Upon boarding Alaska Flight 61 in Sea-Tac the pilot cheerfully announced that the weather in Juneau was clear and eighteen degrees. Previous communications with mom had indicated that Juneau had already experienced its first Taku winds of the season - gusts downtown and in Douglas over sixty mph.
Uh-oh...
Sure enough, final approach into Juneau included a bump or two and the wind was blowing pretty good down Lynn Canal. And disembarking from the plane into the great outdoors confirmed the temperature. It is winter.
The point was driven home yesterday when we got a couple of inches of snow. I was serenaded all morning by the sounds of sirens as Juneauites re-learned how to drive in the snow. A couple of cars were in the ditch when I went downtown for a workout.
It's now 8 AM and barely twilight. And it was getting pretty dim by 5 PM. We are now entering The Dark Time. Oh well...
My trip was fun but certainly not a typical vacation. I spent the first week in Hillsboro at my friend Adam's mom's home. Read all of Adam's medical and social records and made sure that his disability attorney had received all important documents. We had a very good meeting with the vocational rehabilitation folks who have been working with Adam and procured a document that I expect may well be critical to the judge's decision. The hearing itself occurred on October 17th. After the hearing the attorney was coy as to the prognosis; but I interpreted his mumbling to indicate that approval is a 50/50 proposition.
After the hearing Adam and I took a road trip down the coast to Northern California.
We stopped in Newport to visit his grandma who was in the hospital - she passed-away peacefully just a couple of days after we saw her. She was very elderly and frail and I think the family recognized it was time...
The weather in southern Oregon and Cali was quite sunny. We did the Redwoods tour including the Avenue of the Giants.
The Avenue of the Giants - these trees are big!
The southern Oregon coast just south of Coos Bay
From Arcata, California we motored up to Ashland, Oregon. A night of theater. None of that low-brow Shakespeare stuff for us. No sirree. We saw "Animal Crackers" the theatrical production that most folks would recognize from the Marx Brothers film of 1930. It was great! Hooray for Captain Spaulding, the African explorer...
Then back to Portland/Hillsboro for the weekend. We went to a techno music show at the Memorial Colliseum - featuring one of Adam's favorite DJ's "Bassnectar". I am now offically a Basshead. The show was quite amazing.
Unfortunately, I did not get to visit any of my ol' Juneau pals living in the Great Northwest. Next time, buddies! I did get to spend some quality time at a great supper with Amanda and Leah in Portland. Amanda hopes to be back to Juneau in a week or so and Leah is still beavering-away at the Sokol-Blosser winery. They both looked fantastic! I'm mighty fond of those gals.
So...time to settle in for the winter. Mom is doing OK and I will ascertain auntie's status when I motor up to see her today. Baked a couple of loaves of zucchini bread yesterday and will make deliveries here shortly. I expect that auntie's house will need some serious work...
Later gang!
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