March 26th, 2017

My first time in Juneau was pretty good! To be fair, the area is pretty small and lots of people all seem to know each other, which was a little disconcerting. I went to stay with my roommate's family and spent a day with my uncle who was there for work as well.
On the way to Juneau, I decided that it would be a great idea to take the "milk run," which makes two stops at smaller airports along the way. As is often the case with my misadventures, there was a problem. The flight from Anchorage to the first stop was around 36 minutes. After 30 there was a problem with the plane we were in and we flew all the way back to Anchorage. We then had to wait in the plane on the ground while a discussion happened to see if the plane could be fixed or if we would all need to board a new one. After a time, we all were herded off the plane and back into the airport to wait for the new plane to be readied. We did eventually make it to the first stop, but by that point it was snowing so hard that we had to wait for 20 minutes on the ground for the skies to be clear enough to see. This was also the case at the next stop, so by the time I made it to Juneau it was 11pm rather than the respectable 7:45 it was meant to be! Sigh.
My uncle showed me around the Alaska state capital buildings on our day together, and we even spied the back of my econ teacher's head while he took some pictures with his phone (I mean, I'm pretty sure it was him...). Juneau is beautiful, though it honestly feels like it belongs on the east coast instead of in Alaska.
In terms of adventures, there was only one worth sharing. We went to a glacier while I was there, and the lake separating us from the glacier was completely frozen so people could walk across. Me being me, I was pumped and primed to walk the two miles there and two miles back, but my roommate was wearing cloth shoes with no socks. To add insult to injury, she had shoved her feet into them haphazardly and her heels were sticking out. In the snow! We made it a quarter of the way across the lake before we turned back, and I am still a bit disappointed that I did not get to see the glacier up close on my trip.
Here is the part I am sure you all have been waiting for; my food reviews. I went to a place called The Island Pub for lunch on my last day with my roommate and her family (as well as a bunch of their church people). The hummus was great, and there were lots of interesting pizza options, which I quite enjoyed as well. I ate a lot but did not feel overstuffed, as the food all felt rather light. My uncle is a foodie like me, so we went to The Rookery, which is apparently where everyone goes when they come to Juneau, since it was apparently listed in some fancy gourmet food magazine. We indulged in salmon and chorizo lumpia, duck and shiitake ramen with housemade noodles, and the fanciest s'mores I have ever had! It was all mouthwateringly awesome!
If any of you are heading to Juneau, check out the Northern Tea House as well. I had a personal pot of caramel apple rooibos that was amazing!
That's all for now, since the beginning of my spring break was spent doing accounting homework and not going outside of the dorm...
EG