Juneau was a very special destination for us all, as it was where Kim and
Keb were originally planning on getting married in 2020 before Covid came and
changed the plans for everyone. They were planning on getting married at Mendenhall
Glacier.
We all decided to book a bus ride to the glacier and see it on our own schedule
(except Matthew since it wasn’t going to be very wheelchair friendly and too
much for him to do walking). We got off
the boat together and walked to the meet up with the bus, only to find out that
they no longer offer the bus ride to the glacier and had upgraded us to the
city tour/bus ride for free. While we
waited for the bus to arrive, we went to a tourist shop and of course did a
little shopping.
Our tour guide was very entertaining, and we enjoyed the various sites
along the way. Of course, I had to get a
picture of Fredmeyer in honor of Keb… He can’t go anywhere and escape memories
of his job… lol. The trip to the glacier was fairly quick but the sites along the
way were beautiful.
When we arrived at the Glacier we quickly got a picture of everyone at
the sign and a few pictures of the glacier before starting on the mile long
walk to Nugget Falls. While we saw the flooding
sign, we figured we would be able to navigate the water and still get to our
destination… but it did not take long for us to realize that when they said it
was flooded… they meant the entire path was flooded and there was no going
around it. People tried to go through
the woods only to get a little further and it was flooded once again. Unless
you came prepared to walk through waist high water, there was no walking to Nugget
Falls today. In fact, although the day
was absolutely beautiful for us, sunny and blue skies, there was so much rain
the day before that it caused the worst flood since 2011 and destroyed homes,
one which ended up in the water.
Instead of walking to Nugget Falls, we took pictures of the glacier and
waterfall from a distance, on top of the rocks, since the pathway to the
lookout point was also flooded. It was
quite an experience. We then headed up
to the visitor center. I enjoyed looking
around and ended the experience watching a video about the glacier.
Since we had a little extra time before our ride back into town, we went
to check out the salmon swimming upstream.
There were a lot of salmon to be seen but unfortunately, we didn’t get
to see any bears which can often be found in the area.
On the way back to town we stopped at the
whale sculpture. “Tahku, the Alaska
Whale Sculpture, is a life-scale bronze whale sculpture of a breaching humpback
rising amidst waterworks from an infinity pool located on the waterfront of
Alaska’s capital city, Juneau – a destination for over 1 million visitors each
year from around the world. It commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alaska
Statehood, and serves as the northern anchor for the downtown Juneau
waterfront.” We got lucky and the fountain
turned on just as we were boarding the bus.
Once we arrived back in town we took a picture by the Juneau sign and
then everyone could go their own ways.
Unfortunately, Matthew was not feeling well so he decided not to join up
with us for the rest of the afternoon.
Uncle Chuck headed back to the ship but the rest of us decided to go out
for lunch at an Alaskan Grill. You can’t
go to Alaska without eating at least one meal there. Kim, Keb, and I shared some King Crab and Halibut
and Chips. It was absolutely
delicious.
I then went to the Red Dog Saloon with Kim and Keb. It was one of the saloons that was open
during the gold mining days. It was a
lot of fun to visit even though I don’t drink.
It had a lot of character and fun things to see in the store.
We finally made it back to the ship where I was able to check on Matthew. We had some time to relax so I stayed on the
balcony in my room so I could be close to Matthew but still enjoy the
views. My Aunt Sandi had given me some
chocolate covered strawberries, so I enjoyed those while reading a book.
Matthew still was not feeling the greatest and decided to skip dinner. I brought him back some cookies afterwards so
he would eat something. My parents decided to join in the evening toast since
it was a drink they liked, and Matthew wasn’t there to get my mom her cup. I tried
a variety of foods for dinner including alligator, but the main course was Salmon,
and it was delicious.
After dinner we met back up at the adults only section of the ship. I spent most of the evening captivated by the
sunset. I absolutely love sunsets and
this one was spectacular. I could not take my eyes away from it. Everyone else
got cold and headed back to their room but I stayed and watched until the sun
disappeared behind the mountains. I did get
to take a picture of the “newlyweds” from the night before… so it was good to
see they were still happily married. After
the sun set… I went back to the room and called it an early night.
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