Everyone I have ever met associates Arizona with the desert. That is a fair association given it is the desert but I always find it a little funny, especially after moving here, how many people think Phoenix when they think of Arizona. We receive a lot of comments about how much of a climate change it must be for us moving from Arizona. In all actuality, it is almost exactly what we left, just without the snow. That being said, however, we might need to change our thinking about rain now.

Trying to avoid as many generalizations as possible, in Arizona when it rains it typically rains for as long as its going to rain and then is done. You can generally count on that and unless its monsoon season it typically is a small random rain shower. D and I both grew up in Arizona and so this thinking is all we know. With that being said Friday we decided to go out and sort of explore downtown. It was a little rainy but as we drove around it stopped. Parking in downtown Juneau is similar to downtown Flagstaff, very narrow streets, most of them one-way, with parallel parking. D is not a parallel parker and so we ended up parking a little bit away thinking a nice little walk would be good and we could look into the windows of stores and decide on a place to eat. So we set out, the sun starting to peek out of the clouds. It was a very nice evening and we finally ended up at a pizza shop. We enjoyed dinner and even treated ourselves to ice cream afterwards. On our way out I peeked out a window and saw that it was pouring rain. We weren’t really prepared for that, I had on a sweater and BB only had a blanket. Also, remember that brilliant idea we had to park a bit away and walk around…that came back and bit us in the butt.

We tried to wait it out a little while we were eating our ice cream, but decided after a while there was no getting around it. We wrapped up BB and made a run for it. She was not happy about having her head covered especially with so many cool noises and things to see. She got upset and kept trying to wiggle out of my arms and uncover her head. Eventually I gave in and let her face free and tried to keep the rest of her covered as we ran. Another difference we soon learned between Juneau rain and Flagstaff rain, Juneau rain is FREEZING cold! By the time we got to the car BB was not a happy camper and was cold, D and I were both soaked and cold, and we were ready to be warm and dry. I tossed a warm dry blanket on BB for the drive home and we both laughed about it once we warmed up.

I can’t say we wont be optimistic about the rain again but at least next time hopefully we will be a little more prepared.