I know these Alaska posts are dragging on forever (and I still have 4-5 more posts after this one. Ha!) considering I've been home for over 2 weeks, but we were gone for so long that there is a ton of stuff I still want to write posts on so I don't forget this once-in-a-lifetime vacation!
Day 6 - Sunday, June 22 - Juneau, AK
Our first port stop was Juneau - the capital of Alaska! One of the most interesting things I learned on this trip is that even though Juneau is the capital, you can only get there by plane or boat. The city is landlocked, and you literally could not drive your car there even if you wanted to. I didn't even know cities like that existed in today's world, especially considering it's the capital of a state!
We got up early this day and had breakfast on the ship at our favorite little place - the Park Cafe. That was just a small stand on one of the top decks, but I loved getting a blueberry muffin and a yogurt parfait, and then eating while looking out the window.
I really enjoyed Juneau!
We had a shore excursion booked that day that took us over to the Mendenhall Glacier. We had a few hours to hike around there before we went back to downtown Juneau.
The Mendenhall Glacier was definitely pretty, but I still thought the Hubbard Glacier was a little bit better!
My mom and I had to represent the University of Cincinnati in front of the glacier!
I really liked the waterfall right next to the glacier too. Our guide told us that the water is runoff from the glacier and that the waterfall is completely frozen in the winter.
After hiking around the glacier (there was a trail that we walked that took us right by the waterfall), we hopped the bus back into town and had lunch at a place called Tracy's King Crab. Apparently it's like the place to eat in Juneau because of their fresh crab. It was just a little walk up stand with outdoor seating (I personally thought that was a little crazy considering we were in Alaska!), but the food was really good and fresh. I'm not a big crab fan, so I got shrimp - my favorite!
We walked through the rest of town in the afternoon and did some shopping. We stopped by the Red Dog Saloon, which is another little place unique to Juneau.
We stopped in the Alaska Fudge Co. shop, and I thought these were so cute! You could buy little clusters of chocolate covered candies, and they were made to resemble animal paws. My favorite were the Cinnamon Bear Paws, which were milk chocolate covered raisin clusters. We got a bag to go, and I chowed down on them the rest of the day ;)
I also bought a long sleeve Alaska shirt that I'm excited to wear this winter, and an Alaskan Red Velvet candy bar. I actually still have the candy bar sitting in my pantry right now......I guess I'm kind of saving it for a rainy day at this point!
We hopped back on the boat for a little bit of relaxation after going through all of the shops. Then it was back off to go on top of the Mount Robert's Tram, which is a tram that takes you to the top of one of the mountains so you can look out at Juneau below. It was neat, but I think we all agreed that we wouldn't do it again. It wasn't quite as exciting as I thought it was going to be.
My favorite part of the tram was actually the fact that they have an injured bald eagle on display at the top. It was neat being able to get so close to a bald eagle.
It rained pretty much the entire day in Juneau, but we were used to it at that point, and we didn't let that stop us. There were some trails around the top of the tram, so we walked around there for a little while before heading back down.
That's our ship!
Once we got down off the tram, we got back on board the ship to head to dinner. I had a chilled berry soup as a starter, which is my absolute favorite. They change the menu every night, but they pretty much had some variation of a cold fruit soup each evening, and I ordered that multiple times. I have never seen a chilled fruit soup anywhere else except for a cruise ship, but I am obsessed with them. I also got a top sirloin for an entree, and for dessert I ordered the Chocolate Sensation. It was really good and reminded me a lot of a dessert I had in Montreal!
Our assistant waiter cracked me up. He was really big on doing tricks at dinner throughout the week, and on this night he made me a huge flower corsage!
We spent our evening doing world trivia in the Quill & Compass and then seeing the show, which was called Piano Man.
I really enjoyed our day in Juneau, and I would give just about anything to go back right now!
