Juneau, AK

Trip Start Nov 2005
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of United States  , Alaska,
Thursday, July 13, 2006

So I got off the plane from Kodiak, spent a day at home, and headed to Juneau. My first impressions of Juneau were drastically different from Kodiak. I got off the plane, rented my car, and headed out. My first goal was to find my hotel, off of "Glacier Highway." Little to my knowledge, there are approximately 4 or 5 turnoffs for Glacier Highway- and 3 of those are deadends. Terrific. (How about THIS one?) I ended up driving into downtown Juneau, which is about 20 minutes from the airport (and incidently from my hotel). And I found that Juneau was overrun by 3 cruiseships worth of people ARGH! How annoying... tourists! Not to say that I wasn't a semi-tourist myself... but I was looking for my hotel and I was looking to start to work... not for tourist crap. ARGH!

I headed back to the road, examining the map, and decided to drive PAST the airport. My idea worked. Glacier Hwy number 50,000 was on the left- and my hotel was just off of that. And work was across the street! YIPPEE!!!

So Juneau- tight, narrow streets, quite beautiful. Filled with tourists. Sheep Creek- drive past all the tourist stuff heading south- if it's July, you'll see the Salmon I guess. I certainly did. They were in shallow water and their fins stuck out. Every once in while, their heads emerged. It was rainy and chilly, but perfect and green. Mendenhall Glacier is to the north- and you can see it from the road- though a close-up is recommended. HUGE waterfall there (no time for a close up :( ) HUGE Glacier... incredible. It never gets old. Lake stands in front, harboring remnants of the glacier.

In town- check out the restaurants. Had good Mexican food and a place that allows you to "create your own."

Douglas- across the bridge- go left at the circle, left when you see all the signs for the parks, right, go to a big park- you'll see the sheds. There are paths and an old.. something (geeesh.. knowledgeable, I know...) that is overgrown with moss. Ruins, it seemed to me. Everything was so green. Waterfalls, clouds sitting wispy on mountains of which you couldn't see the top.

I ended up liking Juneau- despite my initial impressions.
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