After our 10+ mile hike to see Mendenhall Glacier, Tristan and I returned home for a quick shower and headed out again. We were starving after such a long hike and were eager to see what Alaska had to offer. As per usual, I was hunting for mussels, and as per usual, I didn’t find any.
We eventually settled on Twisted Fish. The ambience was nice and the food was good, but our waiter seemed put off by serving us. I thought it was just my imagination, until Tristan also pointed it out. We have no idea what his issue was, but there aren’t many Black people wandering around Alaska and this is a red state, after all. In any case, we enjoyed our meal, tipped according to the service we received and left the restaurant.
We were in the process of debating whether or not we should still try to ride the Mount Roberts Tramway when we realised we were standing right in front of it. It was just across from the restaurant.
That decided it for us; we were going. We paid our money and went to the platform to wait for the trams to come down from the mountain.
The view from inside the tramway is well worth the $34 we paid to get on. Check out some of the pictures, below.
At the end of the tram ride were gift shops and restaurants. Tristan and I knew we wanted to bring gifts home for family and friends, so we wandered around for about an hour trying to steer clear of the stereotypical tourist gifts and pick thoughtful items our family and friends would actually use.
As a recommendation for anyone going gift shopping in Juneau, go to Safeway before stopping at any of the gift shops. Tristan and I found many of the gift shop items sold at Safeway for sometimes a third or a quarter of the price of what it was sold for elsewhere.
That said, the tram ride was even more beautiful on the way back down as by then, the sun had begun to set.
Here’s a quick video to sum up our Mount Roberts Tramway adventure!
My last few travel posts were pretty long, so I’m keeping this one short by stopping it here. Next week, I’ll tell you all about how Tristan and I went sea kayaking after a short hike through the woods.
Cost breakdown for this trip:
- Round trip from Atlanta to Alaska: $711.61
- Round trip from Las Vegas to Alaska: $579.80 (Tristan paid for his flight)
- Airbnb Booking: $317.99
- Turo Car Rental: ~$347.35 (Tristan paid for the car rental)
Thus, the entire trip cost me $1,029.60 and cost Tristan $927.15. Together, we shared a total cost of $1,956.75. This was our most expensive trip to date and worth every penny!