Friday, June 12, 2009

Do you know Juneau?

Juneau was our first port of call. It was a little overcast and we needed warm jackets to cope with the wind and the temperature. We had been sucked in with the shopping talk on the ship and promises of free charm bracelets, charms and other free souveniers to visit a number of high end jewelery shops when we arrived.



We had our coupons and brochures ready and we had a plan. So 2 charm bracelets, a whale tale, and a 2ct Saphire later … we jumped on a bus and went to see the Mendalhall glacier. Denny in particular loves travelling on buses and trains, so the 15 minute trip was just long enough to keep him happy.

At the Mendalhall Glacier information center they have a small diorama of the surrounding icefields that have created the glaciers. We took the walk down to the viewing area and snapped lots of photos. There was a great waterfall just to the right of the glacier and plenty of large, stunningly blue icebergs floating around in the lake below the glacier too.

While waiting for the bus to take us back into town, a large C class RV pulled in. It was built on a crew cab truck so had 4 proper seats in the truck part instead of the normal 2. With both our kids still in car seats/booster seats for the next 4 years at least, we are always interested in other RV alternatives that still provide a safe seating environment for the kids.

Ironically, the people in the truck were Aussies too. They had purchased it from a company in Oregon, of which I have already forgotten the name. I need to look it up. It had a hefty $140,000 price tag however … so we will continue looking.

So Juneau to us was mainly jewelery shops, the Mendalhall glacier. A few interesting facts – you can only get to Juneau by sea or air. There are no roads in. Juneau is the capital of Alaska. We drove past the now famous Governor's house. Didn't sight Sarah Palin at all, but their were plenty of Sarah souveniers around!

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