Juneau, AK

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Our 7-day Alaskan cruise aboard the Celebrity Summit ship arrived in Juneau, AK early Tuesday morning. We had a full day to adventure in Alaska’s capital city (7am-8pm), and we made the most of it.

Juneau is the largest US capital city by land area, but the fifth smallest in population. Only 31,000 people call this island city home. There’s a lot to see & do in Juneau, but getting from place to place can be a logistical nightmare. For simplicity, many cruisers book excursions through the cruise line. We, however, opted to rent a car from a company called Turo for the day. With Turo, we communicated directly with the vehicle owner who agreed to leave their car for us right at the cruise port. Therefore, we’ve simply walked off the ship to the rental car and returned it in the same fashion. Having a rental car proved to be the easiest and cheapest mode of transport for our family of six to see the city of Juneau.

After an early morning workout in the fitness center, Andi and I departed the cruise ship at 7:30am. We made the same arrangements as yesterday with Andi’s parents — Andi and I left the ship early to pick up the rental car and enjoy an early morning hike together; then, we returned to the ship around 9:30am to pick up Andi’s parents, and Tory and Aden. This arrangement allowed Andi and I to get in an extra hike, and gave Andi’s parents time to have coffee and breakfast. Tory and Aden were glad to sleep in a little longer.

Andi picked the Gold Creek Flume Trail for us to walk this morning. We parked our rental car in a residential neighborhood and set out along the boardwalk path. This was an easy 1.4 mile trail; its popularity with locals evident by the number of people we saw out walking with their dogs. It wasn’t a particularly challenging walking route, but enjoyable to be surrounded by trees and to breathe in the cool, crisp air. Today was a gorgeous morning in Juneau.

On our return walk to the car, several people we passed warned us about a bear on the trail. Andi and I cautiously continued forward until we spotted the black bear everyone was talking about. The bear walked toward us along the trail, not in any particular hurry. In fact, it stopped to munch on grasses along the boardwalk and even laid down on its side at one point! Clearly, this bear wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

Andi motioned for me to continue walking toward the bear on the boardwalk. “Come on,” he kept saying in a loud whisper.

NOPE. No way.

After a too-close encounter with a black bear in our Wisconsin backyard two summers ago, I wasn’t going anywhere near this bear. We waited and watched the bear for at least 30 minutes. “Let’s just turn around and find a different path to our car,” I encouraged Andi. But, he was having none of that idea. “Come on,” he kept saying. “Let’s just follow the boardwalk.”

Suddenly, the bear got up from its spot in the grass and started walking along the boardwalk in our direction. This part of the trail bridged a ravine so there was nowhere for the bear (or us) to go in either direction.

“Oh crap!” Andi said as the bear quickly made ground toward him. Andi jogged toward me, and we rounded the corner of a stone wall together.

The bear didn’t seem particularly interested in us, but he was moving closer to us. A little while later, we heard noises on the other side of the trail. A log-jam of hikers on the other side of the trail started moving toward us on the trail, causing the bear to scurry up the side of the hillside. I was hesitant to follow the path where the bear had just been — we could still seem him perched on the grassy hillside — but there wasn’t another viable alternative.

“Phew! That was really something,” we concurred with the hikers who passed us on the trail. Near the trailhead, we passed a few unsuspecting mothers starting down the trail with baby strollers. I hoped that bear was well on his way by the time they reached the animal.

Safely back in the car, Andi stopped at a coffee shop on our way back to the cruise ship. We shared a cinnamon roll and sipped an espresso and hot tea while we recounted the adventure. So much excitement had before 9am!

Shortly after 9:30am, we returned to the cruise port in downtown Juneau. It was chaotic with people and cars everywhere, plus it’d started to rain. Andi called Tory so she could help direct Grandma and Grandpa to our car parked in a loading zone. Once all six of us were piled into the rental car, we set off for our first destination of the day — the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery.

Salmon are a huge part of life in Alaska. The fish hatchery offers free admission to visitors, and was a great place to learn about the life cycle of the salmon. We were too early in the season to see the salmon running, but there were millions of baby king and coho salmon in the salmon nursery holding tank. A tourist bus full of students arrived about 20 minutes into our visit, so we didn’t stick around much longer.

Our next stop in Juneau was the Douglas City Museum. There’s several museums in town, but this one seemed to fit the bill for what we were looking for — a simple taste of local art, history, and culture. Admission cost $7 for adults (free for kids). We learned about Alaska’s fishing and mining industries, and watched a short video. (Spoiler alert: it was pretty boring; Andi slept through most of it.)

Next, the six of us walked across the street to the Alaska State Capitol building. I always think it’s exciting to see the capitol building of any state, and this was no exception. “Look, kids! The Alaska State Capitol Building!”

Visitors are free to walk through the capitol building to observe any public space, with guided tours given each afternoon. The six of us walked through a few of the floors on our own, including the state assembly conference room. Honestly, we didn’t see anything all that interesting; just lawmakers busy at work.

“I love your excitement for things, Heather,” Janie commented. I’ll take that as a compliment! I see everything as a learning experience, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to see it.

Next, the six of loaded into our rental car and drove to Zerelda's Bistro for lunch. Andi picked this restaurant because it offered a mixture of healthy and unique dishes. I opted for the “lunch plate” which included furikake steamed rice, Hawaiian macaroni salad, kimchi cucumbers, and kalua pork. The flavors tasted fabulous and filling. Janie ordered the Zerelda’s Pho and absolutely raved about it! The soup was served in a huge 16oz. bowl, and could have easily fed two people.

After lunch, our next stop was to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier can be seen right in town which is interesting in itself; it’s the only glacier in southeast Alaska accessible by road. There’s a nice visitor center here, and several viewpoints and hiking trails.

Mendenhall Glacier is 12 miles long flowing from the Juneau Icefield. The glacier is currently retreating due to climate change, and photo displays in the visitor center show evidence of its shrinkage. After walking through the visitor center, Jim said he had a headache and asked to sit on a bench to rest while the five of us walked down to the glacier viewpoint.

The glacier was breathtaking to observe in person. We admired it from a distance while also spectating other visitors gathered there. One lady loudly FaceTimed with her son from the viewpoint. “If you ever do that to me, Mom, I’m putting you in a nursing home,” Andi joked.

Our final stop in Juneau was the National Shrine of St. Therese. This shrine chapel is located about 15 miles outside Juneau, so a rental car is necessary to visit. Andi knew Janie would enjoy this spot. We’d read about the immaculately-kept gardens and beautiful chapel open to the public.

Janie wasn’t the only person in our group who enjoyed the national shrine. We all loved it! The grounds were beautiful and peaceful. The six of us wandered along the paved paths, through the blooming flowers, and inside the chapel. Aden spotted an animal near the water, and another visitor we talked to said it was a marmot.

Andi drove our rental car back to the cruise port around 4:30pm. He needed to return some work emails, so he went to the public library to use the wi-fi for an hour. Meanwhile, Janie, Jim, Tory, Aden, and I decided to walk around the streets of downtown Juneau. What a terrible idea this was! The streets of downtown Juneau were a gigantic tourism trap filled with pawn shops, kitschy t-shirts stops, bars, tobacco stores, and jewelry shops. The sidewalks were full of trash and wall-to-wall with tourists. Jim, specifically, did not appreciate the smell of cigarette smoke.

Needless to say, we didn’t stick around long. The five of us walked back onto the cruise ship and texted Andi to meet us there. We returned to the comfort of our staterooms to relax for a few minutes before dinner. Nothing beats the feeling of returning to the cruise ship after a long day of adventuring to clean accommodations, friendly staff, and food at the ready.

Our family tried to be seated at our reserved table on Deck 5, but we missed the 5:30pm-6:00pm window. Instead, we went to the Cosmopolitan Restaurant on Deck 4 and were still able to be seated right away. Our server was friendly, but not as attentive as the server assigned to our family on Deck 6. It felt strange to have dinner in this grand ballroom while still be docked in Juneau. The ship wasn’t due to depart the city until 8:00pm tonight.

After dinner, we caught the last 20 minutes of a family-friendly comedy show in the main theatre — standing room only. The kids asked to go to Camp at Sea and X Club to meet up with some friends they’ve made. The rest of us returned to our staterooms for the evening. We were tired and happy after a great day in Alaska’s capital city.