Juneau; The Capital of Alaska

There are very few ways to get to Juneau.  The high mointains flanking the city make it impossible to drive in from the outside.  That leaves only three options.

1.  Hike thourgh the wilderness and hope the bears don't mind.

2.  Leave all or most of your belongings behind and fly in.  Or
3.  Pull your large green tour bus and everything you own onto a ferry and float it down to Juneau from a highway-connected port.
(This is not a multiple-choice question.)So on a rainy day we did just that.
(If you haven't figured out which one we used yet please read through the options and consult your physician.)


    It is a strange sensation, floating your house down river.  Technically, we were living in Alaska, right next to the whales.  

It's been an amazing journey.  When we pulled into Juneau it was raining, not a rare occurrence in a city that gets rain 260 days of the year!  It has to be the greenest place we've ever visited.  The trees are massive and ancient, towering over the roads and the rivers are so full of salmon that there's hardly any room for water.    In our infinite wisdom we decided to take a leisurely bike ride into town from the port.  Secure in our muscle-inity we road up and down the steep hills bravely.  3 hours later, we were still riding, sill not in Juneau, and exhausted.    For those of you who have never been to Juneau, the distance from the bay to the city is 27 miles...27 miles!  Our whole  'save the planet', 'save gas', 'we can handle it' plan crumbled to dust at our feet (actually, in our thighs).    We stumbled into Juneau trying to keep our eyes open long enough to take in all the beauty.  It is an amazing city, where the huge cruise ships can pull right up to the sidwalks.  We had some authentic Alaskan Halibut and enjoyed some brief sunshine.  
    Now we were faced with a very real dilemma.  We had 6 bikes and 27 miles between us and out Tour Bus.  That, and it started to rain...again.
    We found 2 buses that were willing to take two bikes each and Dad and Christian headed out through the freezing rain on the last two bikes.    All in all quite an adventure in the elusive capital of Alaska.  We all have to agree that, despite the rain, Juneau is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been.  Surrounded by a beautiful fjord and towering mountains, bursting with wildlife and tucked into a valley, Juneau was definitely worth the ride, even in the rain.