winter fun...ie snow snow snow

so--remember when you were a kid and you loved to go thru the car wash? or better yet, when the car would hit big puddles of water, throwing a spray up over the car? Juneau has become, thanks to the rain on top of the 5 feet of accumulated snow, a playground for waterworks....it is totally amazing! Prior to that, the huge piles of snow in the yard, driveway, etc made for some fun climbing hills...and added extra amusement thru use of Shadow--she would launch herself into the big banks after her ball, getting buried in the top layer of fluffy snow as she dug herself in after the ball...she's fantastic at finding them/ never loosing site of where the ball is!! She is such a snowdog, not caring if she gets wet or cold,but at the same time is afraid of the puddlesprays (I think its the noise). She and L spend hours while Curt and I shoveled the remainders out of my lovely driveway...they amused each other to no end (thank goodness!!)

puttin' around

it's unusual when you get to do a "classic" childhood experience in Juneau...we don't have a lot of the amenities that kids "down south" get/ grow up with (hence, when families get outta town the always go to the zoo, museums, shows, etc). But on New Years Day, we got to have one of those times--we were able to putt-putt (or, I guess the correct term is minigolf!) of course, my friend's kid had never seen a golf course, let alone held a club, so it was a fun, exciting challenge! The holes weremade by local people and depicted Alaskan themes, such as "The Airport", where you had to get it straight into the hole or else risk getting sidetracked into another "city" (such as Ketchican, Sitka--anyone who's flown in the southeast knows and loves this experience). L's favorite was the "Interior Alaska", complete with cabin, pipeline and northern lights. Someone even made the Gastineau Channel, where you had to bank your shot off a cruise ship. My favorite was having to putt under a dinosaur, mastodon and then into an oil well, called (appropriately) "Where You PFD Comes From" (PFD= permanent fund dividend, the $$ we alaskans get from oil sale revenues every year). I didn't win, of course, but had a great time. Will keep scouring for additional childhood experiences wherever I can find 'em/ get 'em...