Juneau, May 29, 2002
Alaska's capital was the first port of call. It's a small town with some government buildings and lots of gift shops. All of the towns on the trip are very walkable. When Mike and I got off the ship, we took the gondola to the top of Mt. Roberts.
After we rode back down the mountain we headed for the gift shops along the main street. Mike's wife collected the little painted Russian boxes, and so he was on the lookout for interesting ones to take home. The other Russian-themed items in the shop included the nesting dolls, often with traditional Russian subject matter as Harry Potter, the Beatles, and Disney and Star Trek characters. Totem poles were well represented in shops, both plastic mass-produced and wooden supposedly hand-carved.
On a side street not too far from the state capitol was an octagonal Russian Orthodox church.
When Alaska became a state, they just made the old territorial headquarters into the state capitol building.
The first of my ursine friends with which I posed.
