8. A Weekend Getaway to Juneau

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.

7. Berry Pickin'

A lifelong avid berrypicker, Fluffy was delighted to learn that many Gustavians, perhaps even the vast majority, also place great value in this pastime. In southeast Alaska, berrypicking isn't just for red-chinned children and muffin baking grandmothers. If the land gives you berries then you better make jam. ...And syrup, juice, pies, cobblers, you name it. Fluffy made up a list of Gustavus's edible wild berries and ordered them according to her opinion of their deliciousness:


1. Nagoonberry
An Alaskan preserves company once tried to market nagoonberry jam for the slim price of $40 a jar! While it seems absurd, anyone who tries to make their own nagoonberry jam knows a) how tedious a process it is; and b) how utterly scrumptious the results are! Nagoonberries grow on short plants -- about the same height as Fluffy -- and usually only produce one small berry per plant. The berries each have a stubbornly inverted hull that can be a real nuisance to remove.


2. Salmonberry
Plump, juicy, and in a rainbow of warm hues, these make a tasty, hydrating snack as well as a stylish hat for a very small rabbit.

3. Strawberry
Many grow by the beach and others in sunny meadows. They can be quite large for a wild variety -- up to about 1" -- and are full of sweetness. And slugs, quite often.

4. Thimbleberry
Not a common find, but these soft and delicate raspberry-like fruits taste deliciously tart and almost chocolatey.

5. Blueberry
While this is an all-time classic berry, the southeast Alaskan berries are notoriously dry, mealy and wormy. Most people opt to soak them in saltwater to lure out the worms before using them. This can be daunting...it's not rare for there to be at least one worm for every berry! These berries do make a nice jelly or syrup if boiled, squashed and then strained out.

6. Watermelon Berry (Twisted Stalk)
More of a trail snack then a bakin' and cannin' fruit. They can taste like a sweet watermelon, or a blander yet still refreshing cucumber. Don't confuse them with false solomon's seal or other poisonous plants!

7. Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum)
Many people find the raw fruits to be bitter, sour, or oddly pungent, but Fluffy thinks they're a good and tasty blast to the senses. Boiled, they can make a nice jelly or cranberry juice substitute. In the winter, they often remain clinging to branches and form little bites of sorbet for people and birds and Fluffy Bunnies.

8. Black Currant
Many people wouldn't bother with these miniature, tough, hairy fruits, but they can be a nice addition to jellies. However, some currents are better than others. Stink Currant, for instance, tastes like the name implies.

9. Bunchberry (Dwarf Dogwood)
Some folks don't recommend these for human consumption, but for Fluffy they're easy to pick, readily available, and pretty to look at.



After a summer of picking and freezing, Fluffy and some of her girl people friends put aside a couple days to dedicate to canning. They made Alaskan Four Berry Syrup, strawberry syrup, nagoonberry preserve, and blueberry syrup and jelly. Some batches proved more successful than others, but hopefully enough made it past quality control to become Christmas gifts for friends and family.

While berry picking is a seemingly lighthearted activity, it has its dark side: people can be very protective of their berry patches. Some patches, particularly of nagoonberries or introduced species like huckleberries and raspberries, are highly coveted and should not be encroached upon. That is, unless you want to make enemies quickly in a small, loose-lipped community. If someone invites you to pick with them at their secret spot, you should be highly flattered.

Fluffy just laughs at all of this. Animals can get away with all kinds of mischief, especially when they're only about 3" tall.

5. The Art of Homesteading Comes Naturally to a Rabbit

After the Costco cake reserves had been depleted (even the chunk allotted to the freezer), Fluffy and her friends were getting desperate for for some new sources of cheap food. They had all become sugar addicts and busily went to work baking and plumpening themselves. But after days of subsisting only on cookies, pies and cinnamon rolls, they began to remember the importance of maintaining a balanced diet. Fulfilling their gender roles, Fluffy's girl person friend had been reading up on wild edible plants and scavenging the beach, forest and fields for tasty tender greens, while her boy person friend had been fishing for salmon, trout and dolly varden in local rivers and streams.

Fluffy has a hard time harvesting wild greens for human consumption. To her, pretty much everything tastes great, and is perfectly safe. But her friends might make that "BLAEECH" face and get a bad tummy ache or rash later on. Fluffy also isn't much good at fishing. In Fluffy's hands, both ends of a fishing rod could look the same to a trout, and Fluffy would risk being mistaken for a plump, furry hand-tied fly or even a rotund grub.


While visiting the friendly owners of a bed and breakfast, Fluffy volunteered to help thin some of the crops in their garden (only after promising the owners repeatedly that she was not "just another Peter Rabbit"). She went to work yanking carrots, beets and rutabagas out of the ground to create straight and evenly-spaced rows. While she left the best looking root veggies in the soil, she couldn't help but notice how perfectly acceptable many of the rejected individuals appeared to the palate. And so, she bagged up hundreds of mini beets and carrots, called for help from her friend and headed home with a bounty of tasty bits to be added to soups, salads and even a Thai red curry. Small enough for a tiny rabbit, tasty enough for a hungry boy and girl!

4. Happy Birthday, Fluffy!

There's no such thing as discount food shopping in Gustavus, other than hunting and gathering. However, there is Costco, via plane or barge. The Juneau megastore supplies nearly everyone in Gustavus with their staples to the point where all cabinets and refrigerators look identical inside. Soon after arriving to Gustavus Fluffy's friends decided it would be wise to place their own Costco order. Flour, sugar, butter, cheese, craisins, pecans...cake? On the back side of the wholesale catalog was a sheet cake order form. A 9 lb cake (advertised to feed 48) was available for only $16.95! Considering that a single bag of Doritos costs over $6 in Gustavus (better not vacation here, Stephen Colbert!), this is veritably the best food deal in southeast Alaska, regardless of freight charges. Nutritious, perhaps not, but delicious without doubt. What occasion could there be to justify a 48 person cake?


Travel Fluffy Bunny's Birthday!

Her friends decided on the triple chocolate combo -- that is, chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting and a chocolate mousse center. And the theme? Amidst the vast options of soccer, skateboard, roses, baseball, dinosaurs, etc, they knew instantly that Fluffy would most appreciate the "Princess" theme. It did not disappoint!






The party didn't stop at the cake...because no party would be for Fluffy if there wasn't a DANCE PARTY! While her friends were feeling tired after a long day, Fluffy just kept on moving!