StevenLaura

Laura's UBER picture blog. Enjoy. (Day 3 & 4 of the cruise.)






We did get cell phone coverage in Juneau. How do I know? Right about here, Bethel called to see if we were interested in giving money. Steve explained we were in Alaska on our honeymoon. The caller apologized and asked if she could pray for us about anything. Steve said pray that we have a good honeymoon. And we did.







[HERE ENDS DAY 1 and JUNEAU. NEXT: GLACIER BAY]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE!

Sunday is Steve's birthday, but we plan to spend that day eating pie with church folks. So today I did the UNTHINKABLE!

I SUPRISED him with a BIRTHDAY PARTY AT...

CHUCK E. CHEESE'S!

So, that's right, not only did I SURPRISE him (he had no idea until he saw the table with a bunch of people around it) I took him to the one place we were never allowed to go for birthdays. Chuck E. Cheese's. (Incidently, parents, no worries, I now understand why we never went there.)

He was in a crown, got cotton candy, all you can drink vanilla coke, was serenaded by the old mouse himself, got a cake, pizza, and 7 or 8 dollars worth of tokens to play with. It was a fun night. We won enough tickets with our tokens to buy sidewalk chalk. (I suppose that's expensive sidewalk chalk -- $14) AND, we got to spend the evening with seven fun friends who definately added to the experience. To top all, some close friends of ours who live "far away" made the extra trip to say hello.

Thanks, all. This was the bestest suprise I've accomplished, ever. (At a later date I'll tell you more about how I convinced Steve to drive to Chuck E Cheese's on a Thursday night... it's a great story.)

Smiles to all.

Juneau is Stillwater with REALLY REALLY Big Bluffs

Newsbreak:
Juneau, despite being the capital of Alaska, is NOT big. In fact, it's kind of like Stillwater. All turn of the century buildings on one side of the "river" (okay, here a sound) with a bridge to the other side of the "river" where newer houses have been built. The size of the town, like Stillwater, is limited by the bluffs that surround it on one side (okay, here they're called mountains) and the river on the other (here called a sound). So, not quite the same, but Steve and I still got a kick out of calling Juneau landmarks by their Stillwater counterpart's names.

Ignore the mountain, pretend you're on the north side of town facing south. On your right we have the Isaac Staples Saw Mill. On your left we have the old depot.

[To add icing to the cake, the building on your left sells souvenirs, much like the old train depot did last time I was there. Oh, and it’s been converted (as well) from a transportation depot (only water transport, not rail transport).]

Further left is the water (in real Juneau as well as in Stillwater.) The road you see in front of you is the main road through town.








Here we have the third street hill (facing "north" if you're trying to get your Stillwater bearings, the water is on your right now.)












Here's Main Street, notice the "Antique" signs have been replaced with "Fur" signs on the sides of buildings. Somethings were a little different.

And here we have Second Street just in front of Chillicoute (forgive the spelling, I’ve never had to spell that word before) – although in Alaska replace Chilicoute with a REALLY REALLY big mountain. Oh, and we wouldn’t have had boats like the one in this picture (our cruise ship) coming down from Marine on St. Croix…

Here's a final picture, the little town nestled between bluffs on steroids. Missing is the picture of the bridge between Stillwater and Hudson. But it wasn't a lift bridge, so it wasn't as impressive of a similarity. Obviously this picture was taken from our ship as we pulled in. Notice how our ship is the size of town, almost. We did, I think, almost double the town with our presence.