ALASKA, THE LAST FRONTIER
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| Photo by Clara Judd. I chose this as the best photo of our entire trip, due to the color, the depth and the symmetry. |
Clara turned 16 in December - and she's still as sweet as she always has been. So I wanted to take her on a big trip, to memorialize this point in her life. I decided that Alaska was the place to go. Her family history includes four prior generations who lived there, starting with her great-great grandparents, Ivan and Rose; her great-grandparents, Bob and Margaret; her grandparents, Dan and Linda; and her father, Chris, for the first five years of his life.
On Wednesday, June 15, I drove to Houston, where Clara lives, and spent the night there so that we could leave from the George Bush International Airport on Thursday, at 7:05 AM CDT. Chris arranged for a "cushy" chauffered ride for us to the airport.
We took off on time, both of us pretty sleepy still, since we had gotten up around 3:00 AM CDT. Clara managed to catch a few winks on the first leg of the flight, from Houston to Seattle.
We had a long time between our flights in Seattle, but finally boarded our plane at 1:40 PM PDT, and arrived in Juneau at 3:12 PM ADT. We had a bit of a time adjustment to deal with, since there is a 3-hour difference between the Texas and the Juneau time zones.
We were met at the Juneau airport by a long-time friend, Mike, who was loaning us a car for the week. (It was the next morning that his wife, Kathy, texted me to say that Mike had tested positive for COVID soon after we had arrived. And, yes .. I had hugged him at the airport. But what was done, was done.)
We were also met at the airport by Tom, the owner of the place we were renting while in Juneau - Alaska Northern Sands (AKNS). He led us to the address on Fritz Cove Road, and we were thrilled with the ocean-view room that would be our home for the week. The Property and the landscape were amazing. The only down-side (and I'm really NOT complaining) was that it was down many, many stairs from where our parking spot was. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but I was still dealing with back pain, so I had to take the stairs very slowly and carefully, and poor Clara ended up having to schlep all the heavy luggage down (and, later, back up) the stairs. She was a trooper, though, and never complained.
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| Some of the landscaping at AKNS |
| The view from our room |
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| Clara quickly made friends with Denali, a 16-year old house dog |
Below are photos from some of the places we went and sights we saw.
MENDENHALL GLACIER
The Mendenhall is a glacier about 12 miles from down town Juneau. It is one of 38 glaciers that are a part of the 1500 square mile Juneau Icefield, and the only one that can be driven to. In the winter the lake freezes over and local Juneauites ice skate on it.
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA SOUTHEAST (UAS)
The UAS campus sits on the shore of Auke Lake and is home to quite a bit of Alaskan art, including some totem poles.
DOWN MEMORY LANE
In 1973 Dan and I bought our first house, a 1200 square foot house on Jerry Drive in Juneau. We moved in not long before I gave birth to our first baby. Back then ultrasound was not used to determine the sex of babies, so we decorated the nursery in our new little house in gender-neutral greens and oranges. As it turned out, that baby was born in March of 1973, and was a boy ... our son, Christopher, who is Clara's daddy. I wanted Clara to see her dad's first home, so we drove by and took a few pictures.
Another place with early memories for Chris was the pizza parlor that we occasionally ate at. In fact, Chris teethed on the pizza crust from Bullwinkle's Pizza Parlor. Clara got to have pizza at that original one, in downtown Juneau, as well as a newer one out in the Mendenhall Valley.
I took Clara's picture here, at the Brotherhood Bridge location, with the Mendenhall Glacier in the background, because I remembered taking Chris' picture in that same spot when he was a toddler. Here are the two photos. Now there is a fancy fence, whereas back then (about 1975-76) there was only a guard rail, on which Chris is leaning.
TAKU GLACIER LODGE
We were in for a treat when we boarded a Wings Airways seaplane and took off from Juneau's Gastineau Channel for a flight over five of the glaciers of the Juneau Icefield and landed on the Taku River, in front of the Taku Glacier Lodge, which is on the national Register of Historic Places. The air was untypically hazy, because of smoke from forest fires in British Columbia and the interior of Alaska. We had plenty of time to wander around the wilderness property and to shop in the gift shop before we were seated for a meal. Everything on the menu is made from scratch in their kitchen. The highlight of the meal is the wild salmon cooked over an outdoor alderwood fire. Clara isn't a fish-eater, but they also offered chicken. The Lodge staff lives there for the summer season, returning to Juneau when the tourist season has ended. I really enjoyed hearing about the history of the lodge. Mary Joyce was a pioneer adventurer who helped run the Taku Lodge in the 1930s. Later she moved into Juneau, and was living there when I was growing up there. I remember her, so it was most interesting to hear all about her amazing life.
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| Our pilot |
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| Clara, sitting on a bench, looking at the Taku Glacier from the Lodge |
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| Grilling the salmon |
GLACIER GARDENS
Dan and I lived in Juneau from 1971-1978, the first time. We moved back in 1998, after spending 20 years in Oregon. During that time we were away, a couple named Steve and Cindy Bowhay began designing and operating Glacier Gardens. The lower gardens include an atrium and the beautiful upside-down flower towers. Visitors can board a rainforest shuttle to climb a steep, winding 2-mile path up the backside of Thunder Mountain. The driver/guide describes points of interest along the way. At the end of the path is a platform where visitors can take in views of Juneau, Douglas, Auke Bay, Admiralty Island and the Chilkat Mountains.
Clara and I enjoyed our time there and learned a lot about the natural rainforest of Southeast Alaska.
TRACY ARM
Perhaps the most scenic tour we went on was by boat, to Tracy Arm, a fjord near Juneau, with the face of Sawyer Glacier at the far end. During the most recent ice age, the fjord was filled with active glaciers, which carved the steep mountains that line the arm. The ice left deep gorges and beautiful waterfalls in the majestic mountains. The farther up the fjord we went, the more floating ice we encountered. Near the glacier face, lots of harbor seals - moms and pups - were resting atop the icebergs. Because their natural preditors, the orca, can't get into the opening of the fjord, the harbor seals take refuge in it.
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| Gulls sitting atop an iceberg |
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| Bald eagle near the face of the glacier |
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| Mama harbor seals and pups |
OTHER WILDLIFE
Though we have good memories of them, neither Clara nor I got very good photos of the other wildlife we saw, which included humpback whale, orca and black bears. We especially enjoyed the bears. We saw three yearling bear cubs, romping and playing in the wetlands near Vanderbilt Hill. My local friends told us that the mama and three cubs had been there last summer, as well, and had returned this year. Most people in town were familiar with these three cubs.
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
On Sunday, after church, Clara and I were invited to join several of my old friends for lunch at Mi Casa, a local Mexican restaurant. My good friend, Kathy, had arranged this get-together, but, sadly, wasn't able to be there since she had been exposed to COVID (and later tested positive). These were the ones in our lunch-bunch.
One of the visits I was greatly looking forward to was with Liz and Louise, my long-time family friends, Liz having been my 6th grade teacher, and Louise my third grade teacher. It was a joy to get to see them once again.
And the most special visit was with my Uncle Bud (Mom's brother) and his wife, Ardyne, and daughter, Lisa. He is now living in the Juneau Pioneer Home and getting excellent care. I was so happy that Clara got to meet him, since he is her great-great-uncle.
BACK HOME
We flew back home on an over-night flight, arriving back in Houston early on Thursday morning. Kelsey picked us up at the airport, and was wearing a double-layer mask, because Chris had tested positive for COVID, and she didn't know if she might be infected as well. She kindly offered to get an Uber ride for me if I was concerned about the virus, but I chose to ride back to their house with her. I didn't go inside ... just picked up my car from their driveway. Kelsey took both Clara and Robert to a hotel, and they stayed five nights there, trying to avoid contact with Chris. (She went, daily, to check on him and to take care of Thor). On their last day at the hotel, both Kelsey and Clara tested positive. That meant that Clara and Robert are not going to get to go to church camp at Bandina, which was a sad development for both of them. Although I do have a cold, I've tested negative for COVID.
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