The Trip You Must Take, Part IV

We awoke on our 5th day at sea to the capital town of Juneau, AK (pop. 301 K, considerably fewer during non-summertime). The ship docked around 7 AM; the sun had already been up for nearly 3 hours. Like Ketchikan, the first views of the shoreline revealed rows of businesses geared for tourists. T-shirt shops and jewelry stores dotted the main street. Our first excursion, "Bike View & Brew" had us whisked away in a van and the scene again quickly changed.

This time our guide was an 18 y.o. local who had just graduated from high school. While we waited in the heavy main street traffic, he duly noted all said businesses, adding that "everything will look a lot cooler in a few minutes." It did. Maybe it's just that we're Floridians, easily impressed by elevations and trees that aren't palms. I dunno. But the lush landscapes were simply gorgeous. Our ride narration was a really good mix of local facts/stats and some personal observations. Nolan described how miserable many teens are in Juneau, what with its 22 hrs. of darkness during the winter, brutal cold, and the lack of fast-food establishments. "Many escape and go to Seattle," he informed us. We, of course, thought all of this sounded really good!

Anyhow, we wound up in an industrial area where a trailer full of 10 speeds awaited. Hitched 'em up, drove a few more miles to a clearing, then we were off on a 10 mile ride that took us over pavement and rock, through a university parking lot, past a church called the Chapel-by-the-Lake (also a stopping point), up some not too steep hills, along a rad forest trail, and around the Mendenhall Glacier, which is over 200 ft. high and nearly 3 miles wide. We saw the Glacier from two separate locations. Another magnificent site. Can't say enough about its beauty. The end of the excursion had us at the Alskan Brewery, where we sampled the local ale, India and Winter brews. This craft brewery had been around for 25 + years in the same modest location. We learned quite a bit of the history of the place and what goes into the beer making itself. Samples of malts and hops were made available for our tasting; those chocolate ones were pretty good! I bought an assorted six pack of bottles to bring home, having heard that this brew was unavailable east of the Mississip.

We got a good look at a bald eagle as we pulled away from the brewery. Later, I read that eagles are as common as pigeons in Juneau. Another guide told us that ravens are almost as common.

Back in town, we had lunch at the infamous Red Dog Saloon. NO ONE UNDER 21 ADMITTED read the sign above the entrance. Hmm. The floor was covered in sawdust, which was explained by our waitress to be a tradition as old as the place itself. Back during the gold rush years in the late 19th century, patrons carried pieces of gold as currency. If they dropped them on the floor, they would be lost. At closing time, the Red Dog owner would sift through and retrieve quite a sum. The guy playing the piano was a riot, hurling insults at those unfortunate enough to be sitting close. "Boat trash" he called 'em. Then, he launched into X-rated versions of such classics as "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah" and then the sign I saw earlier suddenly made sense. Pretty raunchy. We saw one of our nightly cruise dinner cohorts there, who later described the Red Dog as similiar to "an old Marine bar." The menu was also a hoot: under the liquors, the designations were "Cheap Shit", "Expensive Shit" and "Really Expensive Shit." All were about a buck apart and none more expensive than $8. We shared a halibut pizza that was tasty but distressingly small. We had to seek more food elsewhere.

Mmm, crepes. We had a dandy one at what was essentially a kiosk in a row of businesses off the main drag. As we waited, we noticed several pics of a young girl and her family. The young man waiting on us explained that she was the owner, only 23! I also noticed that a few Bible verses were written on the white board below the daily specials. This was a nice antidote to the sleazery (amusing as it was) of the Red Dog. We had a ham and cheese crepe that was surprisingly large and quite good. As we left the young lady proprieter passed us and smiled.

We killed time around downtown until our next excursion. Very picturesque once you go a few blocks. Everything is sloping off a large mountain, off of which two red trams travel the cables. We unfortunately didn't get to ride it, but we did get a good dose of local color. Most of the people we passed were doubtless tourists, but I think I have a good eye for the locals. We started to see the neighborhood kids on their skateboards, panhandlers, anonymous souls who made too much eye contact, others who made a studied effort to avoid it. Lot of down-and-outers. Every town I visit, I find myself looking into the shadows; some towns are easy (L.A., New Orleans), others are more subtle (Macon, Denver). Juneau was fairly transparent. One musician was slumped over with his guitar, his hat filled with maybe a couple of coins. He was bombed. I couldn't even see his face. His fingers barely strummed. Just then, I looked up to see the "Arctic Bar." I imagined how unrelentingly bleak this town must be during the winter. Intriguing. I was reminded of that time we rode a cab in Minneapolis, the driver explaining how alcohol consumption and television watching were the main hobbies. Not everyone is on the slopes, taking advantage of the beauty of God's creation.

I also heard that the local political scene in Juneau has its own interest. We did catch a glance at the gov's mansion but did not get to tour. Nope, didn't see Ms. Palin, either.

Our next excursion: salmon bake. Just outside of downtown, in what was once a mining area, complete with gigantic metal gears and shafts with broken 2 x 4s blocking the entrances of mines. A large grill was set up with smoked salmon. Stations for side dishes and blueberry cake (yum!) were scattered around. A folk singer sat up front, playing songs about Alaska on her acoustic guitar. The most memorable, a true earworm, was a kids' song called "If You Wanna Catch a Moose."The food was terrific, and afterward we strolled by a river and eventually a waterfall, per the guitarist's advice. More beauty. The air coming off of it was positively narcotic. It was so good we only felt a little bit bad that we missed toasting marshmallows. My only complaint about this whole trip was that this particular excusrion was scheduled far too close to the time our ship left port. Just means we have to return......