Monday, September 24, 2012

Juneau So Far...

We are in love with Juneau already, and we haven't even been here a full 24 hours! After we got off the ferry at 4:30 in the morning we went straight and got a hotel room because we were exhausted. It's amazing how a good nap will make you feel a million times better! We finally got to meet our new boss/ski school director at Eaglecrest and she gave us a little tour of the lodge. We felt right at home and loved every inch of that place! The people we met were super nice and the mountains (which still had patches of snow at the top) were absolutely gorgeous! I can't freaking WAIT until I'm standing at the top of that mountain strapped in my board. 

After Eaglecrest, we drove around for a couple hours. Juneau is a lot bigger than we expected! Douglas Island, where we want to live, is beautiful. Now we just have to FIND a place to live. I'm not worried though, we'll end up with what we are looking for in the end. 

We also ate some hella good crab legs... well... three legs... three of the biggest freakin' crab legs I've ever seen in my life. The meat out of those three crab legs was twice as much as what you would get ordering a typical bucket of crab legs. See... here's proof!


The downtown area is super chill. I love the vibe there and can't wait to spend some more time in that area. There's a health food store that I want to check out... hopefully the organic stuff isn't terribly expensive! 

We drove up to Mendenhall Glacier and checked that place out. Oh my god how cool that place was. The glacier is breathtaking... so massive, but only a fraction of how big the Juneau Ice Field is... which is the home of about 40 large valley glaciers and over 100 smaller ones. It's hard to believe it retreats about 20 ft a year! It's kinda sad to think that in just 5 years with will be 100 ft further back than where it is now. We walked out to Nugget Falls, the massive waterfall that's beside the glacier. That water is cold cold cold! All that 'thousands of years' old ice isn't playing around! There are lots of trails around there that we want to hike soon... finding a hiking trail map is on our list of things to do tomorrow. 

On our way back to the Visitors Center, we came upon a strange situation... everyone was frozen still and the park rangers were taking action. A momma black bear had wandered right in front of the building and was walking down the sidewalk! There were tons of people there too. Everyone made a path so the two cubs could make their way to mom. The rangers told us all that as long as the cubs were calm and didn't cry, then everything would be fine. Apparently if one of the cubs even whimpered, the momma would've came out raging. Good thing they were used to people! That was a really cool experience. Definitely the closest I've ever been to a bear in the wild, especially a cub! 

Here are some pics from the glacier... and the bears! 
















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