Hope floats in Southeast Alaska

The bird identification "Bible" in Southeast Alaska

I may be very tired after an early morning and a full day at work, but tonight when I started to do a Facebook status update I knew a sentence or two couldn't do justice to everything I want to say...

Plus, being a writer means although I occasionally attempt to be succinct (wink, wink) it can be much for fun to wax poetically a bit. Besides, this evening was just too beautiful to let slip away into the muck of social media.

As we cooked dinner in our tiny cabin on the rocks, Scotty spotted something in the water below. In the calm, rippling tide, floated a common merganser, a type of sea duck. But upon looking closer we saw something more.

"Hey, it's a duck family!" Scotty grinned, picking up our newly purchased binoculars that he'd procured for a long boat trip last weekend.

"Oh yeah? That's cute." I squinted in their direction. "Wait- is that a baby on its back?"

"Sure is. And one following behind, too."

Looking through the binoculars yielded one of the most uniquely touching animal sightings I've seen yet: a healthy-looking, fluffy baby duck coasting along happily on its mama's back as she fished along the rocky shoreline, and the other duckling in the water quickly responding to follow a turn in her direction after she turned to check on him.

Mama Common Merganser and her two ducklings

They paused to fish a bit only thirty feet below our home before continuing peacefully on their way.

Now, as the sun sinks into the horizon and I get ready for bed, I can't help but take the time to reflect on this moment of beauty and other blessings that have recently touched my life.

Cara and me in Sitka, Alaska (June 22, 2014)

My former college roommate, and now good friend, Cara, just left Juneau early this morning to return home to Dallas after nine days of Alaskan adventure. There are so many things I could say about how glad I am that she took a leap of faith and made the trip up here, how much fun I had getting to do all the cool stuff we did, and especially how nice it was to hang out with with her again after all this time. I'm fortunate to know such a caring, fun, inspiring person. Her willingness to step outside her comfort zone was matched in awesomeness only by her consistently positive attitude- on rough seas, during a somewhat bumpy float plane ride, when our hike up a mountain meant braving the steady rain and about a million "flights" of trail stairs. I wouldn't have had anywhere near as much fun without her there. Come back soon, Miss Cara- Alaska loves you!

Cara at Sandy Beach

This morning on the way to the airport, as I turned the car out onto the road we call a highway, sun already high in the sky at 4:50 a.m., an eagle launched into graceful flight. It rose into the air from the roadside ditch, each slow yet powerful beat of its wings matching the car's speed. I lightly depressed the brake and we watched in quiet, sleepy awe as the eagle flew parallel for a moment and then vaulted high above the highway. On wings of golden brown, its royal white crown and tail feathers disappeared into the surrounding forest.

Also seen from our window this evening

And thanks to my friend, I remembered just what it felt like seeing all of this for the first time. Fortunately, there's no shortage of that feeling around here.

Tonight's sunset