shorts after work! It pretty much looked like this all day, with fog all around the mountains. The top pic has Mt. Edgecombe (our extinct volcano) in the distance. The next two pics are just around town. The forecast for this weekend is rain, but everyone around here is happy. The nice beautiful weather we've been having means that it hasn't been raining, which means that the mountain streams are low are water, which means there are very few fish upstream, which means the bears are coming down to town! There have been quite a few people "swiped" on hiking trails in the past few weeks, so most trails are closed. AND now many people are seeing bears in their trash right here in town. It's a whole different world up here! So hopefully the weekend rain will solve the town's bear situation. Right now I think MC and I are the only ones in Sitka that haven't seen a bear. We'll keep you posted on that! :)

MC's new place

MC has been at work since the second day we've been here. I've finally got some pics of the place (the bottom pic is the hangar from the water). He's working on the jayhawk helicopters (60s), which are bigger than the dolphins he's used to. Now he's on big iron. Go Chief Smith!

A day on the water

Today a friend took us out on his boat to see the sights around Sitka. The bottom pic is one of the harbors on the island. The next two are just a few pics of the land as seen from the water. Sitka is surrounded by lots of other little islands, so we cruised around some of these. The second one from the top is of a really cool jellyfish we saw. It's a little hard to see, but it was really cool and all pinkish orangish and BIG. Way bigger than what we're used to. When we were coming back towards home we saw this sea lion (top pic) eating a fish. Wasn't fast enough to capture that, but did get a pic of him near the boat. He was pretty curious and swam up right to the boat, but he didn't surface. Really enjoyed being out on the water. A little different from South Rexas. Instead of being in 12 inches of water, most of our cruise today was in 150-200ft of water. WOW! A little bit of a change!