Look at the water cascading down the steep mountains of Juneau. Everyone said to expect rain and everyone was correct.

So…we drove our truck down to Amelia’s dad’s house in Pacific Beach and he gave us a ride to the airport. As the three of us were driving through the heart of P.B. there was a homeless dude standing in the middle of the street, long dirty hair, wearing rags, and looking a lot older than his age. He was waving his arms and yelling at no one in particular.

Being the smart aleck I am, I said, “We must be in Pacific Beach. We won’t be seeing that in Juneau.” Wrong! The first thing I saw when the taxi dropped us off at 10pm at the Alaskan Hotel were homeless people. That was an inauspicious start to our big Alaska trip.

Juneau is unique among US state capitals because it has no roads connecting it to the rest of the state or to the contiguous United States. Cruise ship lines are one of the big economic drivers. They own all the tourist shops right in front of the terminal. It was out of place and bizarre to see so many jewelry shops. They all seemed to be selling tanzanite. The folks working in the shops also seemed out of place. If it wasn’t for the weather you’d think you were in Egypt. Once you got out of the terminal area all the shops had signs about being locally owned.

Lucky us! We traveled with another great couple again. This time it was our friends from Colorado, Tony and Dianni. More than a year ago we booked this trip with Uncruise Adventures. What a genius name for the company. It’s not anything like those huge cruise ships. Our ship only had 37 cabins! We all arrived on Friday night. Saturday the guys went fishing and the girls went to Mendenhall Glacier. The girls were smart. We didn’t catch anything. More on that later.

On Sunday, we had a lot of time to kill. Checkout was 11am and embarkment wasn’t until 5pm. We made the most of it walking in the rain all over town, through a neighborhood with incredible staircases until we stumbled upon a great restaurant with arcade games upstairs.

The Alaskan Hotel and Bar was centrally located, rustic, and interesting. Our little room had slanted floors. I had to put pillows between the mattress and box spring to feel level enough to sleep. 

Back home on my morning walks I see coyote scat everywhere.  In Juneau, it’s bear shit, right on the sidewalk in front of the tourist shops.

Amelia at the Mendenhall Glacier.

Temperate rainforest

We were chumps to use Chum Fun Charters! It’s not really their fault, but it was stupid. The salmon weren’t running and eight of us stood in the wind and rain for two hours, casting our Mepps lures, all for naught.

Tony and I acting like we had a great time. Here’s a beautiful quote from Tony in reference to all my wrinkles and his lack of them, “Asian don’t raisin.”

Steep staircases throughout the town leading up to residences and streets.

Great tip from Brent, my buddy’s kid, to visit Devil’s Club Brewing.

Immature Bald Eagle

First part of our killing time tour

That’s me sleeping on a couch at the Crystal Barcade. No, I wasn’t hungover! Those days are long gone. I had a GERD issue the night before and slept poorly. While I was napping, the other three were playing arcade games. On Sunday all the games are free. BTW, the food downstairs at the Crystal Saloon was excellent.

Our Uncruise ship waiting for us.

Bon voyage!