If you know, Juneau

I don’t know if it’s just really dark in the cabin at night and with the shades pulled but the sun seems extra bright up here. Still it was nice to see mountains going by as we peeked out, once our eyes adjusted to the light. 

I forgot how mesmerizing the mountains were up here, coated in trees, a stream and/or waterfall cutting through from time to time, the peaks hiding up in the low rising clouds. Kinda gives you a spooky vibe at some points. Saw several houses/cabins dotting the coast as we sailed by going into Juneau. Hate to think what they cost. Saw an eagle fly by, tried getting a few shots while  it went by, didn’t get much. Stupid birds just can’t stand still for a picture.

I can’t remember what Juneau looked like back in 2006, but it definitely seems to have built up over the past 19 years. After getting in line to disembark, which ran from deck seven and snaked all the way down to deck 4, we first stopped by the Alaskan Brewing Public House (Pub) and grabbed a drink. Nicole had a cherry cranberry hard seltzer, I had a pint of the Alaskan Amber and the Alaskan White. The Amber was as good as I remember it. It IS sold back in Lubbock but something about getting it from the source that just makes it so much better. Not sure if I’ve had the Alaskan White but it’s an excellent witbier, fairly refreshing. They’ve grown a lot in 19 years. If I recall they only had 4 brews in 2006 and you had to special order it if you didn’t live on the west coast. Now they have like 12 different beers plus hard seltzers and I think I saw a hard cider. 

After we raided the gift shop, we took the Goldbelt Tram up 1800 feet to the top of Mt. Roberts. Unfortunately the rain got in the way of any of the vantage points to look down over the harbor and city but I got what shots that I could. Again we raided the very impressive gift shop, got more magnets than I probably need and went back down. 

Next stop was some lunch at the Twisted Fish Company next door to the Taku smokehouse. Had fried halibut and chips, while Nicole had some coconut fried salmon with blueberry chutney. 

Fish and chips- GLORIOUS. Fish was flaky, crispy, juicy, great flavor especially with lemon or malt vinegar. 

After Lunch we walked by the shops, picking up some jewelry for her and some fudge for us, then headed back to the ship. 

Nicole and I had dinner at the Ocean Blue specialty restaurant. 

App- Scallops with pork belly and mango chutney

Main- Cioppino( Tomato broth with shrimp, scallops, lobster, clams and mussels) 

Dessert- Key Lime Pie w/ meringue

The scallops and cioppino were just as good as I remember. The key lime was amazing. I’ve never had Key Lime with meringue but it wasn’t a classical meringue, I don’t think. The texture was more like a melted marshmallow. Filling was good and tart, and just an overall solid meal. 

We pulled out a little after 10pm. Gotta hand it to the crew of these ships. Got to have a steady hand to back away from a pier, turn around in a pretty narrow harbor and head back out to sea. Kudos. 

Tomorrow we hit Skagway, where we’re gonna be a little more freestyle. Nicole and my mom are gonna go shopping, Dad and I are gonna find some fried fish and cold beer. Yum. 

Tune in tomorrow for further excitement. 

Satch. 

Someone asked me a while back how I got into cruising. The answer is sort of a two parter. 

1. My grandparents. My maternal grandparents, Ben and Nelda Marlar, were some of the biggest travelers you ever saw. Every Christmas Day they’d take the train to Las Vegas, and there’s not many states in the union they didn’t get to in their lives. When I was growing up they were all about getting around by train. Somewhere in the mid 90s some of their friends talked them into going on a cruise to Mexico. Not sure if they cared about the heat and the locations all that much since they never went back, but they were hooked. And in turn they got us all hooked. They even paid for me and my folks and each of my mom’s sisters and their families to each take a cruise to Hawaii. But of all the cruises they went on, and they covered some serious water, (Alaska, Hawaii, British isles) Alaska was far and away their favorite. They took my mom’s whole family here for their 50th anniversary.  They came here at least 7-8 times  in their lives. My grandmother decorated their guest bedroom with all their souvenirs, totem poles, and the two salmon they caught on fishing excursions, which we came to call “The Alaska Room”, or I did at least. 

2. A school trip gone sideways— MY introduction to cruising kinda happened by accident. When I was in the 8th grade, I was supposed to go on a school trip to Canada over spring break where we’d spend part of it at a space camp in Toronto and then Montreal to learn about French Canadian culture. As the trip got nearer, all of our school’s chaperones/sponsors bailed out and to try and keep the trip alive, we were combined with other schools in our district that were also going. My parents were having none of that. I wasn’t really upset. Even I could sense the trip was falling apart and wasn’t thrilled being under the supervision of complete strangers. As a way to make up for it, my parents took a page from my grandparents and looked at cruises. Initially, they looked at Hawaii but the most we could afford was just 5 days. Seemed hardly enough to spend out there. And then they found a cruise for the same price that hit a few spots in Mexico, Honduras, etc over 7 days. The rest is history