Day 14 - Sunburn in Juneau, AK?

Juneau, AK essentially is an 18 mile stretch of land that is only accessible by ferry, boat, or airplane. The 18 mile stretch goes from the downtown harbor where tourists arrive on Carnival cruise ships to the Mendenhall Valley, a suburban area that includes the University of Alaska - Southeast. There is one main road that stretches the entire length of the city which makes car travel inside of Juneau very easy. Even those addicted to their GPS can't get lost!

Today, I had my first experience "out the road". "Out the road" is an expression used by the locals to describe the area beyond the Mendenhall Valley on the Glacier Highway. The area is basically a series of trails, glaciers, and mountains. For those who spend an extended period of time in the city it is definitely worth a visit. This morning Dr. Dee picked me up and we headed out to Boy Scout Beach which is about 20 miles beyond the Mendenhall Valley. On the drive out there was some excitement - I saw my first bear. It was a big black bear that ran across the highway right in front of the car. After seeing how big it was and how quickly it moved I must say I am rather thankful I have yet to run into one on a hike. I also saw a porcupine hiding on the shoulder of the road - and this was all before we even got to the beach.

Dr. Dee and I met Dr. Hort, Cindy (a dental assistant), Dr. Newton, Dr. Marcott, and various boyfriends, husbands, and children to start our walk to the beach. The walk along the trail was nice and flat and it took about 35 minutes before we saw water. Since we left fairly early this morning the tide was very low which exposed lots of sand bars. We spent most of the morning walking from sand bar to sand bar in what was essentially the middle of the channel. Eventually we reached a point on the beach to set up camp. By this point the sun was pretty high in the sky and it was beginning to get hot. We listened to music, played pickle ball, and skipped rocks all morning. Every 20 or 30 minutes we had to move back to accommodate the rising tide. Eventually we all settled in and began to, I can't believe I'm going to say this again, soak up sun. I'm going to have a difficult time convincing the Ingram Scholars staff that I actually used my stipend to go back to Alaska because, at this point, I am bright red from a sunburn! It was amazing to sit on the sun-filled beach and stare across the channel at snow covered mountains.

After a few hours we headed back to the car and visited the Jensen-Olsen Arboretum. It just opened yesterday and there were lots of interesting flowers and plants that were just starting to bloom. Normally I would not have enjoyed such an activity but on a day like today I would have done just about anything to be outside. For lunch, we headed to a restaurant called The Sand Bar. They served fried halibut and chips that were pretty incredible. Apparently, this restaurant is so popular with the locals that the Alaskan Fishing Company makes sure to send only the whitest halibut to the restaurant. By extension, I think this means I stumbled across the best fish and chips in town. This is definitely another restaurant I will be frequenting again in the near future.

The day in the sun was pretty exhausting so I didn't do much tonight. It was nice to just sit outside and relax, especially since I get tomorrow off for Memorial Day. Looking forward to taking advantage of the last day of my three day weekend...