Spring is in the air!

I can smell Spring in the air - literally!  Life is starting to stir in the wetlands and bogs in town, and with the rain and snow we've had lately, you can smell that spring "wet dirt" smell everywhere.  I've heard that Juneau has the freshest air in the world, possibly due to the Taku winds that blow strongly here, chasing all of the bad air out.  And there is nothing like fresh salty ocean air - there truly is a difference.  Today as we were driving home from church, the sun was shining brightly through the holes in the clouds and the snow-capped mountains were so beautiful.  But you can also hear the rush of water that is pounding down the mountains as the snow melts - waterfalls are everywhere.  I can only imagine what it is like higher up as the water has no deterrent to the whatever path it wants to take as gravity does it's thing.  During high tide, the birds are especially active now and the "humans" are out, too.  We saw someone out in a small row boat, towing a kayak in our cove - in Auke Bay (near us) there is a kayak rental place that is quite popular in the summer with the tourists.  With daylight savings time just starting, it will stay light until after 7 p.m. and our cove should get very active with the late afternoon high tide.
With spring comes the cruise ships - generally, the first ship docks the first week of May.  A friend at church told me that the daily paper has a listing of what ships will dock in Juneau harbor each day, when they will depart and how many passengers are on board.  At the height of the season, as many as five super-large cruise ships may be in port at any one time.  The anticipation has already started with many tourist attractions posting ads for seasonal help, stores are starting to order inventory (remember how long it takes to get things here!) and restaurants are starting to plan for their summer menus (heavy on seafood for the many tourists that arrive!).  An editorial in the morning "Empire" newspaper was written by someone from Ketchikan (south of Juneau along the Inside Passage) suggesting that more than 900,000 cruise ship passengers will visit their small town in 2012 (May through September), a 7% increase over 2011.   Juneau will probably see over 1 million passengers during the 2012 season.  This is a good thing since many shop and small business owners rely on this income to tide them over during the "off season", but also makes life very different for the locals.  It will be interesting since I work downtown, within sight of the cruise ship docks, and will see daily how it affects life there, yet I live "out the road" just past the point (the ferry dock) where most visitors go.  I think I will enjoy the vitality of the summer season but look forward to the quiet of my little place.  I'll let you know what reality is when the season starts in about seven weeks!

 I leave you with some eagle photos taken from my deck today - I know from traveling to Eagle River, Wisconsin, for years that eagles mate for life and that they could have up to three eaglets in the late spring/early summer.  Currently, there are four or five eagles that fly around daily and sit in the trees in our cove.  I will look closely to see when (or if!) little eagles start to take flight.  And, of course, I will post pictures as things change (baby eagles, tour boats and all things "summer" in Juneau!)  You should visit - really!!