Alaska
Inside Passage
Mendenhall Glacier: What were we thinking?
Wednesday, September 23, 2015TheCambrians
When
we got there, the scene was pretty much what we’d expected: Hundreds of people
aimlessly milling about with cameras in their hands, cruise ship ID tags around
their necks and fanny packs around their waists. In other words, a pretty
depressing sight. But desperate times call for desperate measures. And
(apparently) we were desperate, so we joined the frenzy and tried our best not
to look smug and blend in. I don’t think we did a very good job.
We
walked to a photo outlook and Nugget Falls Disneyland (complete with a park map pointing out the
attractions). For a couple who’s used to arriving places on their own keel, it
was too much: We needed to rejoin the non-vacationing world . . . and fast!!!
So, we went to Costco.
David
likes to joke that shopping’s a sport in my family. But because we live on a
boat and I don’t have the room to hoard piles of useless junk, I limit my
addiction to provisioning. And, for me, there’s no better place to get a fix
than Costco. Surely that would help improve our moods . . . or at least mine. Besides,
we were out of beer.
As
it turned out, filling a cart with hundreds of dollars of comfort food did make
us happy (until we had to pay for it). But there was no way we could lug
everything we’d bought on the bus (let alone back to the bus stop), so we
called a cab and “Doug” came to pick us up.
Twenty
dollars later and we were back in Auke Bay Bishop Bay Prince
Rupert Ketchikan Juneau Ketchikan
We
still had three days to kill before we’re allowed into Glacier Bay and lots to do before we could leave Juneau
With
a forecast of 25 to 35 knot winds out of the southeast for Thursday, we weren’t
going anywhere. And neither were Tom and Gale on Impossible Dream*. So we took care of boat jobs on Wednesday and
made plans with them to take the bus to the brewery the following afternoon.
It
was the best $5 we’ve ever spent.
First off, it’s not a tour. It’s a tasting (with information about the history of the company thrown in for good measure). For the price of admission, you get six 4 ounce tasters and a souvenir glass (we may have had more like 8 or 9 and possibly ended up with extra glasses in all the beer-drinking chaos). But, if you’re feeling really cheap, you can skip the souvenir glass and belly up to the bar for three free tries at what’s on tap. Secondly, it’s a major social event and more like being at a party where you don’t know anyone but are having fun getting to know each other than a boring brewery tour: I really don’t think we could have found a better way to pass the time on a cold, rainy, windy afternoon (for the record, I thought "Gold Creek" was really nice but we both agree, "Alaskan Amber" is beer of choice).
The
weather was much better on Friday and we should have been on our way, but it
was still too windy to go up the mast. A couple of days before, an eagle had
landed on our wind vane and left it dangling like a broken limb. Before we
could go, David needed to assess the damage to the anemometer and either fix it
or replace it (we have a spare aboard). So, I called Glacier Bay and told them
we wouldn’t be in until the 5th – losing one of our precious days
inside the park – and used the time to finish up some boat jobs.
By
Saturday morning, the sun was up and the wind was down, so I hoisted David to
the top of the mast for a look. Fortunately, the eagle had only bent the wind
vane and he was able to bend it back into shape, fixing it on the spot – I
think it’s fair to say we lucked out there.
With
the last of the chores completed and David safely back on solid ground, it was
time to get moving again – Glacier Bay, after all, was waiting!
*Tom’s boat, Impossible
Dream, has an interesting pedigree. It was originally owned and named by
Roy Disney when they were developing the first feature-length animated film (Fantasia). People told him and his brother,
Walt, that it would be “impossible”.
Note: This blog entry was written
on Friday, 04 July 2015.
2 comments
You should be glad all those 'cruisers' are doing what they are doing and not doing what you are doing, or you'd have to share your anchorage with them. No reason to have such an elitist attitude. Different strokes for different folks.
ReplyDeleteWow! I was trying to be a bit tongue-in-check but obviously missed the mark (we didn't really walk around trying our best not to look smug) . . . and touched a nerve. With that said, we knew what we were getting into by going to Mendenhall Glacier but that doesn't change the fact that it was a 'culture shock' for both of us . . . or that it felt contrived. The tourist scene simply isn't our thing. Like you so aptly said, "different strokes for different folks."
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