Our New Home

Hi there!  It's Jonny with my first update ever.

We finally got our own place in Juneau!  It's a nice condo in between downtown and the valley. Let me show you where that is.

Here is where Juneau is located in the state of Alaska.

And here is where our new condo is located in relation to downtown Juneau (where Audrey works.) I work in the valley, which is in the opposite direction. We are the black star on the map. Auke Bay, to the northwest of our condo, is where the ferry dropped us off when we arrived.  For scale, we are about 5 miles from downtown Juneau.

  Here is what it looks like!

The complex.  We live in the Tongass National Forest.

We are on the bottom.

The front door.  We already moved some boxes inside.

Our kitchen!

A decent amount of closet space.

Want to be our guest?  We have a guest room!

Oh yes... how nice it is to have a washer and dryer.

I get a lot of people asking me what the weather is like.  I think a video of the view from our living room windows will give you a good idea.

Click here to see the video!

I hope you enjoyed my first post!

-Jonny

It's Still Snowing!

It sure has been snowing a lot lately! But this IS Alaska, after all. Rather than trying to fight it, Jonny and I decided to have a little fun today and build a snowman! Check out the snowfall.

Click here to see it snowing!

Jonny builds the base.

Rolling out the head.

Putting on the head.

Making his face!

Posing with our snowman!

Happy snowman.

The Barbies saw how much fun we were having, so they decided to make a snowman of their own too!

It sure was a fun snow day for us! Stay warm out there!

Sadie's Walk

Today Jonny and I were asked to walk the dog. We figured that we should go somewhere special, so we decided to take Sadie for a walk across Mendenhall Lake and see the glacier!

The view by the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor's Center.

Walking out onto the frozen lake.

The lake covered by snow.

Sunshine!!

Posing with Sadie.

Iceberg!

Snowy peninsula.

Sunshine on the icebergs.

Walking on water.

The edge of a glacier.

Walking up to it!

 More bergs.

Awesome ice tunnel!

Jonny, Sadie and I climbed up onto the glacier for a picture! We could hear the ice creaking forward.

Jonny standing by the glacier.

My turn to pose!

 Our snowy XtraTufs.

Licking an iceberg!

Icy kisses.

Time for a snack!

Sadie enjoying herself.

Sunlight through the ice.

Jonny lounging in a berg. Doesn't he look like an Alaskan already?

I think Sadie enjoyed her walk, don't you?

Hope you all had as great a day as we did!

Welcome to Juneau!

I received a text from my friend Jason that Juneau was expecting 3-4 inches of snow the morning we arrived. By the time we got the message, there were already several inches of snow covering the roads! Our cars were loaded with as much as we could fit into them, so they were really over-weighted. It was also very dark, and snow was still falling- this was going to be a challenge.

Jonny's car is a Subaru with all-wheel drive, so it was able to make it through the unplowed roads without too much of a challenge. MY car, on the other hand, is an Accord with two-wheel drive. Because it was so over-weighted in the back and its drive wheels are in the front, it actually got stuck. We were driving to my cousin's house (who lives on a large hill) and because of all the snowfall, my car just couldn't make it! I got stuck on the hill! Luckily, Jonny and I had practiced putting cables on the tires back home, so we got out of our cars, got down on our hands and knees, and strapped on the cables. It was so cold that we couldn't feel our hands, but we got it done! It took everything my car had, but it finally made it! We were absolutely exhausted when we reached my cousin's house at 4:30, so we crashed for a few hours until the sun came up.

 When we awoke, this is what we saw! These are the front steps of the house.

This was my car!

Here are some more snowy pictures!

 Jonny, Jason and I were asked to shovel the driveway, so we put on our jackets, picked up some shovels and got to work! Jonny's Vans weren't up to the task, so he donned cousin Bob's XtraTufs for the day.

Jason cut the work in half with the use of this awesome snow blower! I had no idea these things even existed!

Just look at how thick this snow is!

Shoveling was fun, but it sure was a lot of work!

Later, we got some pictures of the mountains that border the town. They are absolutely lovely with snow on them!

In this picture, you can see a frozen lake in the foreground.

Here's another as we passed the frozen lake.

After walking around in so much snow without the proper footwear, Jonny's feet were pretty cold and wet. The only cure? A brand new pair of XtraTufs!

You can't live in Southeast Alaska for long without having a pair of these bad boys. So much better than a pair of soggy Vans. Goodbye California shoes, hello "Southeastern tennis shoes!"

Stay tuned for more!