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| Our view from the ferry early Saturday morning |
Living in a tourist town in summer has it's advantages - restaurants shuttered during the winter open with new and interesting menus, trinket shopping is at its finest and there is a plethora of activities both on the water and through the air. Juneau residents can get discounts on tours and travel and my volunteer work with the Convention and Visitors Bureau offers even more opportunities to "try" the activities offered to
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| Beer Fest grounds |
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| Cyd, Jessie and me! |
visitors. {Side note: if you haven't already seen it, please view the Summer 2015 JCVB video - spectacular scenery, great music and even "surprise" movie stars! https://www.youtube.com/user/TravelJuneau} We have been very lucky to experience a lot of what Juneau and other parts of Alaska has to offer. This summer, however, we decided to make sure that we allowed time to experience things we might not otherwise do! In May, we ferried to Haines, AK, for the annual "Beer Fest", where local brewers (and there are
lots of them in Alaska) get together for a beer "tasting" at an outdoor venue that is normally used for the Southeast Alaska State Fair. Always held on Memorial Day weekend, it was a good opportunity to take the ferry (about 4 hours) on Saturday, stay overnight and return on Sunday. Two other couples, friends from my work, made the trek with us and we were lucky that the day dawned bright and sunny - perfect weather to take the slow way to Haines. Our tickets allowed for entry to the beer gardens at 1 p.m.
sharp so we arrived at about 12:40 p.m. and were one of the first people in line, primed for four full hours of
beer-tasting. All participants receive a 2 oz commemorative glass with which to sample the brews offered. I'm not a beer drinker too much so I was happy to see a good
selection of hard ciders and "fruity" beers and ales. Drinking 2 oz beers is like drinking shots - it quickly overcomes you! A stop at the "whack a mole" and some hula hooping while listening to music allowed
us to get our second wind and, after the event ended, we were circling the small city of Haines looking for the giant slip-n-slide that we had
heard was in the area.
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| Slippin' & slidin' |
We were not disappointed - great views (really, Mr. Speedo?) of the crowd from our car - although one in our group
may have been talked into "slipping" if we would have let him! An early night was in order because we wanted to drive out of town to the Canadian border Sunday with a couple of side trips on the way before returning to Juneau later in the day. There is a great place just our side of the border called 33 Mile Roadhouse which, by coincidence, is 33 miles outside of Haines. A nice stop forbreakfast, it also brought out the photographer in all of us and one in our party was even surprised by a goat in one of the barns. In that same area is the Big Nugget Mine made popular by the Discovery Channel television show "Gold Rush Alaska" and we wanted to stop for some fireworks that we heard were offered by the road side before heading back to Haines. All stops were made and we were on our way
back for our afternoon ferry ride back to Juneau (remember, this was on Memorial Day weekend - we still
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| On the grounds of 33 Mile Roadhouse |
wanted the Monday holiday off for down time!) when we got word that the ferry was "delayed" due to mechanical difficulties - delay meaning
not coming. Since we had already checked out of our hotel, were planning on turning in our rental heap and didn't have any plans for the rest of the afternoon/evening, we spent a few minutes in panic about what to do. Finally, cooler heads prevailed and we decided to be spontaneous - Bill called the hotel to see if we could get rooms (a
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| Somewhere in here is a goat! |
good rate? possibly), made sure we could keep the rental for another day and made our arrangements to leave on the (very) early morning ferry that was not mechanically-challenged. Now, what to do for the rest of the day? Haines is beautiful so we spent some time relaxing at the waterfront in
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| Big Nugget Mine bunkhouse |
the sunny weather - and then stopped in for a drink (or two) at a bar on
the
wharf. Other travel orphans were there and we all realized that the
true Alaska experience is that travel
plans are always subject to weather/mechanics/animals and we should not have been surprised. We enjoyed the rest of the evening after purchasing some supplies at the local IGA - hot dogs that we grilled behind the hotel on the grill that was offered by the hotel manager, along with a new supply of beer - and
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| Our grill masters! |
leftover snacks that we had for the ferry ride and the night prior. Soon it was bedtime as our ferry was really early (we had to be at terminal about 5 a.m.) but we realized that this spontaneous part of our weekend was the highlight of our trip. Spending time just talking and laughing,
making memories and having a story to tell was priceless! My take on this story - don't forget to plan a little spontaneity into your travels, you never know but it might be the best part of your trip! More on summer in Juneau to follow!
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| The slip n' slide on the hill in downtown Haines |
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| Our view of the Eldred Rock Lighthouse on our way back to Juneau |
Bill and I like camping. Not "love" as in live in the woods, but we spent many wonderful weekends camping in beautiful Wisconsin. One time we even packed our tent and drove to Maine/Grand Manan and camped at the Hole in Wall campground with a awe-inspiring view of the Bay of Fundy. For many summers, we pulled our little pop-up camper to explore waterfalls in Wisconsin and that was really, really nice. I do enjoy the "romantic" idea of camping (late night cocktails under the stars, early morning camping breakfast by the lake, s'mores) but rain, bugs and dirty feet sometimes dulled the effect for me. When friends here suggested a three-night rustic camping trip over 4th of July weekend, I wanted to go if nothing else but for the company. 
However, we had no camping paraphernalia and had to give some thought to the weather (did I mention that it rains in Juneau - a lot??). The deciding factor was that the campsites would be on an island only accessible by boat with no amenities (i.e. toilets, running water) and, since we try to experience everything that Alaska has to offer, we said yes and the trip was planned. We accepted a generous offer of a 
borrowed tent and had our own sleeping bags, bought copious amounts of food and booze, lawn chairs and even campsite decorations. However, the most ingenious bring-along was our own portable toilet! Yes, people - Bill "MacGyver" Meier made a port-a-potty complete with tp holder. Picked up on a rainy July 3
morning, we motored to Suedla Island (only the eight of us on it!) and quickly unloaded our things with help from those campers who stayed the night prior. One would not think that eight adults would need this much stuff. Luckily the rain had stopped by cocktail time, which was not technically at 5 o'clock but who's keeping track. We split wood, kept the fire stoked and settled in with snacks, hot dogs over the flames and Brandy Old-Fashioneds all around (or beer or tequila or whiskey or Fireball). We agreed that dinner would be an 
Alaskan-style crab boil, with King Crab, fresh halibut and all the trimmings poured out over paper on the table. Dig in! Since it was July 3, the sky was light until well after 11 p.m. (longest day is June 21) and it was almost 2 a.m. before we crawled (literally) into our tent. July 4th dawned early (around 4 a.m. - didn't see it though) and we spent the day kayaking, fishing,
laughing, eating, drinking and other sorts of camping shenanigans (what happened at Suedla stays at Suedla!). It was warm and sunny, an absolutely spectacular Juneau summer day! We took chairs down to the beach, looked for shells and beach glass along the tidal pools as the guys took the boat out fishing. After a steak and potato dinner, we had copious amounts of fireworks and started down to the beach about 10 p.m. to light off the show! Booms, pops and color was all around - what a great night! 
Sunday was Bill's birthday - a little gift-giving along with a birthday pinata filled with candy, vodka and Fireball 
was the signal that our island adventure was coming to a close. What a joy it was to spend this time with these friends - people we didn't know four years ago are now counted among our greatest friends. I sometimes am in awe of how our lives have changed with the introduction of these friends along with our "happy hour" group. There are lots of people in this world - God throws a bunch of His people together and magic happens! Go out and find your own "magic" and your world will be blessed beyond your dreams!
