Juneau

From Vancouver going north we sailed through the Inside Passage. The Passage is our first taste of the rugged mountain terrain Sharon & I will experience in the days to come. I was surprise how narrow a few parts of the Passage were.

Our first port of call is Juneau. Juneau is the capitol of Alaska, third largest city, and its area is roughly the size of Delaware (that includes its unpopulated area). Like many Alaskan towns it was founded around gold. Surrounded by water the town is on an island only accessible by boat, ferry, or plane. Its eastern boundary is British Columbia, Canada. Juneau's weather is mild compared to what we think of as Alaska weather with the average summer temperature of 65F and winter of 20F. Only (!) about 100 inches of snow a year, but they get a lot of rain and ice. It was drizzly but in the upper 60'sF when we were there at the end of August. Guess the summer of 2006 was extremely wet throughout a lot of Alaska. The talk of the town when Sharon and I were in Juneau was the renewed effort by some to move the capitol to Anchorage. Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska's first and second most populous cities, have been fighting for years about moving the capitol to their cities. Should the capitol move, the locals say Juneau's population would decrease by 75% and make the town a virtual ghost town (except for the cruise passengers!).

The city area is at the foot of Mt Juneau and Mt Roberts; and they go straight up! The cruise ships dock right in town. A tram is available at the pier that will take you up Mt Roberts to view the wilderness area and Juneau Ice Field. This ice cap feeds about 30 glaciers in the area. Since it was cloudy and drizzly, Sharon & I didn't think the view that day would be very great (and it costs about $25.00 per person) and didn't make the trip. What we did do was go to Mendenhall Glacier.

Mendenhall is the number one tourist destination in Alaska (maybe because it is the only glacier accessible by road). It's only about 10-15 miles out of Juneau. You can sign up for the cruises' shore excursions or you can get bus transportation or taxis right off the ship. Funny, the people in Juneau take American money and they speak English! Some people took the helicopter excursions that allows you to land and walk on a glacier! Mendenhall was the first glacier Sharon & I have ever seen and boy is it awesome! The face of the glacier is over 100ft high and it stretches over a mile and a half in length. The blue tinged, dirt streaked, fissured ice stretches for miles up the mountain and out of sight. A waterfall flanks Mendenhall on its right. Our perception of scale was clarified when we saw ant-sized kayakers being dwarfed by the enormity of the glacier. This is also the area some of our cruise mates saw their first bear. Sharon & I didn't see it.

Our bus took us on a short tour of the Juneau area, stopping at a log cabin church and a river where salmon were running, and dropped us off back in town for some more sightseeing and shopping. I wanted to go to the Alaska State Museum, but Sharon wanted to taste the micro brews in the Red Dog Saloon. Guess where we went. The Red Dog started back in the mining days (1880's) as a place for entertainment and relaxation. I'm thinking the piano player and bar of today aren't all that was offered for entertainment in the past! The Red Dog Saloon was fun though it can get crowded. They also serve food. The rustic decor has the obligatory snarling grizzly bear leaping out at you and a giant king crab on the wall, but it also includes creative taxidermy like black bears chasing a person up a pole and chasing another into a garbage can. Then there is the rear end of a white tail deer with eyes and rabbit ears??? That's why it is fun to Live The World!