For Fluffy and her tentmates, "cabin fever" sounded luxurious. After about 6 weeks of life in their mildewy 8x10 canvas capsule, in a town of 400, they were ready for a change of pace. Baking cookies, playing ukelele and tying flies seemed less entertaining by the day. Fluffy was even becoming bored hunting spiders from her post up in the corner of the tent.
It was clearly time for a getaway. They booked tickets on the Lodge's Friday night ferry service to Juneau (on the same boat that took them up bay to see glaciers) and planned their return for Sunday evening. Regularly, the ferry is only about $15 cheaper (each way) than flying and takes about three hours instead of forty minutes. But with an insider's discount, three hours to read, play cards, enjoy the views and watch for whales didn't seem too bad.
They made it into the harbor at Auk Bay at 7:30 and immediately walked across the road to get some delicious Thai food at Chan's, a locals' favorite with waiting lines to prove it. Green curry and tom yum goong were a much welcome change from pizza and burgers. After dinner they sprinted over to the bus stop and embarked on a long journey through the valley's residential neighborhoods with many pre-16 year old teens en route to downtown Juneau.
Once they arrived to the heart of Northern Tourist Land, they hiked up the paved hill to check into the Juneau Hostel. $10 a night gets you a bunk in a compact room, as long as you promise to return by the midnight curfew and do you assigned chore in the morning. Fluffy and her friends went out for some beers on the waterfront, and when they returned around 11:30 pm everyone else was already sound asleep in their bunks and snoring loudly.
Fluffy and her bunkmate didn't get much sleep. So they got out of bed at 5:30 am and went for a stroll around downtown. A glimpse of sunshine illuminated the sloping streets and around them narrowly cascading creeks streamed down steep emerald hills. Without the cruise ship crowds, the city could not have been more lovely. After exploring some of the towns footpaths and steep connector staircases, Fluffy and her companion made their way to the Silverbow Bakery where they shared a delicious homemade almond bagel.
It turns out that no one got much sleep at the hostel, mostly due to a young drunk fellow who missed his curfew but did not miss his opportunity to bang on windows at 3 a.m. It was a mutual decision between Fluffy and her friends to find a hotel room and splurge for a night. After visiting or calling literally every place recommended in their guidebook photocopies and finding "no vacancy" signs or unforgiving peak season rates at each, they walked a bit past the heart of the touristy area to the Prospector Hotel. Here they found a nice yet low-frills room for about $40 less than many of the other desirable places in town.
After dropping off their bags, they resisted the urge to nap and instead headed next door to the Alaska State Museum. Fluffy opted to snooze in her friend's backpack (left behind in bag check), probably a wise decision given the numerous wolf and other predatory animal dioramas scattered throughout the museum. Her friends seemed to really enjoy the museum, and they imparted to her some interesting historical and ecological facts about the state.
Feeling a bit thirsty, they figured it was a good time to take the bus back towards the valley and make a short walk to the Alaskan Brewery. While there's no brewpub and not much of a brewery tour, there is a seemingly endless supply of free beer samples available from big friendly bearded Alaskan guys at the gift shop bar. The only catch is the more you drink, the more t-shirts you buy...a brilliant scheme illustrating a true win-win scenario. Meeting their saturation point, they returned to the bus stop, thankful that they didn't drive themselves. Fluffy scurried through the bushes to pick juicy salmonberries until the bus pulled up.
Back downtown, the group headed to Pel'Meni, the well-known Russian dumpling cafe, where the only things on the menu are dumplings, either pork or potato, $6 a serving (price just went up), all covered in a succulent combo of butter, curry powder, sriracha sauce, cilantro and sour cream. One dumpling (potato, of course) made a perfect feast for little Fluff. A popular place for a late-night drinking snack, the gang pledged to return later that night. They didn't let themselves down.
The next day, everyone woke up feeling refreshed from sleep, full from dumplings (round two), and satisfied because they had met their city goals of eating as much ice cream and interesting food as they possibly could. They decided that their weekend would be best rounded out by hiking one of the city's many nearby trails. They chose to hike up Mt. Roberts, about a 2.5 mile trip one way, where they could then take the tourist tramway back down ($7 per person, or just sneak on for free --either way its big savings from the $29 unlimited ride pass available at the tram's base). They hiked amidst heavy rain through a beautiful old-growth hemlock forest. At the visitor complex up top they said hello to Lady, a real live eagle who had been injured and is now part of the Juneau Raptor Center's outreach team. They also took a few minutes to enjoy the views of the city and port directly below them and learn about local geography from some interpretive signs. Then they hopped onto the tram and were back downtown in minutes.
After returning to the hotel to pick up their bags, they ran off to do some last minute grocery shopping and nearly missed the bus back to Auk Bay. Four hours after saying goodbye to Juneau they were back in Gustavus, where they sleepily crawled back into their musty tent and lamented the money they had just spent during their fun weekend in the city.
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