Visiting scientist

This week at the school there was a scientist, Dr. Phil Levine, from Seattle in town to give a guest seminar.  Actually, we have a guest speaker come to the lab every Friday afternoon, but they’re usually more local speakers, so it was a bit special that we had someone from the lower 48.  He was in town for a few days, so there were time slots set up for people to meet with him one-on-one Thursday, a potluck dinner following the seminar on Friday, then several of us met for a hike at the Glacier on Saturday morning.  Naturally, it was raining, so he got the full Juneau experience.  He had been in Fairbanks earlier in the week to give the same talk up there and mentioned that he was really disappointed about the weather there during his stay.  He said was really hoping it would be bitterly cold in Fairbanks, like -40 or -50, so he could say he’d experienced it.  Sadly, it was a balmy 3 degrees in Fairbanks while he was there...Bummer.  

It bounced between rain and drizzle during the walk to the Glacier.  Not bad, but hard weather for taking photos.  BUT, the best part – we saw two mountain goats up on the cliffs between Nugget Falls and the glacier!  That’s the first time we’ve seen them here in Juneau.  My camera lens was a bit wet and foggy, so my photos aren’t terribly clear.