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Published: June 27th 2008
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Spirit Masks
Lots of Native artifacts in the Alaska State Museum Our journey today is bringing us to the city of Juneau. Juneau, nestled into the foot of it’s namesake mountain, is the capital of Alaska and it is landlocked. You have to fly or take a boat into this city, but you would never know that by the number of cars and the 4 lane highways that it has, especially during rush hour. Juneau is a cruise ship port and there are four huge ships in the city docks today. The population of Juneau is around 32,000 people and it swells, like Skagway does, when they add 8-10,000 more people per day from the ships. The cruise ship docks are adjacent to the city street, and they dominate the waterfront and the view from just about everywhere.
We took Thane Road, which goes south of the city, along side the Gastineau Channel, for about 5-6 miles, until it ended and then drove back to Juneau, parked the van and walked the city streets, just like we were tourist. We both bought warm vest jackets at the Alaska Shirt Company and found another Heritage Coffee Company for a cup of coffee. I went to Cruise Services to see Mary, a friend
of Suzie’s, but she was off on a trip to Italy. We found a MacDonald’s for lunch and had salads and then quickly went back to move the van which was in a two-hour parking zone.
Next stop, the Alaska State Museum which is well worth the $5 admission price. There is a lot of Native, Russian and American history and heritage found here. A life-size eagle nesting tree winds up through the two story ramp of the museum, with some remarkably life-like eagles nesting within. I especially liked the “Spirit Masks” section and other native art. The Raven and the Eagle are very significant in the Native Art.
After our visit to the museum, we walked out to find the a bird had pecked his way through our soft-side car top carrier in several places. There is absolutely no food stuff or anything else with an odor up there, so we have no idea why he would attack it. Our next leg brought us over the bridge to Douglas where we took a ride to Sandy Beach on the south end and then to Eaglecrest Ski Area in the interior. As we were descending the mountain, we
watched as a plane took off from Juneau’s airport .
Juneau International Airport was the last stop on the tour today. I have spent many an hour at this small airport over the years, waiting for flights into Skagway or out to Seattle. There are several taxidermal animals here, including a grizzly, a black bear and a glacier bear, Dall’s Sheep, eagles, owls and other birds and ducks. While we were gone today from the campsite, a black bear visited, we were told, in the early afternoon. We are not sad to have missed him or her, as we would rather not see one where we live.
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