Juneau

     Juneau is a busy little harbor town set against a dramatic backdrop of glaciers. We stayed at a state park on Mendenhall Lake, about 15 miles from downtown. Bears were a commonplace sight, including one hanging out near our site that we saw multiple times.  Salmon were spawning so presumably they have enough to eat without looking for ‘doggie biscuits’. 

Juneau is a ‘cruise ship’ town, so downtown is a zoo. The sky’s are full of cheap helicopter and float plane tours we wouldn’t get on if they paid us. Jennifer’s dad used to say “never take a $25 plane ride”.   Still, had we taken more time here we might have visited the gigantic ice fields and numerous glaciers accessible only by air.  Keeping to our schedule we boarded the ferry for short trip to Haines and the Alaska SE State Fair.

     Now that we’ve ridden the ferry all the way through from Prince Rupert to Haines I look back on the several legs of the trip as the place where we met more interesting people than anywhere else.  Young couples from Tennessee and Wisconsin, an old hippie from Louisiana, retirees from Montana, California, Vermont or New York.  The ferry is just conducive to making friends. We sure hope to repeat this experience again, whether it be in Alaska or somewhere else. We’ve heard about a great Norwegian ferry that we can start dreaming about.