Today was a sunny day in Juneau - I'm sitting here this morning watching eagles, herons, and hummingbirds outside my window waiting for the 80+ temperature that is predicted. The sky is perfectly blue and the snow still on the mountains is reflecting the sun. On the way home each night we see lots of fishing boats. They are anchored in the harbor in small groups and I hope they are catching something - I haven't found a good source of freshly-caught fish yet, but I'm still looking! There is a ban on King Salmon fishing in parts of Alaska. The State Dept of Fish & Game say that dwindling salmon numbers are due to fewer fish reaching spawning grounds and that over-fishing is to blame. Fishermen in the small coastal towns say that salmon is the main-stay of their diet and if they can't catch enough to last through the winter, they will have to rely on government hand-outs for help. Sport fishing in Alaska is a huge industry and some say the ban is only to save bigger King's for the pay-to-play fisherman. However, without that income, whole communities will have to relocate so it is a conundrum for sure. 
Since it was sunny today, we spent the morning on Douglas Island (a separate distinct part of the City and Borough of Juneau) taking in Gold Rush Days, a tribute to the mining and logging history of this part of the state. Today was the 
mining competitions include spike driving (five long spikes that had to be driven into a beam using the flat head of an ax - three straight down and two in the overhead beam), jack leg drilling (using a water-cooled drill to drive a long rod into a solid wall of concrete; each competitor has to drill two holes) and hand mucking (shoveling gravel into a small wheeled cart until full and then pushing the cart on a track to the finish line). After one miner did the hand mucking, he jumped into the log-rolling water pit - it was that h
ot! The venue was Sandy Beach - albeit without lifeguard chairs, inflatables and beer coolers, this beach still had it's share of families cooling off in the cold water. Gold Rush Days is advertised as a "family" event so there wasn't any beer tent, but there was plenty of BBQ (pulled pork and beef brisket) and other food and I thought it was cool to see the families (mostly young men/women with babies or toddlers), so proud of their "miner". While we watched the competition, we saw the mountains, a float plane (there are LOTS of them in Juneau) and a cruise ship sail up the Channel to it's dock downtown. I love Juneau!
Since it was sunny today, we spent the morning on Douglas Island (a separate distinct part of the City and Borough of Juneau) taking in Gold Rush Days, a tribute to the mining and logging history of this part of the state. Today was the 
mining competitions include spike driving (five long spikes that had to be driven into a beam using the flat head of an ax - three straight down and two in the overhead beam), jack leg drilling (using a water-cooled drill to drive a long rod into a solid wall of concrete; each competitor has to drill two holes) and hand mucking (shoveling gravel into a small wheeled cart until full and then pushing the cart on a track to the finish line). After one miner did the hand mucking, he jumped into the log-rolling water pit - it was that h
ot! The venue was Sandy Beach - albeit without lifeguard chairs, inflatables and beer coolers, this beach still had it's share of families cooling off in the cold water. Gold Rush Days is advertised as a "family" event so there wasn't any beer tent, but there was plenty of BBQ (pulled pork and beef brisket) and other food and I thought it was cool to see the families (mostly young men/women with babies or toddlers), so proud of their "miner". While we watched the competition, we saw the mountains, a float plane (there are LOTS of them in Juneau) and a cruise ship sail up the Channel to it's dock downtown. I love Juneau!
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