Today was incredible!!!!   Our first 'cruise' through a fjord, and it was wonderful.  We went with Adventure Bound Travel and Captain Steve, who was great.  The boat was 54 feet long or so with a back viewing deck and room on the bow as well.

The cruise left from the Juneau port and along the coastline into Tracy Arm Fjord, which is basically a deep, water-filled, long valley that was carved out by a glacier (which is a 'river' of ice that grinds and crushes things as it slowly advances or retreats).  First thing we saw a big chunk of ice that had calved off a glacier and was a deep blue - beautiful!  On some other icebergs, we spotted juvenile bald eagles resting and taking flight, and our first humpback whale sighting occurred just outside the fjord - he breached (or jumped out of the water) 4 times in a row, which is unusual!  Unfortunately, I had the camera on the OTHER side of the boat, taking pictures of an iceberg, and couldn't hear everyone inside the boat going crazy.  Captain Steve knocked on the glass and pointed to the other side, just in time for me to see the whale breach one last time, but I had turned off the camera to switch to the videocamera, so I missed catching it on film!  Oh well.... at least I got to see it.  :)

Just inside the beginning of Tracy Arm, we saw some other gorgeous icebergs - just the beginning of lots to come.  We cruised along the fjord

And we did see Orca!!

Here we are in Juneau!  (After a long day of flying)

We're staying in Juneau Hotel, in a suite room (buy one night get one free with the Alaskan Toursaver book!) which is actually quite nice - more like a mini apartment!  We can see a little marina across the street, and we're within walking distance of the downtown area.

And that's exactly what we've done so far - walk around downtown!  We got in around 3 or so and ended up walking the length of the port with the giant cruise ships to figure out where our excursions would leave from.  Ate dinner at a pizza place that had the best pizza since Italy!  Mine was fresh tomato and basil with ricotta!  Yumm.....

Both Jesse and I were a little surprised at how GREEN Alaska appears to be!  All the surrounding mountains are covered with evergreens, which somehow appear even greener than anywhere else I've ever seen them, even with the overcast skies.  The weather is in the 50's and a little breezy next to the water (of course).

Tomorrow we're taking a cruise of Tracy Arm with Adventure Bound Alaska!

Today Keith was working and the person I had lined up on Couchsurfing for some hopeful sightseeing sorta just disappeared on me which was odd as we had been emailing back and forth a few times prior to my arrival.  Being the resourceful one I am, I checked out some more couchsurfing profiles and also sent some emails on Myspace.  I got back some good info and recommendations on both things to visit and places to eat.  The most popular recommendation for dinner was the Twisted Fish which happened to be right by me and also owned by the same people that have The Hangar we ate at the day before. 

I checked out their menu online and something instantly caught my eye.  One of my favorite dishes is a Salmon Wellington which I had for the first time at a winery owned restaurant many years ago in Temecula, California.  Since then, I have made various versions of it over the years, but nothing ever quite compared to that first one I had.  The Twisted Fish offered their version which was stuffed with king crab and shrimp, wrapped in a puff pastry.  Oh heaven!  So after chatting a bit more online, I was ready to eat and do a little shopping!

Now, this was another one of my “firsts” – dining alone in a restaurant.  I have always refused to do it and would prefer to get take out before I’d ever sit at a table alone, business travel or not.  My plan was to mosey up to the bar, make friends with the bartender, and get some more info on things to do in Juneau so I had some more info to post on TB.  Yeah, well that plan was foiled when I walked in and saw the only 4 or 6 seats at the bar – 2 or 3 people deep.  Hmmmm, plan B…bar table?? Nope, none had been bussed and there were people hovering.  The hostess said, Oh I can seat you in the main dining room.  Uh, ok, bite the bullet! LOL.  I ended up with a great waterfront table and a beautiful view of Douglas Island and the channel.  I had brought one of my insurance books for work that I need to study and take the test on soon so I amused myself with that for a bit in hopes I wouldn’t continue to turn beet red in fear of everyone staring at me throughout the restaurant! HA HA. 

I ordered a glass of Pinot Noir and of course the stuffed salmon with scalloped potatoes and I was set.  OMG, I made such a fatal error ordering the potatoes with that.  The salmon was already rich and there was this giant garlic knot they served with it and then let’s add some more starches!! LOL.  I was so full I thought I was going to explode! 

Once I finished dinner, I figured I better walk some of it off before I fell into a food coma back at the apartment.  There was this Alaska Shirt Company many tourists mentioned so I decided to check it out since it was just across the street.  What a fun place!  Well, I never got to see my real moose but I did find one on a pillow that I had to take a picture of!! HA HA.  And then I spotted the best thing – moose pajamas. Oh yeah baby.  Guaranteed those are getting back for Harriet’s Tucson meet up in November when we have a slumber party.  I even found matching moose socks.  I rock! 

Searched around at other gift ideas and found more stuff for myself of course.  An Alaskan moose sweatshirt and cute shirts.  I bought Melanie her can of sockeye salmon, an extra one for Dad, and an ornament for Mom and I was set.  Their prices were really good and they had a lot of unique Alaskan clothing.  I kept looking at their nice jackets but opted not to since I already was going to run out of room in my luggage the way it was. 

It was back to the apartment now to relax and get ready for going out tonight…..we were meeting up with Keith’s friends at a couple local bars and perhaps do some dancing. SWEET – Juneau nightlife!  LOL.  Keith’s friends were meeting up around 11pm so I got ready and we headed over to the first of two dive bars, called The Viking.  Very interesting place actually. It has a little bit for everybody – karaoke in the main downstairs bar, a back room with a disco type theme and small dance floor. Upstairs was the typical bar with pool tables.  We stayed up there for a bit and the guys played pool and I chatted with some of the girls and also a couple of the guys who were all incredibly nice and so accommodating.  Not sure what I was thinking but forgot to take any pictures that night!  Uuuuuugh. 

We moved over to the next bar, The Imperial, where Keith wanted to get his groove on.  Yeah, poor Keith.  He does the typical white boy shuffle but he’s so adorable as he makes his way around the whole dance floor in search of hot chicks! LOL.  I ended up hanging out most of the night with one of his buddies and we just chatted and people watched.  Very interesting night life environment there – I definitely stood out in more ways than one…..I definitely was one of the only women there who was “dressed up” and had hair and make up done.  It’s just a very laid back environment and you could tell I was not a local.  It was ok though, people just stared, no one messed with me! I knew I was in a different world when the bartender asked me where on earth did I find some place around there to get my nails done.  Uuuuh, told her I am from California and she said that explained it! LOL.

It was a fun night but time to go since I had to be up in a couple hours for my 7am tour of the fjord and glaciers nearby!  Whoo Hoo.  I think we got back home around 2:30 or 3am and sat up talking for a bit when I realized, my alarm is going to go off in less than 2 hours.  Oh lordy!  I’d had a little bit to drink too so I was not looking forward to being tired with a hangover on an all day boat tour.  Egads! 

We quickly figured out it was going to be hard to get much rest since everyone was shooting off fireworks all around and we were right downtown so we heard it all.  It was ok though as everyone who knows me knows I don’t do well with actual naps (become crankier than usual) so I just goofed around online, started my blog like a good TB’er, and watched some television.  Before I knew it, it was after 11pm. 

We wandered down to the cruise ship terminal across the street and it was already starting to get packed.  It was fairly warm out earlier so I just opted for my light sweater and my flip flops still.  Yeah, not so smart. It had been raining earlier so the docks were slick and my toes were a bit chilled.  At least I brought a sweater…Keith had to be macho in his short sleeve shirt! HA HA.  I think he was afraid of missing an opportunity for a girl to check him out. 

Once we got closer in, I quickly figured out this was not so much my type of crowd.  Pretty much everyone surrounding us were underage kids who were drunk!  Most of them were thoroughly obnoxious and cursing, smacking each other around, and just being stupid.  Keith and I both pondered if we were ever that obnoxious at that age but I don’t think I was…plus I wasn’t out drunk at 18! 

We kept moving down in hopes of finding the “older” less rowdy crowd and finally found a decent spot where we could see the fireworks from the dock.  Of course, now I got to witness the homeless guy get pummeled down the grassy knoll by lord knows who – all I saw was him get punched in the head and tumble backwards, eventually landing on the sidewalk below.  I might’ve felt sorry for him but given the fact he was running his mouth off to every person who passed by, I have to believe whoever took him down had a good reason. 

FINALLY…it’s 11:59pm and I am wet and cold but who cares because the fireworks are starting across the bay on Douglas Island. YEAH!  The fireworks were pretty – started off a bit slow and not near as dramatic and showy as I am used to like at Disneyland (yeah, figures I would compare it to that!) but they did a nice job.  It was difficult to get a lot of pictures of course but I did find the red colored ones made for the best shots because of the reflection on the bay.  As the finale started, Keith was frozen to the core (which isn’t surprising given he has less than zero percent body fat on him….LOL).  We started to walk back and caught the end of the show as we headed upstairs. 

I guess the tradition is everyone goes and parties hard that night but we were both exhausted and Keith had to work the next day so we were old fuddy duds and went to sleep! 

was the punch line of a joke our morning guide, Ron told us on our way back from the Dog Sled Summer Camp. He was a funny, older man who seemed to love his job. I could see why, Juneau, a pretty, colorful city and the capital of Alaska is settled at the base of a mountain, conveniently called Mount Juneau. There is also an island; Douglas, across from Juneau. It is only accessible by aircraft or boat and has more vehicles than people! Did Jun neau that? haha

Our morning started at 4:05am. That's when the light started coming through between the opening of the curtains I had purposely left open so as not to miss anything. (scenery, wildlife, etc) I went to the balcony to see snow capped mountains took a couple pictures then went back to bed. Up for good about 6am and  got to see the ship docking in Juneau and of course took more pictures and video before going to breakfast. Weather was a drizzling rain when we disembarked for our morning excursion after 10am. That's when Ron met us and our group at the dock to take us to the Dog Sled Musher's Summer Camp located in the mountains. Ron warned us that the bus ride would be a bit bumpy. Well, it was ridiculously bumpy and swervey (Is that even a word?) with twists and turns up the gravel/dirt road called Sheep Creek Road deep in the mountain. He also said that very few people want or will drive it! I can see why! Despite the ride, the scenery was pretty in area with snow covered mountains and deep valleys. We also passed an old mine called Sheep Creek.

I didn't know what to think when we approached our destination of a muddy area with about 200 royal blue dog houses with the same number of dogs! Upon arrival, we were taken to a wooden building where each of us had to sign a waiver; I suppose in case a dog attacked us or we fell out of the sled! A man then gave us an introduction about the camp, dogs and the iditarod race. The dogs here are not the true Huskies and Malamutes seen on television or in the movies. Most were smaller at under 50 lbs and were interbred! We were then split into  3 groups of 6 and met our personal musher, Abbie West and her boyfriend while every dog was barking. Abbie has raced in the Yukon Quest. We could barely hear Abbie as she talked about the dogs and introduced us to the 13 that would be leading our sled. They had names of Gemini, Pulsar, Captain Kirk, Scottie, Polaris, Telesto, Comet, Quarky, Vega, Leo and others, with one only a year old.

We hopped into the wheeled sled, which is used in the summer since the real sleds are used in the snow. After the initial jolt around the corner, the sled ride was actually smoother than the bus ride. We were going a little faster than 10mph which for races, 10mph is the normal pace. We were about halfway through the 1.5 mile track, making a left turn, when all of a sudden, 2 dogs started barking and fighting with each other! We had to stop so Abbie's boyfriend could separate and calm them down.

Back at the camp, Abbie took us to 2 tents; the 1st one had picture displays of Iditarod sled dogs, including Balto and Toko. They were actually part of an original team that delivered the Diphtheria serum to the people of Nome. It was not a race then. There was also an original sled on display. The next tent had 2 beautiful, black "retired" dogs, a line-up of boots, a coat with Polar bear fur, gloves made from beaver and a present day sled. We sipped on hot chocolate while Abbie explained everything and answered questions. We visited with 2 puppies in a pen before boarding the bus and going back to the ship for lunch.  I learned much about the races, dedication of Abbie and her dogs that day.

Most of my time in Juneau, Alaska was hiking on the glacier. It was a 6 mile hike, 3 miles there and 3 miles back. And its amazing how the temperature changed along the hike as well. First Im hot then Im freezing on the actual glacier. We got beautiful pictures. We brought water bottles and refilled them with fresh cold water from a water fall on the actual glacier.

We had really experienced tour guides, who basically were professional hikers. Two young women who probably did this hike all the time. I would definitely recommend to do an excursion like this bc the experience was worth it.

Today Andrew and I are heading off on different tours. We had booked the same one but it was a landing on the icefields for 1 hour. I thought "why would I want to stand on an ice field for that long, so I cancelled mine and booked onto what I thought was just a flight over the icefield. I was happy with that. Andrew took the camera and I took the video recorder.  When I went to get on my bus I found out that we were landing for half an hour! The bus driver was great and the helicopter flight was fantastic. Even being on the icefield was good and the time went quickly. I could have gone with Andrew but never mind. We went to different areas so we didn't see each other until we met back on deck.

While on our cruise, we stopped in towns, and would do a little sightseeiing trip. The Mendenhall Glacier was one of them. You were able to walk down, and see it from across the river.

I spent three months this summer working in Juneau and float planing/helicoptering/ferrying to other places. I have to say that Juneau is a great place to visit but I would not want to live there. First of all during the summer downtown is VERY touristy, a max of 5 cruise ships dock right downtown at any given time, beleive me that is quite a lot of people for a town of less than 30,000 (it's only saving grace is that the town is built in two different sections; downtown and Glacier Valley, the cruise ships like to keep the tourists downtown to spend money in their shops). There ae some great things to do downtown if you time it right. Go downtown on a Saturday morning before all the cruise ships start coming in, which is around noon. Go up the tram to the shops, if you don't want to take the tram (about 80$ for three of us) you can hike the trail, and as long as you buy something at the shop you can ride down for free. Do not, I repeat DO NOT, have lunch at the restaurant, way too expensive and the food is horrible. Around 11:00 go to the big blue building on the North side of town (the name eludes me) and have lunch at The Hangar (if you can't find it just ask a local), it's a really cool bar and grill. Sit at the bar, have a beer with lunch (great food), watch the float planes and cruiuse ships come in and out literally feet from the restaurant bay windows. Warning, The Hangar is not a place to go during a weekday lunch hour, the locals love it, if you do don't be in a hurry. After you have lunch take the drive or one of the many taxi's to the Mendenhall Glacier. If you are in the mood for a short hike take the trail to the waterfall for some great picture opportunities, only takes about a half hour to get out there and is worth the creek fording and short climb around the rock slide. If you're in to hiking there are MANY trails in and around Juneau to find. You can pick up a trails map at the local Forest Service Ranger District and I think they sell them at the Mendenhall Glacier visitors center, but don't quote me on that. The map costs 10 dollars and shows all the trails around Juneau and Douglas Island, I found it to not be as acurate as I had hoped but it will certainly give you an idea of where to go. The trails vary from very safe and mostly paved(Brotherhood Trail) to good day hikes(Herbert Glacier Trail). You can almost count on seeing other people on most of the trails you go on as the town is very secluded and if you don't have a boat you just go hiking, also going off the beaten trail can prove to be quite "grizzly"-if you know what I mean. Make sure to get some bear spray and learn how to use it. I'm not kidding when I say I need to warn you, bear spray is not bear repellant, DO NOT spray it on yourself to keep the bears away(something that should not need to be said but apparently it has happened). Fishing is an every day part of life in Juneau, if you have the money to spend you can get on a charter boat any day of the week and can almost guarantee to catch your fill within hours. I heard of a place on Douglas Island where you can almost do better off of the shore with Salmon, but I didn't see it so ask a local. If you are a fly-fisherman, there are a lot of places to find salmon and trout. Just pick a river in town or out and drop a line you'll probably catch something. During the week go to the Alaska Brewery, it isn't much compared to other breweries you've been to as far as tours(they bring you into a room and give you a 15 minute speech, that's about it). However, while you are there you get to try their beers for free(mmmmmmmm smoked porter)and you can pick up some memorobilia. Night life in Juneau is all but non-existent. Find some locals and find out what they do. There are some real dives. For a great burger/beer/live music we went to Hole in the Wall at Squires Rest in Auke bay. It is kind of a drive but get a taxi and it's worth it. Make sure to bring a camera and your waterproof hiking boots and you are almost guaranteed to have a good time in Juneau. You can always write back and let me know things I've missed and how much fun you had.

We kept an eye on the clock.  We went outside to meet our bus.  The weather was filled with precipitation.  It was rainy, but then it would stop, but then it would continue again.  We thought we were late (why are we always late), but we weren't.  I thought there was going to be more people, but there was only one more person besides our group of four.  He was a very nice man, he told me where he was from, but I forget.  If you ever read this (I highly doubt it), sorry.  So we take the little bus thing, our excursion was the only one that went to that part of town.  It was like going up the Zip Line Hill (see Ketchikan), it had sharp turn and everything too.  We took a couple of swervy turns, then we made it up to 3/4s of the top, all the way at the top would be the dog sledding, which was full.  We met a guide up there who told us about the history of the mine.  She had us sit under this thing, that was heated, so that made it better.  There were pictures which she told us where we were standing now, compared to where it was years ago.  The mine used to be very busy, with trains running through it.  You would have never guessed it with the way it looks now.  After looking around we got back on the bus and went down another road, to where the gold miner was.  He was very nice guy.  He was really into what he did.  I forget his name to, Earl rings a bell for some reason.  He gave us a hard hat and ear plugs.  He also told us that you would take a tag and put it in the out section so people would know you were in the miner, at the end of the day if you forgot to put it back up, there would be a search crew looking for you.  The mine, looked like a mine.  There was a little water fall next to it which was really pretty.  We went in, we walked straight back and there was this giantic machine that the guy told us crushed rocks so they would flow down, it so weird.  The whole time I was there I was thinking about how there should be a flashback like in movies.  He told us about how they would use dynomite to blow up rocks, he demonstrated a drill and he also demonstrated this mini bulldozer which was very cool.  It was kind of boring but interesting too.  In the mine, in the winter they hold classes there to be a miner.  You need to pass a test that cost about a thousand dollars, given by the government, that you need to get an A- or above to pass and be a miner.  After we got done that we took amazing pictures.  We went down another level and met another guide.  She told us the same thing that the other one did except in a different location.  We looked around at the different machines.  We went into the store, they had necklaces that were two dollars cheaper than the other place.  They had free hot chocolate that we needed.  They have this squirrel that comes into the store, takes a peanut and runs away.  it was nothing like our squirrels in Jersey.  So when we got done, we took a bus to town.  The town was a little bit bigger than the one in Ketchikan.  They had more stuff like a library (I didn't see one in Ketchikan) and more buildings.  The shops were mostly tourist shops, they stopped at a point.

I knew that the ONLY thing I wanted to do on this cruise, if nothing else, was to go dog sledding.  It was very expensive, about $400, but my mom and I both thought, "When will we ever be in Alaska again and have an opportunity like this!?"  It was an early morning excursion and it was still very foggy; everyone around kept saying the helicopters don't fly in the fog because it's so dangerous and we were starting to get bummed out.  When our bus came to get us at the pier, we learned that it was only foggy on the pier-nowhere else.  :)  We got to the helicopter hanger and my mom was so scared she was crying.  We eventually got in and we got the front seats with the pilot, so we have great video and pictures from the ride. 

We flew up to almost the top of Mendenhall Glacier where they have a dog sled camp set for the summer.  The dogs there are dogs that actually race the Iditarod (the biggest dog sledding race in the world that goes across Alaska).  The dogs were so cute and very lean.  They were very friendly and started barking as soon as we went over to them.  They knew it was going to be time for them to start running.  We rode in the helicopter with a few different people and each sled only holds a group of 3.  There was a family of four and they had teenage kids so the parents didn't want to be separated from their kids and there was an Indian couple and they did not want to be split up.  My mom and I ended up being split to two different mush teams.  The mushers told us when we stopped they would wait for the other guy's team to come so we could take pictures together.  That's the only thing you have to keep in mind is that you might be split from the people you are there with.  It's a two or three mile trail and you can see all the sled teams going, so you will see the people you are with, it's just that it's more fun to be on the same team as the people you showed up with.

The sled was set up that there were two dog sleds harnessed together.  The real musher (the guy who's team it was) was in the first sled giving commands and somone was sitting in his sled and the second sled had a tourist musher and another tourist sitting inside.  The tourist musher has real work to do; when the real musher stops his sled, the tourist musher has to brake to keep the second one from sliding into the first.  We were mushing at about 30 mph.  It felt very fast if you were the musher.  The musher stops the sled at different areas and tells you about the dogs and how they train, this is also the time where you switch tourist mushers.  I got lucky and one of the people in my group didn't want to do it, so I got to do it twice.  The first time, we hit a jump in the trail and I didn't fall or anything.  The second time the musher was video taping me, these guys have such great balance on the sleds, and we hit this hole and I almost fell off.  It was pretty funny actually.  It is worth the money just to have the experience.  These guys work so hard and the dogs are incredible.

We arrive in Juneau the afternoon of the 8th.

I took Kert hiking around the Mendenhall glacier and up around Mt. Roberts. I also made him eat the best food ever.... Pel Meni!!! They're Russian dumplings.....best thing ever*drools*

That my friend is the end of my short trip home and an Oregon Boy's first Alaskan experience!!

Juneau was breathtaking this evening, in more ways than one! The temp outside was 23F but felt way colder, so that's what I meant by breathtaking... walking to my car the cold air stung my throat. Freezing cold, but beautiful! It's hard to capture it with my camera, it doesn't take night pictures to well...maybe it's just me who can't do night pictures too well, who knows. But let me set the scene for you, then you can take a look at the few pictures I took. The fog was forming above the river with the sun setting behind the mountains. The mountains looked almost black because of the distance bewtween us and then when the sun hit the mountains it turned a peachy pink colour. When I took the picture it looked more yellowish, but in person it was different shades of multiple colours. Moments like this remind me why I call Juneau home. :)

A nice thing about Juneau is that people here dont give me a bad time about the rain in Seattle, they get 3x as much rain as we do! Beautiful place though.