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Juneau - the Unique Capital of Alaska
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Note: my apologies for the lack of sorting in the photos, I did it once and lost the changes. The process is too time consuming to do again.
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Juneau is unique due to its spectacularly scenic location and for being the only state capital in the U.S. not connected to the rest of the state by road (except for the islands of Hawaii).

Juneau, along with the nearby town of Douglas, only have 45 miles of paved road way. Douglas is a city located across the Gastineau Channel from downtown Juneau. Juneau's beautiful site is due to the fact that it is sandwiched between the sea and steep mountains.

The city is accessed only by air or by sea.

During my stay, I did see car bumpers stickers saying "Build the Road". The 100 mile proposed road, with at least one major ferry crossing, would lead to Skagway located to the north . This would provide road access to the outside world via the Alaska Highway.

Despite the 45 miles of road, there seem to be no shortage of cars and dealerships of all kinds are well represented in this small enclave.

The ferry arrives at Auk Bay near the northern end of the road system or about a half hour drive to downtown.

The main attraction, other than the downtown, is the nearby Mendenhall Glacier. While Juneau is far from civilization it is very close to wilderness as it is located in the heart of the Tongass National Forest.

The city was founded in 1870 as a result of a gold rush.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I would be spending three days in Juneau. Considering the rainy weather, this was frankly too much time.

My headquarters became the beautiful library of the University of Alaska - Juneau which not surprisingly was set in pristine natural surroundings backed by a high mountain range .

Every day during my stay I spent several hours in the library blogging in an attempt to bring "lobo" closer to real time.

Since I was having problems with the capacity of my laptop I was entertaining the idea of buying an I-Mac laptop. The I-Mac is by far the model of choice among the student population at the University of Alaska.

My first stop would have been Best Buy which I had already visited in Anchorage. Juneau unfortunately has no Best Buy and has just recently opened its first Wal-Mart, so it is not exactly a merchandising haven.

The only store of any size was a Fred Meyer. It was humungous and for all intents and purposes was just like a Wall Mart. They are found in all the larger cities of Alaska and I had identified them as something uniquely Alaskan but was later told that they also exist in the west coast states.

Meyer sells computers but not I-Mac by Apple that interested me . Thereby my last chance to buy a laptop at a lower price than in Canada and without sales tax went up in smoke.

Having said that, I was also somewhat hesitant because of the warranty issue.

My overall impression of downtown Juneau was that it had some similarity with the smaller Scandinavian cities of Finland and Norway.

This was created by proximity to the water, somber colours, hilly terrain, cramped quarters, and buildings in need of a general sprucing up.

Undoubtedly, I would have had a different impression if I had seen the town in bright sunshine.

The repeated rain put a damper on my usual enthusiasm to explore to the maximum. I was glad to have the university as a place to withdraw to despite the fact that it was a twenty minute drive from downtown.

My highlights

Being fascinated by things Russian, my attention was drawn to the "pel meni café" billed as a Russian underground midnight café featuring home made Russian dumplings .

I actually discovered the "pel meni" after walking around downtown trying to find a place to eat and having reluctantly settled upon McDonalds for a "hamburger meal". I have blogged on my preference for McDonald's "Egg McMuffin" for breakfast but the hamburgers with their "same-for-all" dressing ranks high on my list of items to avoid.

I still have buried in my memory a hamburger meal eaten several years ago at McDonalds in Alsace, France which ended with the promise to "never again" repeat the experience. Over time one tends to forget.

In my most recent travels I have discovered the virtues of a McDonald's competitor called Jack in the Box which serves great breakfast sandwiches. During the Alaska trip I also had occasion to eat a hamburger at Carls Junior, another American hamburger chain. Their hamburgers are immense and tasty and well worth a try.

When I saw the "pel meni" restaurant in Juneau after having eaten at McDonalds I wished that I had found this restaurant first to try the Russian Dumplings .

The occasion did not present itself again until lunch time the next day. I made a point of going there. The dumplings are freshly boiled in hot water for each order and are then exchanged with the customer for a mere $5.

They are white, naked and hot, crying for the red sauce with which each table is decorated.

I could not resist squirting the red hot sauce all over my naked dumplings. There was no reaction from the dumplings despite the fact that they looked a lot better.

In a lot of cases, anticipation is half the fun and that is how it was with the dumplings because from the moment that the first morsel hit my taste buds, I could almost hear a loud "thud". How was I to know that these things demand an acquired taste which I did not want to acquire? The word taste is used loosely here as the dumplings had no taste. The taste was all in the sauce and I did not write home about that .

That left me with the cool surroundings of a soup kitchen!

Still on the Russian theme, I made a special effort to seek out St. Nicholas - the Russian Orthodox Church clinging to a hill side near downtown Juneau.

It was resplendent in its white colour, blue trim and an Orthodox cross atop its spire. I was hoping for a tour of the chapel but the person responsible for being there for the tour at the announced times (I went there twice) had more important things to do on the announced times.

The other highlight was a tour of the Alaska State Capitol located on a steep hill in the heart of downtown. While the outside appearance is that of an ordinary office building, the inside projects the subdued opulence typical of a state capitol punctuated by the ample use of rich looking wood.

On the fourth floor, I perused the Hall of Governors, a photo gallery of Alaska's governors . When I stupidly enough asked a nearby administrative assistant which of the governors had been the best for the state, I was told "why the present governor of course". How is that for being politically correct?

Trying to pass some of the rainy day, I visited the local aquarium which had quite an impressive collection of fish.

My visit to the Mendenhall Glacier, the most impressive glacier accessible by car in Alaska was, due to the weather, put off until late in the afternoon and even then it was cloudy. The glacier is an arm of the 1,500 square-mile Juneau Icefield. I kept comparing it to the Perito Mereno Glacier which I blogged in Argentina - Blog No. ---. The comparison came up short but then, is the Mendenhall Glacier the best that Alaska has to offer? I cannot answer that question but here is some further information.

Perito Mereno is impressive because it can be accessed by road and then once there, its huge glacial wall can be approached by boat making for a superb view .

From what I have seen from brochures, the same experience can be had in Glacier Bay where the Alaskan cruise ships can approach the huge glaciers. Also near Seward, AK, boat access is available to what is billed as Alaska's largest glacier field.

At the Java Jazz Coffee Shack, I witnessed a local phenomenon which should make Tim Hortons wary of expanding its chain into this region.

The coffee shacks exist all over Alaska. They are literally small shacks that are placed on shopping center or gas station parking lots and which serve all forms of coffee to the passing customer. In an early morning observation, I was amazed at the number of cars which were attracted to the coffee shack like bees to honey.

They are a well engrained Alaskan phenomenon.

Driving to the north end of the road, I came upon the Thane Ore House which specializes in Halibut and Salmon Bake, another Alaskan tradition .

The reason I mention this is that I had no idea of how tasty halibut can be. The only question I have is why is it deep fried and not grilled like the salmon?

A place to go after the university had closed for the day was the Alaskan Hotel in downtown Juneau. Historical and authentic, it is a favorite watering hole in town as well as being a "hot spot" which is the main reason that I went there.

For the price of a beer, it was possible to surf the Internet for several hours. I still think that the best "Alaska Hotel" is the one in downtown Dawson Creek with its unusual colours and architecture. (See Blog No. ----)

I wanted to visit the Last Chance Mining museum but it was already closed at this time of year.

While 900,000 cruise ship tourists visit Juneau annually, at this time of year, tourists are hard to find and given the rainy weather it seemed like somewhat of a dreary place where three days seemed like a long time to stay .

I am the first to admit that in bright sunshine my perceptions would have been entirely different.

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Dammit!! For this blog I missed my flight from Honolulu to Maui !!!!!
No problem, at least Barb made it there !!!

You'll love this blog yet to come.
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Coming Soon:

Three Hours in Historic Sitka

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