A foggy day in Juneau

Thursday - September 11, 2014

Juneau!  I booked with Dennis Harris of 12th Street Taxi, who had fabulous reviews on Tripadvisor. Because we were meeting him at 8, we opted to have breakfast delivered to our room since we’re lazy bitches.  Dude - how can you not love room service?  They bring you food!  Bring.  You.  Food.  Best.  Ever.  Man do I wish I get room service at home before work!

and this was the weather we had all day.  Super foggy and super wet.

So at 6:30 our butler Randy knocks on our door and sets up breakfast for us.  The dining table was a little too small, but we pulled over the coffee table, which was the perfect height for the cushy chairs.  My brother ordered for all of us - so it was a cracker jack breakfast since we had no idea what he had ordered for us.  He ended up ordering each of us an omelet with bacon and ham.  There was toast, fruit, juice and coffee.  Good stuff.  Best part was that we ate in our pajamas - we didn’t have to get up, go fight the crowds at the buffet (the horror) - we could eat at our own speed, dress at our own speed and be drinking our coffee and stuffing our faces while we get dressed and slapping on our faces (If I don’t wear make up people are like, “where’s your face?”).  Once we threw on our clothes and finished eating and packed up what we thought we’d desperately need for the next four hours we headed down to the gangway.

we're not awake yet.  We've also been spoiled beyond reason and didn't make our beds the entire week (for shame!)

Aside from when we froze our butts off in Fairbanks, we've had pretty good weather the whole trip.  But this is Alaska, and we expected rain (and were surprised NOT getting rained on in Whittier) - so when we awoke and saw this:

we weren't really surprised.  We just pulled on our waterproof shoes, waterproof jackets, umbrellas, rain hat (for my dad, who didn't want to wear his hooded jacket), and I had on my water resistant pants I purchased from Sierra Trading.  I didn't want to walk around in soggy jeans, so I purchased a pair of water resistant quick dry all weather wear hiking pants.  I don't hike - but I do enjoy the water resistant feature :)

Because I’m a moron who doesn’t follow directions, I had everyone get on the shuttle that took us to the Mt Roberts Tramway because as I said, I’m a moron.  We were docked at the AJ dock, which was in the freaking boonies, so the tram was a necessity since it was a mile to town.  And there was no one walking to town in the rain.  We were lucky that it didn't rain the entire time, it was on and off all day. Although a foggy landscape has its own beauty, we were a little disappointed that so much of Juneau's features were obscured. We saw some of it 8 years before, but our friends hadn't and we were sad for them.

As I was stupid and didn’t read the instructions correctly, I wandered around downtown looking for the rusty anchor that was right outside our ship.  A mile away, back NEXT to our ship.  But I still didn’t know that, so I texted Dennis that we were by the Roberts Tramway and that because I'm likely blind, I couldn’t find the rusty anchor he had referred to.  He called me and told me that the rusty anchor was next to the ship, where he was - but he told us not to move and within two minutes we saw Dennis pull up in his maroon van.

He’s a nice guy, slightly crusty in a charming way.  He’s local who grew up in the area (he even pointed out his house and the house he grew up in) and talked about local gossip, history, and random facts about Juneau. He even took the inevitable Sarah Palin question with good grace.  We had opted for a 3 hour tour that went to Mendenhall Glacier, Chapel by the Lake, the Shrine to St. Therese, and a quick stop off at the fish hatchery. Because we weren't interested in actually going in to the fish hatchery, we booked 3 hours instead of 4. Also, we wanted to make sure we left enough time in our schedule to eat at Tracy's King Crab Shack like proper tourists do.

Dennis picked us up by 8 am (even though I was retarded and went to the wrong place) and we headed off to Mendenhall.  It was raining, but as we were prepared for rain (this is Alaska, please) we opted to go first to avoid the crowds rather than join the crowds but have the Visitor’s Center open.  We zoomed over to the glacier where we were the first people there!  Aside from the ranger, none of the other crowds or any individuals had made their way to the glacier yet and we didn’t have anyone in our photos.  What we were afraid of though, were bears.  We’re city folk - we have teddy bears and care bears and Smoky the Bear.  What we did not have were bear sprays, bear bells or any other bear paraphernalia.  So even though it was super awesome we were the first ones there, we started talking super loud to scare any potential bears away because we’re pansies like that.  

It’s been 8 years since we were last at Mendenhall, and even I could see how much further the glacier had receded.  However, we came in a bus full of people last time, and there were a bunch of other people in our photos.  This time, it was just us.  And it was awesome.  I wanted to walk to Nugget Falls, but I didn’t want to spend an hour of the 3 hours we have with Dennis walking to the falls, so we walked the 10 minutes to the photo point instead.  

I'm not sure why my brother zoomed all the way in on my ginormous face.  I know what I look like.  I wanna see the glacier!

see?  Appropriate level of zoom.  I took this picture.  Clearly I'm better.  (Hi Raymond!  Yes, I am superior to you)

As a basis for comparison, this is what we saw in 2006:

After Mendenhall Dennis took us to the Shine to St. Therese, which we did not go to last time because we took one of those big bus tours.  Once again there was no one else there, so we had the entire place to ourselves.  Apparently when it was built you could only reach the chapel during low tide and if you didn’t leave before the tide came in, you were stuck.  It was serene, quiet, and incredibly beautiful.  Dennis said that earlier in the season you could see whales from the shrine. It's also a super popular place to get married - inside the chapel there are 3 photo albums with wedding photos dating from the 50's to today of people who've been married there. It was fun to look through, especially since some of them have updated photos of themselves through the years.

the view next to the chapel itself, behind the cross

the shrine/chapel is hidden in the clump of trees to the left

bridge over a creek.  If we had come earlier in the season, we'd be able to see salmon trying to swim upriver

the creek.  I just thought it was pretty

After the Shrine we went back to Chapel on the Lake, which was just as cute (though they really built out the surrounding buildings!) as last time, but because the weather was so bad, the cloud cover and fog was really dense and we couldn’t see the mountains or the glacier beyond the lake (sob!).  Doesn’t make the church any less beautiful, though I wished the views were better for our friends who’ve never been there before.

you can see the Auke Lake, but not the mountains or Mendenhall in the background :(

looking at the back of the church.  Also a popular place to get married - but no fun photo albums here

one last look with the lights off.  It's soooo stunning when there's better weather

As a basis for comparison - here' s a family photo we took in 2006 right outside the church. It has the same view you'd get looking out the window of the chapel:

younger better looking version of us (sob!)...and look how baggy Raymond's pants are.  Now he's all about the skinny pants.  Hehehe.  Also, you get a clear view of Auke Lake as well as the mountains AND Mendenhall behind us.

We had about a half hour left for our tour, so he swung us by the fish hatchery to see some salmon.  None of us wanted to go into the hatchery so we stopped by just to take a look.  We saw the fish swimming in what looked like a fake salmon ladder and then saw a seal basically shoot fish in a barrel (ha!) enjoying his buffet.  Dennis said you could tell there was a seal because the salmon were jumping out of the water, which is what they do to try to get away from seals.  We snapped a few photos, watched the seal for a few minutes then went on our way.

look at all these crazy people fishing in the rain!  Don't they know they can get salmon at the market?!

view of salmon ladder

view of the entire ladder.  What you can't see?  All the birds circling hoping to get some salmon sashimi

it's the seal!  He's swimming around chasing his snack

slightly morbid and gross - but these birds clearly enjoyed their salmon sashimi

I'm a crappy photographer, but I swear the salmon were jumping out of the water to get away from the seal!

Dennis dropped us off outside Tracy’s King Crab Shack at our request.  He had a credit card machine (which made payment easy) and gave us a few pointers and stores to hit depending on what we wanted to buy.

I had found Tracy’s on Yelp months before we left for our trip.  I know it’s a totally touristy thing to do - but hey, we’re tourists.  No one was going to believe we’re locals anyway.  None of us were actually hungry (I mean, we're on a cruise. Hungry is a word that does not exist on a cruise, though that never stopped anyone from stuffing their face and eating until we hated ourselves), but we (I) wanted to try it since well, it sounds awesome.  We ordered two of the combos and then a bucket of snow crab legs.  We ate it all.  Because we are pigs.  Raymond and I also got the draft root beers and enjoyed those as well.  And because we really liked the bisque, we ordered two more bowls so we can each indulge in more creamy deliciousness and all get fatter together.  Good stuff!

The people who worked there were super nice, and while standing in line, we ended up chatting with the guy waiting behind us who was on the Holland America cruise.  And he was from San Diego!  How funny that you can meet people so close from home while so far from home.  Also, when they take your order they want not just your name, but where you're from.  I guess because so many different people come and well, there must be 4 Johns or 2 Bens at any given time.  Because Raymond ordered, they took down his name.  Except when we got the receipt it read "Remy."  Huh.  I guess a Chinese guy in skinny jeans and a Carhartt hat (he got that hat in Fairbanks and lurves that hat) looks like a Remy?  Oh well.  When they called out "Remy from L.A" and he raised his hand, my parents were like, "who the hell is Remy?  Why are they calling you Remy?"  Mayhaps we speak with a California accent we cannot detect?  Because even though we are Asians (which is really apparent based on our big yellow faces) we actually do speaky the engrish.  Oh well.  I thought it was funny.  And kept calling him Remy that day.  Apparently he didn't find it as funny as I did.  Go figure.

We wait for our food.  We love food.  Even though we're not hungry, we're still excited.  By we I really mean me.

crab cakes.  They were good, not great.  But no one comes here for their crab cakes

delicious creamy goodness.  Also, you will gain a pants size if you ingest this bowl.  That did not stop me.  I guess it's a good thing I brought my stretchy jeans. 

um, I had already eaten some of my big ass king crab leg when I thought to take a photo.  And it was delicious.  Mmmm...

btw, it was so cold that the clarified/melted butter uh...solidified.  

And the aftermath.  Or at least my aftermath.

yummy in my tummy

While the parents went back to the ship, we wandered around town a bit for souvenirs.  We didn’t want to be left behind since the all aboard was set at 12:45pm, so when it hit 12:20 we hoofed it over to where the shuttles were waiting and hopped on.  Got on the ship right at 12:45pm!  We weren’t even the last people - there were shuttles all lined up behind ours and lots of people were still trying to get on.  Because we had already stuffed ourselves, we didn’t grab anything to eat...well, I lie, we weren’t hungry, but we grabbed some ice cream and coffee from the Great Outdoors and then went back to our room.  We were sailing into Tracy Arm Fjord this afternoon towards Sawyer Glacier and didn’t want to miss it.  But because we’re a bunch of lazy asses, we opted to nap before we hit the entrance to Tracy Arm Fjord.

Leaving Juneau:

Tracy Arm Fjord is one of those places where honestly, the journey is better than the destination.  Sawyer Glacier is very nice - but I personally feel that the Fjord itself is the treasure.  The scenery is amazing.  I can’t describe it.  And since there was a lot of fog/mist, that made the trip itself even more magical.  

This portion of the Fjord had this beautiful turquoise water.   I'm sure there's a scientific reason, but I've never been good at science.  It was purty. 

look at that little boat!  Aren't they cold?  I'm wearing like, 5 layers!

hello people in tiny boat!

look at how cold we are.  I too have a balaclava on (that I purchased in Fairbanks because I was freezing my face and ass off).  I have a penchant for calling it my terrorist hood though, because I can never remember the correct name.  I had to google it before typing balaclava here (sob!  My ignorance has been revealed), but I was vain enough to pull the face part down before my dad snapped a photo of us.

Unfortunately, while the fog/mist made the Fjord look magical, it screwed us when it came to Sawyer Glacier. We only got a distant hazy look at Sawyer (sob!).  I don’t know why we didn’t/couldn’t get any closer, and I was disappointed since we got such a fantastic view of it last time.  But the Fjord itself was just as beautiful as I remembered.  I guess we should be happy just to even see Sawyer since I read so many trip reports prior to our trip of other cruises that couldn’t even reach Sawyer due to the weather or the hour.

So here's our super hazy views of Sawyer Glacier:

you could sorta kinda see it...right?

here it is - I had my 250mm zoom lense thingy (also its official name) on my camera to get this very unclear shot

For comparison (since I'm all about comparisons. Okay,  I lie.  I'm all about food.  I just like comparing things when I have old photos to do so) here's what we saw in 2006:

we didn't get that much closer (because I'm pretty sure I zoomed it as far as I could and my 2006 camera would loose a thumb war with my current camera phone), but we could see it clearer since the weather was more cooperative.

We were all a bit pooped out, so instead of meeting up for dinner, we all went our own way.  My brother and I opted to head to the buffet for some dinner, then went right back to our cabin to shower and go to bed.  

Tonight's towel animal:

I had downloaded episodes to season 4 of Arrested Development as well as season 7 of The Big Bang Theory onto my tablet before I left home knowing that TV options were going to be limited (and we do enjoy our TV) so I came prepared.  As we laid in bed, we started watching Arrested Development and I only got through 3 episodes before I konked out.

On a side note, even with our tour and festivities on the ship, we were very aware that it was September 11th.  One of the guests had an American flag taped to their door with a handwritten sign that said “never forget” that was sobering every time we passed by it.  Also, while we were driving through Juneau, the Juneau Fire Dept was still in the middle of their 9-11 tribute - they had two of the ladders on their trucks fully extended in the shape of an X and all their lights flashing.  People were driving by and honking in support.  It was moving - I only wish I got a photo of it because it was really something to see.