Juneau

After returning from a desert roadtrip, I grabbed a short layover in Juneau to visit my brother and his family. We had great weather. Some photos from the visit:

Rosie and Baby Clay at the boatlaunch.

Its not as wet as it looks - heading to Admiralty Island to the cabin of Nathan's friend and neighbor, Skiff.

The Mendenhall Glacier makes an appearance under the clouds.

Rosie lights a fire in the cabin.

Nathan and I went out deer hunting.

...until Skiff's dog, ironically named Hunter, caught up to us, and we had to take him back to the cabin.  This is a meadow near the cabin, and the weather isn't usually like this in December.

We went back out, but didn't shoot anything.  Skiff got a nice doe, though.

Skiff and Nathan walking back on the beach.

Packing the boat to take off.

We got a Chrimmaz tree, too.

The Chilkats and Juneau.

Sea Lions.

The next day Nathan and I went "hunting" again.  Really we just took the guns for a walk.

Until we got bored of hunting and decided to just shoot guns.  Nathan is aiming for a beer can on that log.  I had already taken two shots at it, but missed both.  The veneer that sibling rivalry is something that I let pass with our youth was broken when Nathan hit the can on the first shot.  "Damnit," was all I had to say on the subject.

The gun, recently handed down by our dad, is a .41 magnum.  It passes muster as a hand-cannon and makes a satisfyingly loud 'boom' when you pull the trigger.  Nathan, as you can tell by his uniform, has embraced the life of the hillbilly.  He has even changed his accent, inexplicably using words like "crick", in spite of having lived his whole life in Alaska, the son of college-educated parents.

Clay and Jack.  Say what you will about their dad, but they're cute.

Jack hears a book about some thieving polar bears.  Clay was still taking a little time to settle down....

A beautiful trip to Juneau - thus far my experience there suggests that its warmer and nicer there in the winter than the summer.