Alaska or Bust: Revisited: Haines to Juneau, AK (7/13/2017)

Day 30
Thursday, January 13, 2017
We checked out of "The Nest" and drove into Haines to spend the morning.

Public Safety Building Totem (1981, by Charles
Jimmie, Sr and Chauncy Jacobs), a killer whale

Library Pole: Ax' Shtudultoowo Daaka Hidi
(where they go to learn by themselves) (2009, by
Jim Heaton, Joe King, Jeffery Klanott, Daniel Klanott,
Zach James, Cody Hotch, and Cory Grant)

Friendship Pole at Haines High School (1976, by Clifford Thomas,
John Hagen, Sr., David Svenson, Jenny Lynn, Cliff Thomas, Edwin Kasko,
Lee Heinmiller, Carl Heinmiller, Wayne Price and Greg Horner)

This must be the vocational school next door?

Alaska Sport Shop owner Dave Olerud is the founder of the American
American Bald Eagle Foundation Raptor Center and Natural History
Museum; apparently the many Alaska wild animal mounts
were initially displayed in this store

The Alaska Sport Shop still has many taxidermy mounts

Outside the Alaska Sport Shop was this Ford F-150 truck
is the prize in a raffle to benefit the fairgrounds

We had lunch at the Bamboo Room Restaurant (splitting a halibut and chips and a salad), which was connected to the historic Pioneer Bar.

Bamboo Room Restaurant and Pioneer Bar

Pioneer Bar may have started as a bootleg joint in the 1930s

We were scheduled to take the 17:00 ferry from Haines to Juneau, and because we were taking our car, we needed to arrive at the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry terminal two hours earlier!

During the wait to board the ferry, the clouds began to slowly lift

The car deck on the FVF Fairweather ferry, the fast ferry

The forward lounge on the ferry

Children's play area, i.e. video room, on the ferry

Amidships lounge on the ferry

Quiet/study area on the ferry

Departing from Haines, AK (KSS)

Eldred Rock Lighthouse (1905-1906) in the Lynn Canal

Approaching Juneau/Auke Bay

View of Mendenhall Glacier

We had a sandwich from the snack bar on the ferry for dinner.
At 19:15 we arrived at the Auke Bay ferry terminal, which is about 14 miles from the city of Juneau. We followed Glacier Highway/AK-7 towards Juneau for about 6 miles to find our AirBnB studio apartment.

Jordan Meadows Condos (2014) looks a bit utilitarian

But the interior - wow!
The studio was on the second floor

And the bathroom/laundry was on the ground floor

A personalized welcome from the host,
with two lapel pins (which we collect!)

We drove into the city of Juneau, seeing plenty of eagles along the way, some waiting at the outlets of creeks for the salmon to arrive. Jan & Kirby had heard that where freshwater rivers and creeks meet saltwater, the freshwater remains as a layer on top of the saltwater. It was theorized that salmon jump in order to get to the freshwater layer, and their sense of smell would allow them to recognize their natal river and stream, so that they can return to the spawning grounds where they were born.

Juneau Small Boat Harbor

Hard Rock MIners (1980, by Ed Way), shows
hard rock gold miners using a jack drlll

St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church (1893-1894),
the oldest original church in Alaska

With American missionaries arriving and insisting the Native Tlingits give up their language and culture, the Tlingits appealed to the Russian Orthodox Church to become established in Juneau. The Russian Orthodox Church had translated liturgy and scripture into Tlingit language in the 1830s and 1840s.

Wickersham State Historical Site preserves the 1898 home of
judge and statesman James Wickersham

In 1900, the arrival of Judge James Wickersham brought a sense of law and order to the territory full of gold prospectors, as well as claim jumpers and corrupt businessmen. He traveled all over Alaska to dispense justice and was a territorial delegate to Congress. He was also the first non-Native to attempt to climb Mt McKinley/Denali.

Juneau was full of winding hilly streets

Alaska State Capitol (1929-1931 as the Territorial Capitol;
since 1913 the legislature had met in the Elks Lodge Hall)

The area of Juneau was traditionally the fishing grounds of local Natives. The first Europeans here were George Vancouver and his expedition on the HMS Discovery. During the gold rush, prospectors Joe Juneau and Richard Harris were sent to the Gastineau Channel to look for gold, which they found. They laid out a mining camp, which was named Harrisburg, then Juneau.
In 1906, the original capital of the Alaska Territory in Sitka was moved to Juneau, because of declining whaling and fur trade.
There have been a few attempts to have the capital of Alaska moved, but they were unsuccessful.