Wanna-be Alaskan

We arrived in Juneau at noon and crossed the gangway to the city. The city was a quaint, cute little town with a lot of shops and mountains in the background. It is so secluded, that there are no roads leading to or from Juneau. Apparently, the only ways to get there is by plane or boat. We went up this huge tramway to the top of a mountain and got some great pictures.Then we got ready for our shore excursion; Taku Lodge Float Plane Adventure.

WOW! We boarded the float plane and Brendan got to be the co-pilot. The 20 minute plane ride was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life. The whole time I was thinking; “How can people not believe in God, this is the most amazing site to see.” We went over the Taku Glaciers and the Taku River. We landed in the water and glided towards a few guys waiting to take us up to their lodge. We loaded up on bug spray, but Pam stilldonated to the Alaskan Giant Mosquito Foundation after a walk in the forest. We watched one of the guys cook our delicious, fresh, King Salmon (which was caught earier that morning). He grilled it outside on an open grill.  They told us that after we eat, many times, you can see bears near the lodge because they come and lick the grill grates from where the salmon was.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately for the people who didn’t want to see a bear), we didn’t have any luck of seeing one.

We went inside the original cabin from the 1920’s and ate the best salmon any of us had every eaten.  We got the chance to learn about the history of the lodge. The cool thing about this little lodge, is that nine college-aged kids live at Taku Lodge from March until November. They sleep there, eat there and only go back to Juneau about once a month for supplies. What a life! Across the water is the huge Taku glacier and the lodge is surrounded by tall, snow-topped mountains. They don’t have electricity, so they cannot refrigerate any of their food. They get all of their ice from the glaciers! They go out on a small boat and pick the darkest ice chunk, then clean it off with a hose and keep it in a big container. We drank lemonade with glacier ice! After dinner, Wes, one of the guys who work there, took us for a little hike before we had to head back. We looked for bears, but found fresh blueberries instead! He said that some mornings, they’ll go out and pick a lot of fresh blueberries and make blueberry pancakes and muffins. Yummy!

I used to think that I had to have technology and modern amenities to live a happy life, but after spending a few hours at the Taku Lounge and taking in all of the wonderful nature that surrounds the quaint place, I think I could handle living there. We had to board our float plane and took a different route back to Juneau, giving us a totally different view of the glaciers and mountains. When we got back to Juneau, we shopped for a few hours! I bought my self an Alaska sweatshirt, my mom a present and my dad two presents. I also bought Kevin a little something as well. Then we got on the ms Zaandam and got some food. Go figure.