Bamboo Grows in Juneau

Juneau is NOT Anchorage.  At 61˚ North latitude, Anchorage is north of Stockholm and Olso (both 59˚.)  Juneau is 58˚.  (Belfast and Copenhagen are 54˚, Amsterdam 52˚, London is 51˚, Seattle is 47˚, and New York City is 40˚N.)  We visited an old friend yesterday afternoon and he has bamboo, not just growing, but thriving, in his front yard.  That shouldn't be a shock since bamboo grows in Beijing where it can also get cold in winter.  Being right on the water keeps Juneau temperatures from getting overly hot or overly cold. 

But we Anchorage folk assume that a foot of snow on the ground in January is going to stick around a while.  Well, here's a picture I took our first night, when we'd just gotten into our apartment. 

And here's the same view, today, five days later.

I'm going to do an exploration jog.  We were going to head out to the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, but it turns out that is in the valley, not downtown where we could walk.  Joan has figured out the bus system a bit, but we're not even sure it runs on a holiday.