ALASKA– Juneau

July 22 Sunday The ferry ride went well...ate dinner in the dining room...it was cafeteria style but had some good entrees. Then we found the small movie theater and watched “Joyful Noise” with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah. Not a movie we would normally have chosen but it was entertaining and helped pass the time. Our trip was about 4.5 hours long. Arrived in Juneau about 11pm and had to drive to our RV park in the dark. We had good directions and we easily found it. The owner, Corinna, was waiting up for us and led us to our campsite. That was SO nice of her! By the time we settled in and wound down, it was about 1am. This is a very wooded campsite... a little reminiscent of the Adirondacks.

Spruce Meadow RV Park

In the morning we went to the office to finish our camping registration and Corinna was a wealth of knowledge about where to go and what to do in Juneau. First thing we did was head to downtown Juneau. There were 3 huge cruise ships in port. We will probably see a lot of cruise ships on this leg of our trip since we are on the inter coastal waterway. Juneau kind of reminded us of San Francisco...many narrow, steep streets all headed toward the port. Busy, busy, busy downtown with all of the cruise ship tourists coming ashore. We had lunch at Tracy's crab shack which Corinna recommended....scrumptious crab bisque! Tracy has won awards for it at competitions in Boston and elsewhere in New England. Lucky for us, we could buy it frozen so some is in our freezer to bring back....IF we don't eat it all on the way home.  Checked out the Red Dog Saloon...many saloons in Alaska from the gold rush days.   This was very entertaining...great older guy playing the piano and engaging the crowd.

Steep, narrow street in downtown Juneau

Main St. next to the port...notice the huge cruise ship!

Steep stairs

Downtown Juneau

I look a little nervous, don't I?

Piano player inside the Red Dog Saloon

 Stopped by Mendenhall Glacier which is less than 2 miles from our campsite.   Beautiful!

Mendenhall Glacier

Didn't do much else today...kind of tired from our trip here.

July 23 Monday Weather is overcast, about 58 degrees, same as yesterday. We went to Glacier Gardens one of the spots Corinna recommended. Beautiful!! This a rainforest and they have rides to the top that offer views of Juneau. Of course, it was a bit overcast so the views weren't as stunning as if it were sunny,. But, it was still an interesting tour...the tour goes through a section of the Tongass National Park, the nation's largest national forest. It covers most of Southeast Alaska, surrounding the famous Inside Passage and down through the lower 48 states...Washington, Oregon and California.

Upside down trees...flowers planted in root systems.

Inside Glacier Garden shop

More flower arrangements inside

Mr. Skunk waiting for his ride up through the rain forest.

  

Looking back down the twisty, steep road we traveled to the top.

At the top!  View of Juneau Airport behind us!

 

After lunch we checked out the Juneau Gold Mining Company which was opened from 1897 – 1944 and during that time mined over $80 million of gold. This was mountain mining into solid rock.

Bridge to mine in 1912

Same bridge --- 2012

Inside the mine -- early 1900's

Oh no!   Gary is getting gold fever! Panning in the creek by the mine.

We made a stop at Eagle Beach....loaded with bald eagles! Alaska has tons of bald eagles, bears and glaciers! 

So many eagles here!

Our last stop of the day was at St. Theresa's shrine. This is a beautiful, peaceful, spiritual place by the inter coastal waters . There is a shrine to St. Theresa and a lovely Catholic Church built of beach stones. The walk to to the church has the stations of the cross also built of beach stones. This is an active church and there is a picture inside of one of the Pope's visiting this location.

Walk through the forest up to the church.

Closer view of the church...St. Theresa Shrine in front