Another Mile Another Destination Blog: Juneau, Alaska

“Somewhere between living and dreaming, there’s Alaska.”

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Juneau, Alaska

Under a dark and overcast sky, our cruise ship entered the port in Juneau, Alaska. Juneau, which is located in the Alaskan panhandle, has been the capital of Alaska since 1906. What a beautiful site seeing the town come into sight from our ship. This town is nestled just below Mount Juneau which reaches up to the sky some 3,576 feet. This US capital has the largest land mass of any other US capital and was named after a gold prospector from Quebec by the name of Joe Juneau.

Every day, from May through September, this city gets an extra 21,000 people who enter the city from cruise ships. The most unique feature of this capital city is that it can only be reached by airplane or boat. Everything they need to live has to come in by plane or boat making it quite expensive to live here. It must be hard living here being cut off from the mainland with no roads leading out.

Our cruise line, Royal Caribbean offered a free shuttle to town from our cruise port. That made it convenient to get to town instead of walking the mile and a half, so we jumped on for the short ride to town. When we got off the bus, we asked our bus driver where is a good place to get something to eat that is local. She said a favorite spot where the locals go is called Pel Meni which sells Russian dumplings. We headed down Marine Way till we came upon this place. It didn’t look like much but we wanted to give it a try. They were excellent. It was great advice. After eating, we headed back to the port to find our excursion bus.

We had scheduled an excursion through Viator for the day to Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls. Our bus drove us through the city of Juneau which looked lovely. We drove out of town on a windy and scenic road through the Tongass National Forest some 12 miles to the glacier. We were dropped off and given two hours to explore the area. We could see the glacier from a distance and were told to take this one trail that would get us a little closer and get a better view. It was truly a sight to see. This glacier is 13.6 miles long and has receded about two and a half miles since the 1700’s.

We headed down the trail on the Nugget Falls Trail for great views of the glacier and Nugget Falls. As we stood on the stoney banks of the water, you could feel the power of the large falls spilling down off the mountain. These falls stand 377 feet high and stream down from the Nugget Glacier to the base of Bullard Mountain. It was amazing being that close to the base of these falls with Mendenhall Glacier off in the distance.

After we walked back up the trail, we went into the visitors center. This was the first US Forest Service Center built in our nation. It was dedicated in 1962 and was later expanded in 1999. Then we walked over to another area of the park, which had a lovely lake and great viewing area for wildlife. We really enjoyed this tour.

After our tour, we still had time before we were due back on the ship so we walked around the touristy area of the city. Close to the cruise port are only a few streets that are worth walking around. We enjoyed the artsy stores and souvenir shops and found the town to be very quaint. We stopped at an outside food truck area that had tabletop fireplaces on many of the tables. That was a nice place to stop. The food was good, the ambiance great.

The last time we came to Juneau, we took the tram up the mountain, which was great but we didn’t do it this time. If you have never gone up the mountain, it is a great place to go as the views are wonderful and there are nice trails. Hopefully you get a beautiful day that is clear for the views.

A must do in Juneau is to stop at the historic Red Dog Saloon which first opened up during the heyday of Juneau’s mining era which was the late 1800’s to early 1900. We decided we had to visit, so we walked through the swinging doors into the small saloon. As we walked to our table, we noticed the floors were covered with sawdust. There was a piano player singing and playing period songs in his ragtime outfit. All the waiters and waitresses were wearing period clothing and selling it as they waited on the crowd.

We looked at the menu which was very entertaining to read and decided to order one of the favorites at the bar, a Duck Fart. It was a shot with three kinds of alcohol, Kahlua, Baileys Irish Cream, and whiskey. I told the waiter before ordering one, that I just wanted to take a sip of Joe’s drink. He says to me, “I can’t tell you how to live your life, but that’s just not how we do it here. Take the shot and live a little.” It ended up being very nice. On the wall behind the bar in a glass case is a gun of Wyatt Earp’s that he checked but failed to claim on his way to Nome. This place was a lot of fun.

Then we walked on the seawalk and came upon the large statue of a dog. This is the Patsy Ann Statue. Who is Patsy Ann? She is the famous dog who during the 1930’s was a every day site down at the port. Patsy, was a small white English Bull Terrier that was brought to Juneau by a dentist as a puppy. She didn’t want to be kept inside, so her owner let her outside. She became a common site in town as she walked into the different shops where she was welcomed and given treats. She had an innate ability to know when ships were coming in even when no one else did. She would go to the waterfront to watch and greet the incoming ships. The amazing thing is she did this while being totally deaf. When she passed, many locals came to the dock to honor Patsy. They lowered her small casket into the channel. That is such a sweet story.