Top 10 Stupid Tourist Questions

Alaska is a popular tourist destination and Juneau gets its fair share of them.  On any given day in the summer, there are two to six cruise ships bringing about 5,000 tourists each.  My husband interacts heavily with these tourists on a daily basis as it is his job to provide security in downtown.  He often tells me stories from his work.  Some can be as mundane as "I had to keep tourists from trying to get too close to a bear to take photos."  Often though, they are quite funny... in a sad way.  He once told me of a guy who came off the cruise ship huffing and puffling whilst clutching his heart that asked, "Sir, how high are we?  I can feel we are quite high up."  Um... look around you... we're at sea level.  I've asked my fair share of dumb questions in my lifetime, but some of the questions that these tourists ask are amongst dumbest of the dumb.  Here's the top ten list of dumb Alaska tourist questions, as well as my husband's response to them below in italic.

10. "Where can I find igloos?"

Down the road and to the left.

9. "Really?! There are bears in Juneau?!"

Uh, yeah...
8. "Where are all the eskimos?"

Sounds like the tour guide sold you a duff deal, sir. The true eskimos are much further north. You have to be careful about calling native americans "eskimos" here, because they don't take kindly to it.

7. "What is that white stuff on top of the mountain?"

Shaving foam. We have a terrible shaving foam shortage in Alaska, that's why you'll see many of us roughing it with big beards. Every year, the helicopter's will dump us our years supply and that's all we get for the season. We just have to make do.

6. "Where abouts in Australia are you from?"

I'm British.

5. "How often do you guys wash the glacier?"

About once a week. The convicts help with it. If you go down there on a Sunday afternoon you'll see all the prisoners in orange shirts with their vacuums and mops. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
4. "What do you do with the igloos over the Summer? Don't they melt?"

They go into cold storage. Down the road there you'll see Taku Smokeries, it looks like a big warehouse. Behind that building are the igloos.

3. "How do I open this trash bin?"

You stick your hand under the handle and lift the lid. What's that? - No, nothing inside will bite you.

2. "Do the mountains stay there all year 'round?"

Yes, ma'am. There's no escape for them around here.

1. "What is the glacier powered by?"

A complex refrigeration unit. I couldn't even begin to tell you how complex it is.


Honorable mentions

"Do you live around here?"

No, this uniform is just for fancy dress. I'm going to a costume party.

"Somebody's pet bear is running around behind the shops!"

Nobody has pet bears in Juneau. That's a wild bear.

West Glacier Trail

Looking down on Mendenhall Glacier from top of West Glacier Trail

Brad and I did the West Glacier hike again yesterday and found it a bit more difficult than when we did it last year.  The trail itself is considered a difficult hike, gaining 1300 feet over 3.4 miles.  This year, though, there were several downed trees you had to navigate around, and the trails were more muddy and slippery due to all of the rain we've been getting this year.  There was also bit of water crossing that I don't remember doing last year.  The view up top is wonderful and worth the hike, but it's not one I'd casually do on a regular basis. 

The Spring in Juneau this year has been unusually wet and cold.  The temperatures have been hovering in the mid-50's mostly, with rain almost every day.  This means there aren't as many flowers in bloom, trails are extremely muddy, and snow from the winter are taking longer to melt.  It's a bit of a disappointment since we were looking forward to a nice summer, but what can you do?  I hope that we will get an unusually dry fall to make up for it, though I'm not counting on it.

Alaska Road Trip

Since I do not know if I will be here next summer, I want try to see as much of Alaska as possible while I can.  As such, I took off on a little(?) road trip with Jackson that started in Anchorage on the May19th and lasted about a week.  Although I didn't have to do the driving, it was a long stretch from place to place.  The trip went something like this:

Day 1:  Anchorage to Seward

We took the scenic Seward highway from Anchorage to Seward, stopping at various view points along the way.  Unfortunately weather wasn't on our side, and it was mostly overcast with some rains at times.  We wanted to do a walk somewhere, but it was quite windy in Turnagain Arm so we skipped that.  The drive South took us across a mountain path, and it was still winter up there.  At lower elevations trees are just starting to show leaves.  Up there, the trees are still bare.  We did a side trip to a town called Hope and saw our first of many mooses.  We also stopped in Kenai Fjords National Park to see the Exit Glacier.  By the time we made it to Seward, it was already dinner time.  We ate halibut and then walked around town a bit for photos.  We stayed the night in Seward.


Day 2: Whittier and Glacier Cruise

We headed out of Seward with plans to catch the 1030 "tunnel" going to Whittier.  You see, to get to the town of Whittier, you have to take North American's longest and most inconvenient tunnel.  The tunnel is one-way, and shared with the trains.  A 15-minute slot an hour is alloted for vehicles to get into Whittier.  If you miss that slot, you have to wait for the next one.  We had a cruise booked that departed at 1230, so we wanted to be sure we had one other opportunity to take the tunnel if we missed the first.  We made our first.

The cruise that we took was Phillip's 26 Glacier Cruise around Prince William Sound.  Again, the weather that day was shit :(  Still, since it was early in season, the cruise was only half full, and the boat was really nice and comfortable.  We saw tons of otters, few whales, and lots of birds.  We didn't really see 26 glaciers, but we saw enough of them.  Not a great day for photos, but it was a nice 5 hour ride nonetheless.  I would do this cruise again if I was in the area. 

Once done with the cruise, we headed back to Anchorage for the night.

Day 3: Anchorage to Denali

We had a roughly 4.5 hour drive to Denali, but we took a side trip to Eklutna Lake and the Independence Mine on the way.  The drive up to Hatchers Pass, which was still snow-covered and closed, was very beautiful.  We passed some nice creeks going up, and saw some ground squirrels once there.  The mine was actually a bit further in there where our car could go though, and snow was too soft to walk on.  We had to look at it from a distance. 

Once back on the Parks highway, we found an view point where you can see Mt. McKinley (or Denali as they call it).  We saw the base of the mountain, but the summit was cloud covered.  Shortly afterward, we arrived in Denali, checked into our hotel, and drove into the park.  The park only lets you drive the first 15 miles into the park.  Still, that was enough for us to see caribous, moose, and a wolf. 

Day 4: Denali National Park



Today we took the park service shuttle to mile 53, or Toklat River.  The shuttle, which looks like a school bus, will stop when there are wildlife around for viewing.  Our driver was also very good at commentating and giving us lots of information.  There were also stops for bathroom breaks and view points.  Initially we though we might get off in places to more time off the bus, but we found it just easier to stick with the same bus.  We were also doing really well with the wildlife sightings.  Caribous, moose, Dall sheep, and grizzlies!  The highlight of the trip was a sow and 2 cubs.  The cubs were so tiny (and cute) - they had just been born this past winter.  They came down a mountain, crossed the road in front of us, and continued down.  We also saw another, lone grizzly later on the trip.

Our shuttle trip was done by 2:30, so we headed back into the park again afterward with our car.  We were hoping to see that wolf again, but no luck.  We drove as far as we could, to the Savage river, and did the 2 mile loop around.  I really enjoyed this particular walk.  If you're looking do hikes in Denali though, there aren't too many options.  There are some trails near the park entrance, but none in the park past mile 15.  You pretty much just go where you want.  The park actually encourages people to explore.  Be sure to read up on all of the rules and safety info before venturing out though.

Day 5: Denali to Fairbanks

Another long day of driving....  The ride to Fairbanks was actually only couple hours and a bit, but it was the hour or so to Chena Hot Springs that made the day long.  I wanted to see what that place was like since I was planning to go this past winter (only to have my flight and trip cancelled due to weather).  Can't say I was overly impressed with the place, but I can see how it'd be a charming getaway in the winter.  We did the ice museum tour, a 3 mile walk mainly for the exercise, and checked out the hot springs (tho we didn't go in).  Back in Fairbanks, we stopped at the Gold Dredge No.8 and crashed some tour that was going on.  It wasn't quite clear if it was open to the general public yet since we kept getting ushered around with the other tourists. 

Day 6: Barrow

We didn't expect there would be much to do in Fairbanks, and the drive to the Arctic Circle seemed like a really long way.  So we planned a day trip to Barrow, the Northern most town in North America.  Well, planning meant we had our flights that would get us there around 10:30am, and leave at 8pm.  We weren't exactly sure how we'd get around though since we couldn't get a hold of any car rental or tour companies.  Once there though, we somehow bumped into a guy looking for someone who had a car reserved.  Although we weren't that person, we needed a car so we went with him and got us an SUV for the day.  Definitely much better than cabbing it everywhere like we thought we might have to do.  We took the car and drove as North as we could go, and all around town.  We wouldn't get too far on foot either, and it was quite cold up there (it was ~32F but wind chill made it colder) as you would expect.  We saw the Arctic Sea and the whale bone arch you see in all adverts on Barrow.  We also went the Inupiat Cultural Heritage Center where we learned more about whaling and saw some traditional dances of the natives there.  What I really wanted to see in Barrow though were the polar bears.  We drove all around looking for them but had no luck. About the only thing I left with were bragging rights for having been there.


Day 7: Richardson Highway



We had a very long drive today from Fairbanks to Copper Center on Richardson Highway.  We got some nice views of the Alaska Pipeline on the way down, as well as of the surrounding mountains and lakes.  Man... I was really exhausted by this day.  I didn't want to do anything by the time we got to the hotel.

Day 8: Wrangell-St.Elias National Park

Today we visited our largest National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias.  It's not a very accessible park though with only like 2 roads going into the park.  It took us nearly 4 hours just to get to a footbridge near McCarthy, 60 miles of it on gravel road.  At the footbridge, a shuttle ran every hour to Kennecott.  We didn't realize we had to take the shuttle there, since we couldn't drive past this point.  Luckily, we just happenned to arrive 10 minutes before the next shuttle.  Once in town we signed up for the 1:30 tour of the old Kennecott Copper Mine.  It was very interesting to see and hear about the history and operations of this quite impressive mine.  We had hoped to do some walks, like to Root Glacier, but we didn't plan anywhere near enough time for that.  Since we had a long drive back, we took the next shuttle out of Kennecott and went back to Copper Center for the night.

Day 9: Back to Anchorage

The trip back to Anchorage took us over many mountain passes, which made our trip a lot longer than expected.  The weather was quite crappy this day too, so that didn't really help.  I was so exhausted I slept half the way back.  The only notable view on this trip was the Matanuska Glacier.  It was quite an impressive one that you can see from a view point on the road.  We did arrive in Anchorage relatively early compared to the other days, but we were pretty spent from the drive back.  The last evening was a fairly relaxed night.

Overall, it was a good trip, but it could have been better in many ways.  For one thing, we could've hit better weather.  We were also on the shoulder season, so not as much greenery in some areas, and too much snow prevented us from doing some of the things we had planned to do.  If I do this trip again, I think I'll try the shoulder season at the end of the summer, instead of the beginning.  Or, suck up the crowd and try to hit it in season.  I would like to go back and do some things again, like all of the national parks, and see more of Chugach State Park.  If I'm still around Alaska next year, I may go back to one or two of those areas and spend more time ther.  If not, well, I've at least got a taste of it all.

Visit Back Home

May ended up being a pretty busy month with travel.  I already had an Alaska road trip planned for latter half of May, but an unexpected Employee of the Year Award at work earned me a free trip to the East coast to receive it in person by senior leadership at headquarters in Maryland.  The award ceremony was on the 15th and I had to leave on the 16th to be back in Juneau in time to fly out on the 18th for Anchorage, with some time to spare for repacking.  So as soon as I found out about the travel opportunity, I booked my flight out to DC for three days later, on May 3.  It was going to be a tough squeeze trying to see everyone in a week's time.  I have friends in Reston to see, a brother in Charlotte area, and a brother in Virginia Beach. 

Travel to DC from Juneau is an all day affair.  I catch the first flight out of Juneau to Seattle, and then an early afternoon flight to DC, which gets me there around ten at night.  By the time I got the rental car and made it to my first stop on the trip, Spa World, it was nearly midnight. 

Yes, I stayed at Spa World on my first night.  I was so looking forward to this place before I even got there.  I just really loved the idea of taking a bath right before going to bed, and getting one right after waking up.  Besides, I didn't want to bother any of my friends for a place to crash so late at night on a weekday.  The place isn't exactly designed for sleeping, but it is designed for relaxing.  There's a common area where people can rest on seats or on floor mats with wooden head rests.  A few had managed to sprawl across the seats and sofas.  I found a spot on the floor, with about 10 others doing the same.  I can't say I slept well though because the floor was hard.  The baths and saunas there are really nice though.  I can probably spend an entire day there - bathing, reading, sauna, napping, eating, relaxing, reading, bathing, etc.  I only had a few hours after waking up though, before I had to go meet couple of friends for lunch.

The first couple days there were spent meeting friends.  Then I had a 7 hour drive to my brother's house in in SC.  Luckily I had online training that week so I planned to work from his home all week.  It was a silly idea in retrospect though, because he had a 1 and 5 year old that wreaked havoc all the time.  Still, it was really good to spend that time with them.  On Friday, I drove another 6 hours to my other brother's house.  I only had couple nights there, but I got a chance to see their new house.  They upgraded to a larger house, so now I don't have to kick the kids out of their room when I visit. 

I drove up to Maryland on Sunday and met up with a friend who came to visit me.  We spent Monday meeting up with another friend, and visiting the zoo.  Tuesday was the award ceremony and Wednesday was my flight out. 

It was really nice getting that visit to see family and friends.  I had been so home sick, especially since I was having a rough winter.  I also got to enjoy lots of really good food, something I don't get much of in Juneau due to shortage of restaurants.  Then there was the sun and warm temperatures.  For the first time in a long time, I wasn't cold.  On the flip side, I recalled some of the reasons why I wanted to leave the East coast, like traffic.  Some days I really want to be back on the mainland, some days I am glad to be away from it.  I keep having this inner debate in my head about where I want to be more and it's driving me a little nuts.  I want to buy another house and put down roots somewhere but I just don't feel settled here in Juneau.  It's a bit of a shame because I really like my job here a lot.  Most likely though, we'll be heading back East in the near future.   

An Ex-Soldier at an NRA Banquet

Cartoon source: http://www.usdemocrazy.net/2010/12/01/gunning-for-schools/

Alaska has historically been a Republican State and is well-known to be extremely conservative when it comes to gun ownership.  Those in the lower 48 either thinks or jokes that the everyone in Alaska owns a gun.  Well, it doesn't seem to be far from the truth.  There is a lot of hunting opportunities in Alaska, and some enjoy it for the sport.  Then there seems to be the folks that have them because they are right-wing nuts.  As a liberal, I have been fortunate to have been sheltered from most conservative rhetorics, aside the occasional democrat-bashing or god-worshipping spam I receive from an acquaintance or a friend.  I try to overlook a person's political views in making friends, especially since I do disagree with some aspect of Democratic views, like excessive free handouts (i.e. welfare and unemployment).  My dislike with Republican politics stem mostly from their constant theme of trying to make the rich richer and trying to impose their religious views in deciding what's good for the nation.  I never really had an issue with their stance on guns though, since I stand in the middle on gun control.  Last night, however, my husband's experience at an NRA banquet only reaffirmed my view of Republican politics as self-serving and out of touch with rest of the nation.

My husband is an ex-soldier in the British Army.  He also currently works in an environment that requires him to carry a firearm.  As such, he has had a lot of experience with various types of weapons and has an interest in them.  Therefore, when a colleague invited him to an NRA Banquet evening, he was excited to go.  For whatever reason, we've had difficulty making many friends in Juneau, so I had hoped he would have an enjoyable evening out.  Well, he came home a lot sooner than I expected and told me the evening was more than disappointing.  Turns out he spent the entire night being picked on by rich old men for coming from an unarmed country (England) and not having had a "collection" of guns.  He managed to hold his own by emphasizing he had other priorities at this stage in life, yet he got the sense that some were offended at him putting the importance of guns down.  My husband is also somewhat of a conservationist, so he was quite irked by all the boasting of who killed what.  When asked how many animals he killed, my husband could only reply, "Can that number include humans?"  Everyone he spoke to assumed he had no knowledge or experience with guns, but the fact is my husband could probably outshoot 90% of the people there.  The evening got a little better with some support and backing from the friend who invited him, but there were other aspects of the event that left a bad taste in his mouth.

The most offending part of the night seemed to be the celebratory attitude they took towards guns.  They touted the Second Amendment and claim "gun = freedom".  The NRA chairman said firearms are "peacekeepers" and that they save lives.  At that point all my husband could think of were his squadmates that got their legs shredded by 50 caliber rounds and will never walk again, or of the mothers of his dead combat buddies.  My husband agrees that the Second Amendment is a mark of freedom and is something to be preserved.  However, he does not think that guns should be valued so much that people must make void and thoughtless comments to try and justify their use.  In my husband's words, "No gun is a peacemaker.  Anybody that has seen combat will tell you that a gun is a tool of death.  It is designed to kill, nothing more.  Must we hold celebratory events in order to brainwash gun owners into believing that guns are instruments of peace?"

Hike from Hell to Eagle Glacier

Eagle Glacier

I don't even know how to begin explaining our experience on the Eagle Glacier Trail. I wouldn't say it was horrible, though Brad may disagree. I was disappointed in some ways since the trip didn't quite turn out as expected. Yet, I was glad to have done it.

Start of the hike

The hike started off easy enough. I was a bit worried about the weight of my pack since I was not used to hiking with one. However, that did not seem to be an issue and my legs handled it fine.  We had also scouted the first couple miles of the trail a few weeks back and knew we wouldn't have much issues with at least that part of the trail. There was lots of snow on the ground still though, and I worried about what the conditions may hold for us later in the trail. We started on a pretty slow pace, stopping for photos and shouting for bears.  We left just before 1pm and expected to get there around 5ish. Well, it turned out that we only covered about 3 miles in that time and still had another 2.5 miles left to our cabin at Eagle Glacier. The snow and ice on the trail slowed us considerably, and there were other obstacles such as dodgy bridges, flooded trails, and fallen trees. The trail by everyone's standards is rated "difficult". There's no total elevation gain, but there is enough ups and downs to give you a good work out.

Brad falling thigh deep into snow

The last two miles of the hike to the cabin was absolute hell.  We'd walk for a long time and get very discouraged when we look at the GPS and saw we only covered a third of a mile. Friday the 13th indeed. There was more snow cover here and the recent warm weather made it soft.  We both kept falling knee and thigh deep into the snow. Snowshoes would have been really helpful for this part. Brad had it even worse, since he weighed a lot more than me and didn't have poles or cleats. I was a bit frustrated since I did warn him against taking unnecessary gear and encouraged him to take poles and cleats. However, I was also very concerned since he was really hurting. It is easy to twist an ankle or hurt your knees in these conditions. He had the additional danger of slipping on ice. I knew I could continue on, but he and I were unsure whether he could. What if he really did injure himself and physically couldn't go on? We joked at the possibility that we could end up on the show "I Shouldn't Be Alive." He pushed through his pain and kept going though. 

We eventually reached the cabin at about 8pm, seven hours after we started. The hike was not the most strenuous one I've done, but it was probably the most difficult. At the cabin we got a glimpse of the Eagle Glacier (above) just before the sun went down. At night the sky was clear and the stars were magnificient. I was hoping to see the aurora borealis but wasn't quite so lucky.

Eagle Glacier Cabin

Our original plan for our second day was to hike two miles to the Eagle Glacier and back. Well, after yesterday's ordeal, we knew it would be difficult getting there in these conditions. Plus, we needed to rest up our legs for the trek back the next day. I also wanted to see this waterfall that was supposedly only a quarter of a mile past the cabin. We couldn't find the trail to it though amongst all of the snow. So instead, we relaxed at the cabin and enjoyed the peace and quiet. No one showed up at the cabin that day, not that we expected anyone would be crazy enough to come out here and go back on a day hike. The only wildlife I saw were squirrels, but Brad claims he saw a wolf in the evening while outside peeing. Despite not being able to do what I wanted to do this day, I actually enjoyed just being at the cabin. I liked being there so much I'm considering booking another cabin somewhere. In a way I want to come to this same cabin again, but in the summer.

The next day we set off quite early at 0630. We had to get to Pet Nanny's by 3pm to pick-up Millie. We worried it might take us longer to get back with our tired legs, but we did a little better coming back. We were back by noon. It was a little easier to get back because we hit the hardest part of the trail first whilst we had the strength. Plus, we were able to trace back our footsteps (or holes) and avoided falling into the snow as much. Brad had also shed about 30lbs of food and water, which helped a lot. It was a tiring hike back but our spirits were much higher than the hike in. After about 3-miles walking, we ran into three women who were planning to hike out to the cabin in back in one day. One woman was unsure if they'd actually make it all the way out there, but the woman with a f'ing cup of coffee in her hand made it sound like this was a stroll in the park for her. There's a lot of fit people in Juneau who probably do these types of hikes all the time... but hiking with a cup of coffee?  I really would like to know if she made it there and back on that particular day.

Google Voice, Skype, and Wireless Carriers

I came to Juneau with a Verizon cell phone and service.  Although Verizon is not a carrier in Alaska, they are partnered with Alaska Communication Systems to provided extended service.  This means you can make calls, but other services were limited:

• You cannot use data service, including picture or video texting
• In-coming calls go to voicemail after 3 rings
• You cannot update your phone
• Backup assistant (for your contacts), and probably other applications, won't work
• You cannot activate a new phone with the same service

Unfortunately, I had just gotten a new contract right before moving so I was stuck for a while.  Initially I tried to get Verizon to resolve some of these issues, but this went nowhere and a lot of time was wasted.  After putting up with their crap service for about a year, my phone started physically falling apart at the hinges.  I tried to convince the customer service rep and his supervisor that they should let me out of my contract because I am not getting the same service as everyone else.  They wouldn't budge because as of 2 years ago or so, they no longer guarantee service outside of the original contract area.  That must have been in the fine print somewhere. 

I was pretty furious after the call and began looking into my options here in Alaska.  By now I didn't care if I had to pay $100 to terminate - I just wanted to get rid of Verizon.  I checked out all of the carriers located in Alaska - AT&T, ACS, and GCI.  At the end of the day though, I had no intention of getting into another contract with any wireless carrier.  I just wanted a no-contract, pre-paid phone service.  The downside to getting one of those was that I could not port my phone number to a pre-pay phone.  I wanted to avoid changing phone numbers

I started looking into other options - Skype and Google Voice.  Skype would have been the best choice since they had variety of call services and user friendly interfaces.  You could also buy phones designed to specifically work with Skype.  The downside is you could not port your # to Skype.  You could, however, port your number to Google Voice (GV).  GV is actually pretty feature rich for a free service.  It has just about all of the features I really needed, as well as the capability to forward my calls anywhere.  One thing that was not clear to me though was how to make calls using the computer, or how I would get a VOIP phone working with GV.  I eventually found out how to use Gmail to make calls from, but it was not a convenient way of making calls.  So here's the solution I came up with:
- Port cell number to Google Voice
- Cancel contract and service and complain to BBC to get termination fee waved (it worked)
- Get pre-paid AT&T cell phone and minutes for emergencies
- Get Skype-in number, subscription, and Skype phone for use while at home
- Forward my GV number to office, skype, and cell
- Use office phone or skype when possible to make calls
- I chose not to forward text messages to my cell, but texts sent to my GV number are sent to my Gmail.  I can easily reply to texts by replying to the e-mail.

The result of all of this is reachable practically everywhere on my old number except when I get no reception while hiking.  Since majority of the time I am at home or the office, my pre-paid cell usage is kept to a minimum.  I could potentially stretch the $25 pre-paid minutes to the max 90 days that it is valid for.  The Skype phone was a bit overpriced at $60-70ish, but I find it quite convenient to use it since I don't have to be logged on to the computer to use Skype.  One year's worth of Skype-in number and US service (unlimited calls) came out to about $60 with the promotions going on.  Assuming I use $25 in pre-paid cell services every 90 days, the first year average phone costs per month is about $20. 

This setup probably won't work for those who spend a lot of time outside of home and office, or those who are attached to their data service.  For me though, it works quite well and I am very happy not to be relying heavily on a wireless carrier service.