Juneau, Alaska June 2012, Town & Mendenhall Glacier

Hello,  This is day 4 of our cruise.  I got to the dining room at 7:30 a.m. and saw the approach to Juneau.  There are a # of mountains covered with snow here.    

We saw streams with snow just beginning to melt with ice at the bottom

 and houses on the coast as we got closer to town.  Electric poles along the coast just started a few miles from the city.    I was fascinated by the way the trees were trimmed below.

 Weather here is colder than Ketchikan and Sitka, Anchorage, etc. because of the location.  The mountains start after 3 or 4 blocks.  The tram goes up to Mt. Roberts, at least 1800 feet above town but it was overcast so not worth the cost to go up.  

Unlike Ketchikan, Juneau has a few stop lights!

Howard, Marty, Marsha an I first walked past the tourist center and up to the State Capitol, about 5 blocks from our ship.  Just across from our ship, we saw a pretty display of dolls (for sale).  I thought the small ones with wooden faces quite unusual.

Marsha took this cute picture of me!

Along the way we saw a carving from whale bone.  We were to see many others like that one.

We had heard about bear-proof garbage cans with latches on these and saw our first example of one.

 We saw a really pretty park named  Gunakadeit which told a special legend.

 Here is the legend:
"Long ago, the mother-in-law of a young man was displeased with him.  After a while, he secretly maid a large trap and caught the monster.   When he put on its skin, he found that he had Gunakadeit's spiritual powers.  Every night he went out to sea and brought back much food, which he left at his mother-in-law's house."

"The mother-in-law thought she had supernatural powers, and considered herself equal to a medicine man.  She had ceremonial rattles and regalia made for herself.  She began asking for specific food.  For a time, the young man was able to fulfill her wishes.  But when he tried to bring two whales ashore, he was found dead on the beach."

 

"The mother-in-law was found to be a fake and died of shame.  The man became the spirit of Gunakadeit.  If you see this see-being, it will bring good luck to you."

Just before the capital was a statue and a garden with a bear with a fish in its mouth in Windfall Fisherman Park.  It was nice to see so many art-ish parks so close to the port. 

 Juneau's capitol building is the only state capitol in the US without a dome.  That is because it originally was the territorial capital.

Our tour guide for the free tour of the state capitol (about 40 min) was a young woman named Hailee. She grew up in the area and graduated from school in Washington.  She has worked at the capitol for 3 or 4 summers, and the experience influenced her decision to go to law school.  She was a great guide!!

Marsha, Marty and I took the bus for $16 round-trip to Mendenhall Glacier, about 12 miles from Juneau. .  It was spectacular!! As we drove up along the highway, this is what we found in front of us.  Can you see the patch of lighter blue below the snow?  That is the glacier!

We saw the sign below upon our arrival.  We had a limited amount of time and energy, so decided to take the nature trail toward the glacier and the wate fall.

We saw a lot of pretty plants and flowers along the way.   It is very hard for plants to grow in this nutrient-poor soil so it takes them much more time to grow a few inches than if they were in better soil.  Trees look much younger than they really are. The pictures below offer a touch of what we saw on the path.  It was a lovely walk and we enjoyed the sounds around us.

Pink Buds

Small Buttercups?

Stream 2 Lake

We were advised not to go off path to protect the plants that struggle so hard to grow and survive.  Also we were asked not to go on a small path off to a branch of the lake as terns were nesting.  People seemed to be very respectful of the site.

There were also cell-phone stops where one could get extra information about each stop. The area code was based in Seattle!

Before we headed down the path, we already saw the lake and the glacier behind it.  We also say chunks of glacier that had calved from the glacier and were floating in the lake.  The chunks are big, and they dwarfed kayakers going by them.

Look carefully and you can see the kayakers in the picture above.  You can thus see how big the "chunks" of ice are!

 250 years ago, the glacier reached Juneau (which didn't exist yet).    The past few years, the glacier has been receding at a very fast rate.    From 1951–1958 the terminus of the glacier, which flows into suburban Juneau, has retreated 1,900 feet (580 m). The glacier has also receded 1.75 miles (2.82 km) since 1958, when Mendenhall Lake was created.

And now for something spectacular--the glacier itself:

 We went out right after the capitol tour as we were told that when it is cloudy, the glacier appears bluer.  And you can see how blue it was...spectacular!

I REALLY was there!

As we walked back, I saw someone that looked familiar and he also was looking at me.  It turned out to be Lee Diskin with two of his sons!  They sailed on the same day we did with Holland America, but out of Seattle.  I saw his mom Joani just below the Visitors' Center as we went back.

We were a bit tired after the walk, so headed back to the ship for lunch.  Then Marty and I headed out to the state government buildig to see the view form the 8th floor.  We saw the governor's mansion.  Sarah Palin chose not to move there during her term and got a stipend for living at home.

Waasgo or "Old Witch" Totem Pole in state bldg

The above totem pole resides inside the state building and is quite tall.  It was built in the 1880s and resided in the Haida village of Sukkwan.  It was carved for the Quit'aas clan and mounted in front of their home, south on the panhandle.  The top figure represents a clan ancestor and a bullhead from a story of an encounter between the man and the chief of the bullheads.  The other figures relate to a story of a young man and an encounter with Waasgo, a powerful, supernatural water creature.

The mansion was on the way up the hill.  Many more were above and below.  This photo gives you an idea of the steepness of the hill.

Juneau Across the bay.  Suburbs?

Ravens resting on town street

Mural on the side of the city hall with legend of humans coming out of a clam shell.

We also stopped a a very nice bookstore with very helpful staff.   I was trying to find the name of a mystery recommended on ship by a Washington State author.  Several books in a series were set in Ketchikan in the 1930s and 1940s.

To relieve congestion, a parking lot was built right across from where we docked.  A lovelymural is on the side of the lot and the city museum is on the top floor.  It had free internet but was not working well that day, so Marty went to a local pub, got a beer for $5 and got the code to access the internet.  Later he gave me the receipt and I used his code.

I also stopped at hte Alaska T-shirt store and got a few cute shirts for Jonah and Zekey and some socks.

That night I had dinner with Marsha and Marty at  the 7:45 p.m. setting o take advantage of our time in Juneau beforehand.  It was late for Howard, so he went to bed.  Fred and Ruthie joined us for dessert and friendly chatter, reviewing our day.

I'll write about the capitol and the state museum on another blog. This is long enough!  There is also a city museum that is supposed to be worth seeing, just across from the capitol.  We just ran out of time and energy!