Mendenhall Glacier

My Dad, Netflix and Foreign Films

My dad came up to Juneau to visit recently. He came at a good time because we have been having some amazing weather up here. Mid to high 70s with very little overcast or rain. We are having a good spring and summer this year that’s for sure.

While he was here we did all the normal sight seeing stuff like visiting the Mendenhall Glacier, Eating at the Twisted Fish, Checking out the Shrine of St. Therese, ect.

One of the unexpected things we got to do was to watch some Persian movies in Farsi. I discovered that Netflix has a great foreign selection. I was able to do a Google search for some movies in Farsi that won some awards and queued them up to stream to my PlayStation 3 so we were all able to watch the movies on my television.

All the Farsi movies I found on Netflix where subtitled in English so we where all able to follow along with the movies.

I Found My Footing In Juneau With Yaktrax

This whole winter I have been slipping on ice. Ice on my drive way, Ice on the steps up to my office, Ice on side walks, and everywhere else it hides. I don’t know what makes this winter so much more special then all the other past winters, but this year it seems whenever I am walking outside I am sure to slip. I have fallen more times then I want to admit since December.

I knew that their are products you could put on your shows to help keep one from slipping and falling outside. I just had not tried to figure out what these products where.

While Hannah’s folks where staying with me, I noticed that they where waring things on their shoes. It kept them from slipping and falling during our visit to the Mendenhall Glacier. What they where wearing was called “Yaktrax“. I was so impressed with how well they where working that the next day we went out and I picked up a pair of Yaktrax to strap on to my own shoes. These things are pretty awesome. Whenever I am about to go out side I strap them on. I have not slipped for fallen since.

The idea here is pretty simple and makes sense. A rubber mesh wraps around the bottom and sides of your shoes or boots, and is secured with a velcro strap that fixes it’s self across the top of your feet. The messh on the bottom is wrapped with stainless steel coils that give you traction on ice. They are life savers.

Sunday, Hannah left Juneau for Anchorage to take some nursing classes. Her folks came into town the day before she left. The nice thing was that the day she left for the north it as very sunny. Cold, but sunny. We were able to get some morning pictures taken before she left. After her folks and I dropped her off at the airport we took a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier. Mendenhall Lake was frozen over and we where able to walk across it to the actual glacier. It was really cool.

A Cloudy Outing

The weekend has come and gone with little change in the weather. This however did not keep Hannah and myself inside the whole weekend. We went outside anyway to try and make the best of things regardless of the fact that mother nature clearly has a vendetta against Juneau right now.

We took ourselves out to Mendenhall Glacier in hopes to see some of the Sockeye salmon making their run up stream. When we got there we were lucky to find a decent parking spot because the park was packed with tourists from the cruise ships docked in town. We manage to see a few of salmon and take some pictures of them, but over all the rivers where pretty bare of fish compared to other times we have gone to see them run.

Looking out into the glacier bay we saw kayakers paddling in front of the glacier. It was quite the site to see. These people in their little boats with the glacier towering over them.

Just another day in Juneau with people making the best of bad weather.