A SITE WORTH LOOKING AT

Here's a little info about a site I just joined two weeks ago and have already made two purchases. It offers one deal a day. You join in an area. I joined for NYC, for instance, but I was flipping through the other day just to see how other areas worked, liked what was offered in Dayton and bought it--$100.00 worth of photo books from Picaboo (a company from which I had just ordered a photo book) for $25.00. That should work for our upcoming trip.

So I thought I'd put it here on Third Age Traveler. It might be something to think about for the cities of your destinations. Or it might work for you at home.

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu6051074

DOWNTOWN JUNEAU AND THEN SOME

After our helicopter ride, we walked around Juneau, Alaska’s capital since 1900. The city, now the third largest in Alaska, began as a gold mine town, and growth really began around 1882. Summer in Juneau translates to 16-18 hours of sunlight!!! That is so cool!


We had the bus driver let us off outside the Paradise Bakery & Cafe, so we could have a cup of coffee and think about our glacial experience. Lo and behold, the décor is to Rob’s liking—Patsy Cline!!!



Juneau has a frontier town atmosphere, and we wanted to wander. We did get to see several passersby we knew weren’t there as cruise tourists!


Outside City Hall there is a mural depicting a Haida view of creation. The Haida are part of the Tlingit nation, the indigenous people.


Juneau has many museums, and in one we visited, there were newspaper clippings from WWII. One was of our declaration of war with Japan, and the others were of entertainers up there to perform for the troops—including Al Jolson, and in Juneau, as everywhere else in Alaska, we got to chuckle at some more Alaskan humor and fun. If Juneau seems far away now, imagine how it was in 1941. Yet these entertainers came up here for the military. Very heartening.



Folks in Juneau get around in floatplanes, and down by the docks they are parked as we park our cars.


Inevitably, Rob and I found our way to the Red Dog Saloon with some friends, Bunny and Tom. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere! In the territorial days, Gordie Kanouse would meet tour boats with his mule and wore a sign saying, “follow my ass to the Red Dog Saloon.”

Want to eat? Order “The Avalanche, a one-third pound beef patty served with lettuce, tomato, pickles, grilled onions, cheese, bacon and topped with our famous BBQ sauce. Served on a Kaiser bun.” (no, I didn’t) But the highlight was the honky tonk piano player. He was really good, really into ragtime, and really a big talker and joker. NOTICE HIS TIP JARS




And the day didn’t end there. We wanted to get back to the ship to hear a presentation by Libby Riddles, the first woman, in 1985 to win the Iditarod, the famous dog sled endurance race from Anchorage to Nome. A musher since 1976, she tells a fascinating story, but two factoids will stay with me always: sled dogs are mixed breeds, not pure husky, and these dogs have two layers of fur to protect them. Makes me wonder about my insane desire to spend a winter month in Anchorage just to see what it's life. If you visit Libby's website at www.libbyriddles.com, you get an inkling of the strength of this woman. You might even buy a t-shirt emblazoned with this saying, “Alaska—where men are men and women win the Iditarod.” Ha! Ha!

JUNEAU, ALASKA & THE MENDENHALL GLACIER

Here in Juneau, Alaska’s capital, we experienced the highlight of the ENTIRE trip, the helicopter ride to the Mendenhall Glacier. Dressing warmly, we put on the appropriate equipment—special studded boots to grab into the sleek icy surface.
The turbine helicopter ride, my first, was exhilarating and far beyond my expectations; in fact this was something I dreaded but felt necessary. How could I come to Alaska and not helicopter to a glacier?

My smile began and my white-knuckled grip relaxed even as the helicopter left the ground, and we soared over the landscape reveling in the blues, green, whites, and blacks—all vivid and magnificent.


From above we looked down on the alpine ridges and then viewed the deep crevasses and the colors of the ice. The blue is caused by the reflection of the sun on the water. We saw the ice falls where the Juneau Icefield overflows to form the Mendenhall Glacier.




On the surface of the glacier, Rob looked around and proclaimed quite rightly, “This is spiritual.” Each moment was an experience in Nature’s power, artistry, and creativity.



Our guide explained how glaciers form, flow, and shape the landscape. Gingerly, I walked on the glacier while Rob straddled and photographed a crevasse.


The water moving through the crevasses looked like Nature’s own monumental waterslide—a beautiful, natural flow of blue through the white ice and the lines of silt.



Enjoy the images I’ve captured to tweak my memory and to share with you.

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SKAGWAY, ALASKA pt. 3

Despite the busy schedule, we still had plenty of time to meander through Skagway, a frontier town with a seven-block-long historic district known as the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. We visited a re-created saloon complete with patrons and Bass Ale in the window.

There the turn-of-the-century shops and saloons are still open for business. Remember that 100,000 people set out for the Klondike, but only 30,000 reached Dawson city. Others, men and women saw right gold right in the little hamlet of Skagway, and their entrepreneurial spirit mixed gold miners with painted ladies,

(WE SEE THIS LITERAL "PAINTED LADY" AS WE WALK DOWN THE STREET)

con-artists and gamblers. Skagway was modern with electric lights and telephones. It boasted 80 saloons, three breweries, many brothels, and just about anything that could possibly separate a man from his money.

Rob and I knew where we would separate ourselves from some of our money—The Red Onion Saloon—at one time the classiest dance hall in Skagway.

It had an upstairs bordello of ten rooms, small but extravagantly decorated. There were three exits to each room as well as hole cut in the floor with a copper tube connected to the cashier’s desk. A discriminating client, after a few drinks downstairs and perhaps some dances, could choose from ten dolls displayed behind the bar, each one representing one of the ten girls upstairs. When the client chose, the bartender would lay the doll on her back, indicating she was busy. When her money moved down the tube to the cashier, the bartender placed the doll in the upright position. She was back on the available list.

Very efficient, wouldn’t you say! Today we can take a 15 minute “brothel tour,” but we pass in favor of some brew and time enjoying the Red Onion décor!

SOME MORE PICS OF SKAGWAY

HOW'S THIS FOR A SNOWBLOWER!!!

Today’s Skagway is interesting but quite different. A modest home costs $250,000. In the winter, the population drops to 400. In fact, about 4,000 Alaskans of a population of 686,000 spend the winter in Hawaii each year. Despite the climate, the people of Skagway know how to have fun. They are in the Guinness Book of Records for Having the Most People Participate in and Egg Toss. On July 4, 2008, they had 1162 people participate!

Can you tell we enjoyed our time in this place? It brings a smile just to remember and write of it.

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ALASKA, SKAGWAY, AND THE KLONDIKE pt.2

Our train ride on the White Pass Railroad takes us up to White Pass--the beginning of the continuing trek to the Klondike; we're only miles from Skagway, Alaska, and the gold sought by the miners of '98 (that's 18) is somewhere more than 550 miles from Skagway. Our adventure is different, and when we reach White Pass, we board a coach to travel the Klondike Highway—average snowfall—17 feet. We ride to the William Morris Suspension Bridge, named after the first steamboat captain to come to Skagway.




This bridge is 180 feet across and 80 feet down. This area suffers two or three minor earthquakes a day. Honestly, I missed them. Honestly, that made me happy. Want a hint about the terrain surrounding the bridge? Mountain goats here have five cloves in their hooves that move independently. Even goats need special equipment. Yes, I had a tough time letting go of the side of the bridge.


There is also a museum about the plants and animals in the area, some information on the native people, and a lot of souvenirs. That’s where I picked up my book of Robert Service’s poetry about Alaska. Also I took some photos of some marvelously clever and very Alaskan t-shirts which I will share at a later post.

The road we now ride will take us back to Skagway, and we appreciate how far things have come. On the other hand, we drive over a bridge that is only anchored on one side. That accounts for the earthquakes. Before they decided to do it this way, the anchored bridge was often destroyed during the quakes.


This road is so steep that there are truck escape routes cut in all along the way down. We pass Pitchfork Falls which supplies hydroelectric power for all of Skagway.

Along the way, we seem to pique the interest of a bear, and that was a terrific moment.


We stop for lunch at a phenomenal spot—Jewell Gardens Restaurant and Tea Room. Here we are in one of the most challenging environments the world has to offer, and Jewell Gardens began life as a show garden! Yes, because of the 120 day growing season and the long 18 hours of sunlight, one can do wondrous things with the right plants, and the people here do. Even the sweetener for the teas, stiviet, is grown here. The garden furnishes the restaurant with delicious fresh vegetables that the talented and creative chef uses imaginatively.


The building in which we dine is used as the greenhouse when the growing season begins, and as the weather warms sufficiently for plants to be moved outdoors, the restaurant opens to the delight of the tourists.

We dine on focaccia bread, a lovely vegetable soup, fresh, crisp salad, a choice of salmon or mushroom quiche (we each chose one), and for dessert, a biscuit with strawberry/crabapple topping and whipped cream accompanied by coffee or tea. Divine.




We also take a tour of the garden, including the delightful miniature railroad. The vegetables and flowers are huge. The record size cabbage is 105 pounds; the biggest at Jewell Gardens is 46. As we saw in Anchorage, Alaskans seize every moment of sun and make the most of it. Jewell Gardens really is a rare gem.

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