This week in Juneau was more amazing than I ever could have imagined. As we explored the area, I was in awe of the beauty, and I learned so much about the history of the area. Even with all of the planning I did for this trip, I really had no idea how beautiful it was going to be or much I was going to love it. As I shared the beauty of the area with you all over this last week, I hope that you saw just how amazing Juneau is. The most amazing thing to me about my time in Juneau is that if it hadn't been the capitol city of Alaska, I may have never chosen to go there.
With all of the awesome things we saw, the best part of this trip for me was when we finally sat in front of the Capitol Building in downtown Juneau and officially made it our 49th Capitol Building visited. This was a moment I had thought about a lot while planning this trip and the culmination of a long journey over the last several years with the girls and Jake and even a couple of foster dogs along the way.
As many of you know, the purpose of this trip was for Maddie, Imke and me to visit our 49th State together and for Imke and me to get to the State Capitol building in Juneau-State Capitol 49 for the two of us (and capitol number 46 for Maddie). We have spent years weaving our way around this country, making a point of stopping in Capitol Cities along our travels. When we hit number 48 last Fall, that was when I decided, if we were all happy and healthy and able, we would make this trip to Alaska to get State and Capitol 49. This week, we accomplished that goal!
But what made this trip even more special was that I had all of my girls with me. Even if it isn't the perfect picture, I have captured this moment forever and will always have the memory of this day.
It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon when we arrived at the Capitol Building, and I had read that this was a difficult location to photograph, but after much online research, I knew exactly where we needed to go to get the perfect shot.
After an initial struggle to get three girls to listen, I thought I was going to get the perfect picture, but instead, on this day, I had 3 very distracted girls.
Imke was much more concerned about the hot dog cart that was up on the sidewalk...and she was sure she needed to go make friends!
My normally good girl, Imke, was distracted by food, which is not shocking to anyone who has met her, and Peaches was distracted by all of the birds, and Maddie, well, she's always distracted.
I was sure no one was ever going to look at me! After several times of Nicol chasing Imke to distract her from the food and many times of me telling Peaches to sit and stay, I figured I could settle with this.
I mean, for three GSPs, this is pretty good! And by this time, we were drenched, and I am sure everyone around thought we were idiots. So off we went, our goal reached. After all of the anticipation leading up to the moment, I had expected to feel something...some rush of emotions. After all, this was a big moment, a huge accomplishment, and a very special journey with my girls. But as we walked away, I felt nothing special. And for some reason that bothered me.
On Thursday afternoon, for the first time in days, the rain stopped. We were downtown for a little sightseeing and Nicol suggested that we go back to the capitol building for a rain-free try at a couple of photos to see if we could have more success. I am so glad she made that suggestion!
With the hot dog vendor and other distractions gone, we were able to get a decent picture pretty quickly. .And even better, I was able to get this picture of Imke, sitting nicely on the steps to the building, like so many times we had done before. And with this picture, I knew we really had accomplished our goal.
As she sat there so nicely with me across the street taking her picture, I thought about all of the times we had spent together doing this and the finality of this moment...this is it, the final one. We won't do this anymore. And I got a little teary-eyed.
We have traveled all over our great country together and we have had some awesome trips. We have seen so many historic, famous, and scenic sites together and I am thankful for every one of them. But this moment will always be extra special. I'm so lucky to have had so many great adventures with this very special girl.
Today we left Juneau and Alaska to head south toward home. Although we still have half of our adventure left, I was sad to be leaving that very special place. But it was time to go. We left Nicol to fly home and headed to the ferry dock at a very early 4am for our 6am departure. It was another rainy day, but as we pulled out of Juneau the rain stopped and I had a lovely ferry ride to Haines, where the girls got a chance to get out and stretch their legs before we continued on to Skagway. When we landed in Skagway, we pulled off the boat and continued on our journey toward home.
Tonight I write to you from Johnsons Crossing, a small community with a lodge/rv park/campground with a restaurant and gas station attached. It is a beautiful location and the people have been very nice. I'll share more about our time here and our journey further South when we reach our next destination tomorrow-as long as I have internet. It is now after 10:30pm and I've been up a long time today so I'm heading to bed.
Tomorrow, the journey continues. Good night from the road.
As many of you know, the purpose of this trip was for Maddie, Imke and me to visit our 49th State together and for Imke and me to get to the State Capitol building in Juneau-State Capitol 49 for the two of us (and capitol number 46 for Maddie). We have spent years weaving our way around this country, making a point of stopping in Capitol Cities along our travels. When we hit number 48 last Fall, that was when I decided, if we were all happy and healthy and able, we would make this trip to Alaska to get State and Capitol 49. This week, we accomplished that goal!
But what made this trip even more special was that I had all of my girls with me. Even if it isn't the perfect picture, I have captured this moment forever and will always have the memory of this day.
It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon when we arrived at the Capitol Building, and I had read that this was a difficult location to photograph, but after much online research, I knew exactly where we needed to go to get the perfect shot.
After an initial struggle to get three girls to listen, I thought I was going to get the perfect picture, but instead, on this day, I had 3 very distracted girls.
Imke was much more concerned about the hot dog cart that was up on the sidewalk...and she was sure she needed to go make friends!
My normally good girl, Imke, was distracted by food, which is not shocking to anyone who has met her, and Peaches was distracted by all of the birds, and Maddie, well, she's always distracted.
I was sure no one was ever going to look at me! After several times of Nicol chasing Imke to distract her from the food and many times of me telling Peaches to sit and stay, I figured I could settle with this.
I mean, for three GSPs, this is pretty good! And by this time, we were drenched, and I am sure everyone around thought we were idiots. So off we went, our goal reached. After all of the anticipation leading up to the moment, I had expected to feel something...some rush of emotions. After all, this was a big moment, a huge accomplishment, and a very special journey with my girls. But as we walked away, I felt nothing special. And for some reason that bothered me.
On Thursday afternoon, for the first time in days, the rain stopped. We were downtown for a little sightseeing and Nicol suggested that we go back to the capitol building for a rain-free try at a couple of photos to see if we could have more success. I am so glad she made that suggestion!
With the hot dog vendor and other distractions gone, we were able to get a decent picture pretty quickly. .And even better, I was able to get this picture of Imke, sitting nicely on the steps to the building, like so many times we had done before. And with this picture, I knew we really had accomplished our goal.
As she sat there so nicely with me across the street taking her picture, I thought about all of the times we had spent together doing this and the finality of this moment...this is it, the final one. We won't do this anymore. And I got a little teary-eyed.
We have traveled all over our great country together and we have had some awesome trips. We have seen so many historic, famous, and scenic sites together and I am thankful for every one of them. But this moment will always be extra special. I'm so lucky to have had so many great adventures with this very special girl.
Today we left Juneau and Alaska to head south toward home. Although we still have half of our adventure left, I was sad to be leaving that very special place. But it was time to go. We left Nicol to fly home and headed to the ferry dock at a very early 4am for our 6am departure. It was another rainy day, but as we pulled out of Juneau the rain stopped and I had a lovely ferry ride to Haines, where the girls got a chance to get out and stretch their legs before we continued on to Skagway. When we landed in Skagway, we pulled off the boat and continued on our journey toward home.
Tomorrow, the journey continues. Good night from the road.
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