Winter Walks

Winter was still holding on quite firmly to Juneau last month when the need struck us all at once that we simply couldn't be inside the barn for another minute. We needed to small fresh air and feel sunshine.

Unfortunately, there was no sunshine that day, though there was still plenty of fresh air, so off we went to take a walk and shake off some of the cobwebs of winter.
 If you can't tell, Quinn is charging the bridge with a sword. He brought it in case we met any bears, newly awakened from their dens (probably from his yelling and carrying-on, haha!). Mom and Laura went with us, along with Greta, who was by far the most excited at the prospect of a walk and a hop in the snow.

I stand corrected, there was some sun, though it's measly rays of light did not bring us warmth - that's what our shawls and coats were for. Oh well, we had a grand time walking along our favorite boardwalk out towards the beach, Greta getting quite miffed that we weren't walking fast enough for her (and growing even angrier when we put her on a leash!).

Quinn skipped rocks, Greta searched among the piles of seaweed for treasures and good smells, and Mom, Laura and I searched the calm waters for wildlife. We were rewarded not long after with the blow of a humpback whale, but sadly he never dove too deep, never revealing his tale (If you look closely in the picture below you can see his back, the small black spot in the water). 

I climbed up higher on a nearby cliff to try to get a better view of him, but he swam under and we didn't see him again. Quinn was able to get my picture though, high up among the rocks:

(The view from the rocks where I climbed.)

The sky started to grow darker with gray clouds of rain, so we reluctantly left our ocean view and headed back into the trees towards the safety of the car. After the long winter of white snow, the green of the trees in the muskeg was a happy sight to our eyes. Quinn had me go do a twirl in the snow, resulting in this silly picture below, laughing so hard I had almost fallen over!

I'm so happy all of this snow has melted with the spring rains. It will be so nice to see more green with the coming days of spring weather - who knows - maybe we'll get lucky and get some real sunshine. My fingers are crossed!

"The sea is His, for it was He who made it, and His hands formed the dry land."

Psalm 95:5