Cruising Day 6: Jeep ride through Juneau, Alaska

We woke up early for a 7:30 departure from the ship. I didn’t get to work out.  I hoped to fit it in sometime before bed, but that’s not going to happen. We quickly ate breakfast, all of which I was not feeling. I didn’t sleep so wonderful, or the ships rocking was beginning to affect me because I had quite a headache this morning. The food tasted rather nasty, so I didn’t eat much.

We got off the ship and made our way down the dock. We easily found our nose-hoop-pierced (is that a booger?) guide holding a large sign “4-door, 2-door self-interactive Jeep Excursion”.

We got instructions on where to go for our Jeep and started walking in the direction in which we were pointed. We passed a Welcome to Juneau sign and then found the Jeep shack.

We got a quick tutorial on the iPad and the interactive maps and GPS. We were able to pick and choose our route after asking a few questions and asking for recommendation. I handed over a paper with Lauren's and my signature, they took copies of our license and off we went. The car was parked up a curb and the last thing they said was don’t mind the curb, miles or gas, it’s all covered.

I started our Jeep driving adventure by taking the very first wrong turn. I quickly re-coursed then we were back on track. Our first destination was the Mendenhall Glacier. We had about a 20 or so minutes drive to the Glacier. As we drove the GPS car thing had a talking tour guide app that was giving us all the skinny on Alaska history, the Glacier, wildlife and more. We leaned all kinds of fun facts, like how Alaska was bought from Russia and was initially called the Seward's Folly.  Seward was the Secretary of State at the time. Alaska was bought for 7.2 million dollars, but it has shown to be anything but a folly! The State has gold and oil and has brought in so much money that there is a surplus of state taxes. We also learned that Alaska was the 49th State to join the United States.

We arrive at Mendenhall Glacier, grabbed a map, and decide on the Nugget Falls hiking trail to see the glacier. The Nugget Falls trail was a gravel super wide trail surrounded by lush green trees and bushes. There were a few signs that said the trail is shared with bears, and no food or flavored drinks allowed. I’m like, scared out of my brain, and have no desire to see a bear or encounter a bear. I’m convinced that if I ever meet a bear I will die instantly. Lauren, on the other hand, totally wants to see a bear.  She keeps talking about how cool it would be to see one.  Luckily, for me, we don’t see a bear. As more and more people join the trail we are on, I start feeling much better. I figure if a bear comes out, the more humans, the less chance it would attack. Gosh, how on earth do these Alaskans do it, share the land with bears?!

The Nugget Falls trail passes by a large lake and has some amazing lush greenery along the trails. The moss is amazing here, it’s so thick that you could totally lay down on it and it would be super soft.

We get to the waterfall, and it is just roaring. The falls are just soaring down and are smashing into the banks of the river. Lauren gets right up to the river and puts her finger in, just to snap them right back out because the water was freezing cold. The waterfall is run-off from the Glacier, so yes, it’s freezing. We get the mist blowing at us when we get too close because of the force it is coming down at.

From the Nugget Falls, we are about a mile closer to the Glacier. We are still super far from the face, but this is the closest we can get. The super crazy part is that where the visitor center is, a mile back up from the trail, is where the Glacier was in 1935! So in almost 100 years, the Glacier has melted and gone back so very much due to global warming.

We enjoy the view and breath it all in, then take the trail back to the visitor center. We go on a dirt trail that is closer to the lake on the way back. We are able to see some beautiful flowers and some bright blue icebergs in the water.

We get back in the Jeep and drive to our next stop, the Anger Lake. We get there and park, and notice there isn't really a great trail or reason to stay. We went up a trail for a few yards and realized it just continues. Since we already had already done a hike today, we decide to use our time elsewhere, and move onto our next stop, the Shrine.

The GPS was a tad annoying because it didn’t talk out loud, and because the little dot that represents you was totally way off. So it made it confusing when looking at the directions. I initially missed my turn, so did a quick u-turn and went down the road for the shrine. We came to a large cross and at first we were a little disappointed and was wondering why tourist would come to this spot. Luckily we saw a sign for the chapel, and followed the signs to a parking lot.

The church Shrine was pretty neat. The stone for the building was hand carried in, and the building itself was on a little island. We walked across the tiny strip of land to the church on the island. It was a small and modest building, with beautiful stone exterior.  The grounds were lush, green and wildly beautiful.

All around the grounds were 15 stone alters with a marble carving representing the life of Jesus. There were 14 that showed his suffering and trials, but my favorite was the last one- Jesus Resurrected. We had to search for this one, it was almost hidden behind bushes and off the trail. This should be the biggest statue and most important one, in my opinion.

We left the Shrine and our self-guided tour had us stopping and Eagles Picnic Area for the last stop. We turned into the park, and found picnic benches in a marsh-type land with the most majestic mountains as the back drop. We didn’t have any food with us, so we only stayed for a little bit and captured a few photos of the place.

We still had about an hour before we needed to return the Jeep, so we looked on our GPS for suggestions on landmarks and places of interest. The Governers Mansion came up, so we decided to tour the mansion before returning the car. We found parking across from the mansion and parked. We got out and the back gate was closer then the front gate, so we all stared walking to the back gate. Lori opens the gate and starts walking to the back door. We tell her we should probably use the front door for the tour, so we come around to the front only to find a big note on the door stating that the house is a resident house and not open for tours. We have a big laugh about that, comment on how dumb it is to include it as a point of interest, bow our heads and duck out quickly back to the Jeep for a get-away.

With about two minutes to spare, we return the Jeep. The Jeep return is right in the down town area, so we decide to hit up the shops around downtown. Mom found out that the diamond stores give out free charms for the cruise, so she stopped in every charm store and got many charms. She was super happy about that, mom loves free. We go in a souvenir shop and find post cards and super cute t-shirts. We all get sucked into the shirts and convince each other that we all need one, so we all get shirts. I bought some postage stamps, and wrote on four of the post cards right there for Kevin, the kids, Jonathan and Krista, stick a stamp on them and mail them right then and there. I think it will be cool for them all to get a postcard from Alaska and postmarked in Juneau. As we were leaving the store we saw a huge bear, we tease Lauren that she did see a bear after all today.

It starts to rain, and we have all gotten some great stuff, so we head back to the ship. We decide to wear our Alaska shirts right now, so we all get our shirts on, and Lairens is too small. There is 30 minutes until all on board, so she grabs her shirts and her recipes and runs off the ship to exchange the shirts for a bigger size. While Lauren is off running to the t-shirt store, the rest of us are eating a late lunch. I get pizza today because a salad just doesn’t sound very good. Lauren makes it back onto the ship just in time and meets us at the buffet for lunch.

We have about 30 minutes until our dining time, so we go back to our room. Mom, Lori and Lauren get a book out and start reading, so I start journaling our day. To which you are now reading.

We make our way to dinner the head straight from dinner to the Comedy show in the lounge. We have two new comedians- Seth and Smiley. Seth went first and was so loud. He mostly joked about how the kids have it good and how we took 14 hour road trips in cars without car seats and all the luxuries of today. He then spent a good 8-10 minutes talking about spanking and beating kids. At first it was funny, but he definitely took it a little too long and too far.

Next was Smiley and he was super funny. He made fun of the cruise hot water and toilets and how small the rooms were. He talked about gas from the food and said the kids should hold it in and then crop-dust people that walk slow to make them hurry. He kept it clean and was oh so funny and enjoyable. My sides hurt from laughing so much.

We left straight from the comedy show and went up one flight of stairs to the VIP Show- 70’s music. We enjoyed the singing and dancing of the 70’s. Our favorite song was Dancing Queen. The show was kept very clean and enjoyable until the threw in a male stripping scene where one of the guys went down to black boxers. We all took a breath of shock and averted our eyes elsewhere. Lauren said it was her favorite part and Lori commented on how naughty it was. I was just disappointed that they had to ruin the show with such a dumb thing. Oh this poor world is just getting more and more blind, accepting and dirty. Oh well.

After the show we went up to the top deck to our normal seats to play games and whale watch. I enjoyed popcorn and a Vanilla Coke while we played cover your assets and Trash Pandas. We went back to our room and were excited to see a bear towel animal.  Lauren might not have seen a real bear today, but she did see two cute ones. It was a great way to end a great day.