Today I figured out the bus. I need to take the 8:46 Express bus to the Auke Lake Campus Monday through Thursday. :-) I also saw for the second time something that was rather amusing: men riding bikes that had small gas motors attached. A bit strange, but it looked like it worked well. I've got class in a few minutes, and I'm in charge of the appt. until Thursday night. Still need to make contact with Beth Matthews, the woman I'm supposed to be working for this month. We'll see what happens!

When we got to the tram station and visitor center there was a lot to do...a film about the local native culture (very cool) a restaurant where if you spent 10$ it covered your ticket down on the tram, gift shops...All really nice. The view was great from the top of the observation deck was awesome, so we had to have a few pictures there.... 

So today being Memorial Day, and a nice day for Juneau, Elizabeth and I decided to hike up to the tram on Mt. Roberts. It's a two-mile hike from sea level to 1800 ft. where the tram is, the peak is another mile and a half or so up the trail. Took us about an hour and a half to make it up, which I hope is better than it did when I was 12! We're still working on getting into shape. :-P There were some great views of the city and harbor from various points on the trail, the rest of the time though we really had to watch our feet! Water breaks were frequent, as were stops to talk to other German shepherd owners....
Anyway, there was indeed some snow near the top of the trail and I decided it was time for a cheesy touristy shot of me standing in snow in the month of May for all of you. Hope you like it! Next post: The visitor center and tram! 

Yesterday was fun, I spent the morning getting my space in order, unpacking a bit, and then we took a ride to the downtown area. It's a bit different than I remember, way more jewelry stores and places for tourists to buy damn near anything. "Buy 'Made In Alaska' Here!" After the road trip we went to the Auke Village Rec Center, which was a really nice short hike out and around a short peninsula where you could see the bay and a bunch of black ducks called scoters...it was really gorgeous and definitely not as developed as the Boyscout Beach trail. :-)


 

The light coming through the trees was beautiful, the weather was 66 degress F and clear skies, a wonderful way to get reintroduced to Juneau!


















The trail comes out along the beach and there was another group of people walking ahead of us, this man was just too picturesque to resist!

















The trail passses through a boyscout camp on its way to the beach, Elizabeth and I took a detour through the rifle range to get to the beach faster!




After walking the trail, Elizabeth and I had a picnic on the beach with two of her friends, including Mary Hicks who I've been corresponding with for months now about this internship!

 

So our first hike was down the newly improved Boyscout Beach trail. When I first hiked this at 12, it was full of roots and was a bit treacherous, today however it's been raised and leveled off with gravel. I saw a woman with a broken leg taking a stroll!