Day 4, Thursday, July 18 – Juneau
Guess what? Brian had some work to do, for real! You
wouldn’t really believe this was truly US cruising if Brian didn’t have just a
little bit of work, right? Well, he actually took a couple of calls in
Ketchikan, and there was one night where I woke up and he was up working on his
computer a little bit. Yep, it’s true. It’s really us, and although Brian’s
main projects that were keeping him busy all through May and June are either
completed or on hold for now, he still has to keep tabs on some things and turn
some documents. So, he planned a work call for noon, in Juneau.
We couldn’t get
off the boat until 11a.m. anyway, so we had just gotten off and were looking in
some of the shops near our ships when he snuck off to take his call in a
private alleyway. And I looked around the town on my own. I discovered that
king crab legs were less expensive in Juneau than they were in Ketchikan – only
$27 for one leg here, as opposed to $35 per leg in Ketchikan. (Luckily neither
of us was dead set on having crab legs, as the crab shack lines were as
outrageous as the price!)
After Brian’s call, another delay… turns out he
actually needed to return to the ship and work on a document for a couple of
hours while we had good service. I decided to walk around town by myself for a
bit. I walked through several shops and ended up buying a big piece of fudge at
a candy shop where they were pouring fresh, hot fudge onto huge marble slabs,
stirring it as it cooled, and letting it set up right there on the countertop
before slicing and serving. The whole store smelled more chocolatey than anything I’ve ever
smelled before! It was wafting out into the street, drawing me in with a deep, cocoa voice that said, "come buy fudge, NOW!" I obeyed. Then, I ate the entire piece of caramel pecan milk chocolate fudge as I walked along, saving none
for poor Brian!!
Once he was done with work, we walked up to the
capitol building together to check it out. I had walked by it earlier and told
Brian it wasn’t all that impressive and it was under construction. But of
course, he insisted that we needed to go inside and check it out! We took our own self guided tour around a few different floors, exploring the senate and legislature floor rooms, (and the bathroom, ahem.) Another state
capitol checked off our list, and Brian got his picture taken in the Governor’s
Hall, right next to Sarah Palin’s picture, to boot! ha!
The main expedition options from Juneau were to go
exploring around the Mendenhall Glacier… helicopter rides, sea kayaks, hiking
on the glacier – all for hundreds of dollars apiece. We did none of those. In
fact we nearly missed out, altogether, due to Brian’s work and our late arrival
at port, but we managed to book a minibus tour to the glacier and nearby Nugget
Falls. Both were amazing!! Breathtaking!! In the visitor’s center, we could see the whole panorama of the glacier and falls in the distance, through a big glassed-in wall area. We also got a magnet for our collection, and got to touch some of the glacier ice, which was
neat. They estimate it was about 400 years old! We hiked a mile or so up to Nugget Falls, even though we could see it from a distance. Once we got to the falls, I
stood next to that waterfall, hearing its roar and feeling its majestic spray
on my face, and I couldn’t help but cry, it was so awesome – like, the REAL
kind of AWESOME, the kind that inspires AWE! Hard to put into words, but it’s
one of those memories I’ll pull out when I need a lift, or some extra measure
of peace. I loved that experience!! The glacier was at the back end of a
gorgeous blue lake. We got some really fun pictures of it, but I’m telling you,
it was even that much better in person!!
We also learned on our minibus tour that McDonalds
came to Juneau in 1982. It was such a huge event that the entire stock of
burgers and food was sold out the first day in less than three hours! The next
week, a seaplane came up from Ketchikan and ordered over $1000 worth of food to
take back to the town, clearing them out again! Even though these small towns
claim to not like chains, McDonalds has been a proud staple of Juneau ever
since. And… they also have a Costco!! We were bummed that we missed the Costco
shuttle from town—woulda been fun to check it out. Since milk is $6 per gallon
in their regular grocery stores, we’re betting Costco probably deeply discounts
and makes a bundle there, as it does in Hawaii and NY. Also, it’s a fact that
bears are frequent visitors in all the towns in Alaska. Most of the tour guides
said they see a bear in the street about every few days. Sonia, our Ketchikan
tour guide, said she got a fine once because a bear got into her trash and
strung it all over her driveway and down the street while she was at work! She
also said a bear broke into the local Ketchikan grocery store one day a few
years ago. It’s on youtube – you can check it out if you’re interested. We did.
Haha! It was just a little bear, kind of funny!
Back to the ship, after our tour ended, and another delicious meal at a
place called Chin Chin. It was all Asian food, and was really good. I had some delicious spring rolls, and a
lemon pepper shrimp dish with rice, and Brian had a big dish of fried rice. We
were not very hungry, so we skipped dessert there, and picked up some
brownies/cake later from The Garden. We skipped the entertainment again and
went to sleep early so we could be ready for our day in Skagway, which we were
both looking forward to seeing.
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