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Port Call: Juneau!
We entered the El Sombrero, and it turned out to be a nice  little restaurant that served good Mexican food. The waitress was friendly and took good care of us. While we were waiting we took a few pictures. Dotti was eager to look at the menu and see what El Sombrero  had to offer. While she was deep in thought,  and Tammy was on the phone checking on the children at home, Jim was deep in thought calculating how many inches it would take make up the 93 million miles between Earth and the Sun. (It turned out to be around 5.9 x 1012, but who's counting?) Meanwhile, I was demonstrating proper decorum at the table. (The lady behind me didn't appear to be amused. I can't imagine why not.)
Tammy looked over at me and hung up at once. Naturally she was horrified at my manners. Dotti found the perfect item on the menu about this
time and she was overjoyed as you can see.
Jim wanted to make  sure that we all knew that his table manners were at least as good as mine, as he did his impression of Dumbo the flying elephant. (He did neglect to hold the magic feather in his nose, but we didn't hold that against him.)
As you may have figured out by now, the ladies were  sitting across from each other in the booth, nearest the wall. That left us gents on the outside part of the table, sitting next to our lovely wives. Jim caught our reaction to his antics, and Dotti was ready for another drink, which made we wonder since it was only water. Tammy was over her initial shock and thought  Jim had done a wonderful job with his impression. Jim is reaching over to get Dotti's camera back, but it was too late, she was all set to click.
"Okay," said Jim.  "Guess what I am imitating now?" Dotti said, "I'll take a picture of it, and we will figure it out later." We're still working on it.  In the meantime, I snapped a sneak picture of Dotti while holding the camera at table level looking up. She was getting Jim's picture and having entirely too much fun. Jim took this one of me as things were just about to settle down  into a dull roar. The other patrons were happily enjoying their meals, and the waitress was off getting our food. We were having a very good time in Juneau!
A lady from the next table recognized  Dotti and asked her for her autograph. As always Dotti was happy to oblige. (Just kidding! No it hasn't really come to that yet, but she was recognized on the ship by a really nice Zonie. More on that later.)
When life gets overwhelming, as it often does,  it is moments like this that remind us that there is much to be thankful for. Tammy is laughing and showing her beautiful smile, and we all were so glad that we had come on this cruise. After 28 years of being friends, we are as comfortable with each other as if we were family, because that is what we are. It just doesn't get any better than this.
It is holding on to the little things, the happy childlike  quality of romance that makes 30 years of marriage go by in a flash and still leave you hoping for 30 more. Jim and Tammy have never lost that quality, and you can tell they are deeply in love! Okay, we were making spectacles of ourselves, but who cares!
And here I am holding on to the most beautiful  woman in the world, and she looks so happy. Life is good! (If you look over our shoulders you can see that Peabody Monster, which I took a picture of before we came in, is across the street.)
After lunch, Dotti and Tammy were starting to run out of shopping gas, and were thinking about heading back towards the ship. Jim had made one run back to the ship with a load of shopping booty, and then he and I made another run together to the ship, to unload once again. I should mention at this point that an error on my part came to light on the second trip. We asked the security guard at the gangway if we could carry pocket knives. (I had read in the literature that AAA had sent us that the security on a ship is the same as for a plane. And planes have gotten insane in what they will no longer allow you to carry on; you can just barely get your arms and legs past security.  So, I had warned Jim that we would probably not be able to take our pocket knives with us. We had left them at home and on several occasions we had already been unhappy with that decision.) The guard said sure, as long as the blade was 3 inches or less. Well, I felt pretty dumb about his time, and from then on we were in search of pocket knives to buy. (This is the one that I found. Yep, my Alaska knife was made in China.)
The Guys After Lunch Walk Before we headed back to the ship for good, I really wanted to stretch my legs and get a view of the city. Looking up Franklin Street I saw a pretty good increase in elevation, and that looked good for getting some nice pictures. So, I told the others that I was headed up to the top of Franklin Street. Jim said that he was game for the hike as well, and so while the ladies continued to shop, we headed up the hill. Our entire climb was actually a short one, with it being just over a quarter-mile to the top at Sixth Street, with an elevation increase of only about 100 feet from where we were. It looked like it might be more than that when we started, but it felt good to stretch our legs out and do some walking. Walking down the street, and then through stores shopping, while carrying packages taxes different muscles and creates a different sort of tired feeling than hiking does. We walked up to Fifth Street, and then walked up  and down it looking for a scenic shot or two for the camera. This photo is looking back northeast towards Franklin Street. The clouds are hanging on the hills above, blocking them from view. But at least the clouds did not come all the way down and create a fog that would destroy the view completely. The streets and sidewalks remain wet from a light rain, but did not soak through my Levi jacket at all. It was a nice cool 50°, and a great day for a walk.
We are standing right at 100 feet above sea level, and looking down Seward Street in the general direction of where our ship is parked. We must be making progress because the ship is not dominating the landscape from this view.
Moving back towards  Franklin Street, I was able to spot the stacks of the ms Westerdam, by looking between the dark wet buildings.
Up behind the house is the North Park on Mt. Moria,  a small butte of around 300 feet. Even so, its top is trying to climb into the clouds. If only we had more time; because there are a couple of hiking trails that meet on that hill, that sound like fun. One of them leads to the top of Mt. Roberts, the same location where the Mt. Roberts Tramway would take you. Maybe next time.
Looking down Franklin Street from the same corner.  (Down there somewhere, in one of those buildings, Tammy and Dotti were finding some more bargains. Hey, almost everything was 50% off, because we were the last cruise of the season!)
We were about 100 feet above the ocean at this spot and the top of our ship is still above us slightly I believe. (They say that if all the ice were to melt that is contained in polar ice sheets, the ocean level would rise several hundred feet...can you imagine? See Side Bar.) The ms Westerdam is the ship in front, and while we were busy shopping, another ship, the Sun Princess, pulled in behind us. Douglas Island is off in the back ground with the Gastineau Channel lying in between. We only scraped the merest surface layer of a miniscule portion of Juneau during our day ashore. It is a city waiting in a protected corner of the world, isolated but calling to all to come and visit. The mountains, clouds, and forests all hold Juneau under their protective cover, and we only had a few hours on foot to see it all. Sadly, it was not nearly enough. Up another 40 feet or so, and another block,  we came to the corner of Sixth and Franklin. Here was another interesting 3-story house, set into the steep hill. The views from the second and third floors of this house had to be good ones!
Since Juneau is built on such hilly terrain, in many places in town  where a road comes to an end—as Franklin Street does here—stairs have been built in order to accommodate foot traffic.
I originally intended to go to the top of the stairs, but when Jim and I looked over the landscape, it appeared that the trip would be for nothing but exercise, because the heavy tree growth and the way the hill appeared to fall off on the other side meant we would not improve our view significantly by making that long climb. We opted out. When I first spotted this building I couldn't help but  think of how Charles Dickens described a building "...where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again."
With its Russian based architecture, St. Nicolas' Church really is out of place with the rest of Juneau (see side bar),  since Juneau's first prospector for gold wouldn't arrive for over a decade after the Russians pulled out of Alaska. Nestled in amongst the houses above, and businesses below, all of which are clearly designed by the West; its onion dome, which is topped by a cross, stands out sharply, even with its diminutive size for a church—it even looks smaller than many of the homes around it.
Ironically, since the church in Sitka, along with most of the downtown area, burned to the ground in the 1960s, St. Nicolas' Church, built in 1894, after the Russians left, has the distinction of being the oldest original Russian Orthodox Church in southeastern Alaska. Moving past Franklin Street, we came to Gold Street.  Gold played such a significant role in populating this city that the word pops up frequently in local names. By the way, if it looks like I was standing in the middle of the road to take this picture, I was. 
Located on this corner is the St. Ann's (Long Term Care) Center, one of Juneau's nursing homes. Looking down Gold St. we can get an idea of what the view is  like out of the hospital room windows.
We crossed Gold Street, but went no farther in that direction. The view into the harbor area was becoming more  restricted, and since we were in search of a good place to take pictures, that was not what we were looking for.
By now we have retraced our steps, moving west back across  Franklin Street, and are between that road and Seward Street. The ground falls away sharply here and so they put up a metal bridge-like walkway. However, you can see that the ground is solid on the right side of Sixth Street, and there is no river or gulley to cross. This structure is there simply to provide a flat driving and walking surface along a very sharp incline. Jim is still smiling and enjoying the day, and we finally found the spot where we could get a nice view of the harbor area. (It looks like I am not the only one who thinks so: Click here for panaramic view from this location.)
Next, we swapped places, and you can see that the hand rail was not so  wet as to keep me from leaning on it for the picture. We had just enough rain during the day to keep things damp, but it never really bothered us. By the time we climbed back onboard the ship, Tammy still had not opened her umbrella.
You can tell a lot about a neighborhood by a basketball court.  Notice that the backboard is white and the orange line is clear and bright. This is not a beat up backboard. The net is in really good shape, and not tattered or worn. The rim is level and not bent. This was taken in September after a summer of hard play by the local kids. (The lone smudge just above the rim tells us that it is not merely a new backboard that was put in. It has been used.)
This is what we hiked up here for: a view of downtown Juneau from above.  On the left Franklin Street cuts between the two tallest buildings visible there. In the middle the library parking garage extends out to the right far enough to block the view to part of our ship. The ms Westerdam dwarfs the Sun Princess behind her, while the sun is pushing enough light through the weakening cloud cover to paint the front deck lines white. This is Alaska, and I am glad I lived to see it. What an awesome land!
Once again looking at the park, we see that the  equipment is in good working order. There are no cans on the ground or other unsightly things like graffiti destroying the serenity of the scene. My guess is that parents feel very comfortable bringing their children here to play.
These two poles were driven into the ground beside  the road at the end of the park, so they were just about face level when we approached them on the metal walkway. Totem poles, and other similar pieces of artwork were fairly common around the areas of Alaska that we visited on foot.
Earlier we had walked along Fifth Street and went over to  Seward Street to look down it. Here we are looking down it again, only from above, right over some trees. On the right is the back of the State Capitol Building. The fire escape ladders lead down into the parking lot.
All the way down at the far end is Front Street, and although you can see it from here, it angles off to the left, and in one block reaches our old friend the "Clock Tower," and of course El Sombrero. Juneau gets some snow each year. Dotti and I have lived in Spokane, as do Jim and Tammy right now. Spokane gets quite a bit of snow at 4 feet a year. We have also lived near Boston, Massachusetts, and at 42 inches, we got what we thought was a fair amount of snow there. However, Juneau on average actually gets more snow than both of those places combined.
I have to wonder how well the people do driving and walking  up these steep hills, and climbing these steep stairways. It seems like having that much ice on the ground, with these kinds of obstacles to overcome would make for a safety nightmare.
But I still love the look of the houses and the country surrounding Juneau. We are approaching the point where  we will soon be heading back down to meet up with Dotti and Tammy. Behind Jim is Main Street, and that is the road we will be following back down into the Downtown area. But before we left, we wanted to look around a bit.
As we approached the end of the street,  the dog you see here really started making a racket. He looked like a pretty hearty specimen, and so we were glad that he was tied up, as well as there being a nice fence between us.
Yet one more 3-story home. This one doesn't have a garage,  which I would consider a real drawback during the winter. However, there is a first floor entrance, and that would allow the owner to bypass those stairs on a really icy day. What would be ideal would be a garage with an inside entrance into the house. That way, you use your garage opener to get your car out of the weather. Close up the garage door, and then get out of your car on dry ground. Any stairs you have to climb would then be safe and dry.
Still this house does have a lot to offer. It looks like a great place to live. Here we see another church. This belongs to those  commonly called, "Christian Scientists," and not to be confused with Scientologists. I had a good friend in the US Navy who lived in Boston, and was a Christian Scientist. We had a lot of long talks about what his church believed. It was very interesting to say the least.
Walking down Main Street we encountered  this interesting driveway and sidewalk configuration. The sharp hill forced people to be creative in how they dealt with a relatively major natural change in elevation from one side of the property to the next, and from one property to another.
To allow people walking up the hill to have easy access to their walkway to the house, these steps were installed. (Those visitors coming down the hill would just cross the driveway directly to the house walkway.) The hill rises very rapidly as you can see. 
When you look at the yellow house in the background, you will see a very out of the ordinary line where the house meets the ground. I don't know what the inside looks like but the outside wall is stair stepped. I can't recall the last time I saw a private home with that particular arrangement. We are back into the commercial district now, still on Main Street,  and looking back up the way we just came. I didn't realize it at the time but we had just walked past the State Capitol building for the great State of Alaska. There was not a lot of pomp and noise associated with it. In fact the front of the building faces 4th Street, and from where we were standing here, its decorative columns and front steps are completely blocked from view by the smaller Key Bank building in front of it. If you looked down on the State Capitol Building from directly overhead, it would look like giant capital letter 'E' with the center leg shortened, and the bottom leg overextended a bit, making it look off balanced.
On Second Street, we cut over to Seward Street, and this shot  is looking back up past 3rd Street, and all the way up to the trees and bushes that we were looking down over from 6th Street earlier, right along this very road. The park with the basketball court is off to the right, not far behind the brown building, which stands right across Seward Street from the Capitol Building. Is funny how the view changes so much after only walking a little ways.
Here we are still on Seward Street, but we have finally reached Front  Street and were all set to move along that road back to the "Clock Tower" and Franklin Street where we would meet up with the ladies, who were still loading up on bargains in the many shops there.
From Hudson's Shoes (109 Seward Street), and moving around the scene we could see a wide array of shops providing all sorts of odd and ends. A coffee shop, and book seller stand side by side, a very nice arrangement for those like me who like to pick up something to read and then sit down with a hot cup of coffee and begin the happy interaction of reader with book. On the other side of the road, words like Factory and Capitol are visible on the signs, and even Pair-o-Dice Tattoo and Piercing crawled into the picture to set up residence. I was surprised to see—hanging on for dear life up near the eaves of the building on the left—there was a McDonald's 'M'. Downtown streets always seem to have an interesting collection of businesses, wherever you travel in the world. Sixth Street, and its quiet little park seems like it is a very long ways away up that hill. |
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