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!
Alexis, this was a breathtaking post😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩
Thank you, Cynthia. I’m glad you enjoyed the view as much as I did!
WOW! It is just as beautiful as I’d imagined! I am glad you decided to pay the fee to go to the top and the video is a nice touch too.
It is very sad, however, that the waiter appeared to be prejudiced against you. I still can’t get round that way of thinking in this day and age; we are all humans as far as I am concerned. And by the way, if you want mussels, you’ll be spoilt for choice in France, so when you eventually cross the ‘pond’, make sure you try Moules Frites!
I look forward to reading about your kayaking adventure next time. 👍
WOW! It really looks as beautiful as I’d imagined. Glad you paid the fee for the ride and, yes, the sunset makes all even more stunning. Doesn’t it always?
It would be very sad if that waiter had a prejudice against black people or non-whties in general: I can’t get it into my head as to why some people are racist against any given ethnic group; we are all human as far as I am concerned.
I look forward to reading all about your kayaking adventure! Oh, and by the way, if you want mussels, you’ll be spoilt for choice in France. If you ever come across the ‘pond’, make sure you try Moules Frites!
Mussels in France, you say! Sounds like I need to hurry up and come visit. That’s my favourite seafood! Most times I have to hunt down Thai restaurants to get any.
The view was indeed beautiful. Can’t beat an aerial view of a coastal town, especially beneath the sunset. 🙂
We really couldn’t think of any other reason the waiter had a problem. We were very friendly and everyone else there seemed perfectly fine, except for him. Maybe he thinks it’s beneath him to serve ancestors of slaves! Who knows that’s going through his mind? We’ve learned to laugh at these things or we would go mad. 😂 Everyone else was sooooo friendly in Alaska. Even more so than Denver, Colorado and that’s hard to beat!
How many days for that cost?
Good question! I was in Alaska from July 23rd to July 27th. The room we booked was $45 per night. Not sure what the daily rate of the rental was but there is public transportation, Uber and Lyft around Juneau, too.
Awesome, thanks. $45 seems like a deal – =)
I think so, too 🙂
Super cool to get that view from high up (:
Oh yes, it was lovely!
How long of a flight was it from ATL to Alaska? This sounds like something to put on the bucket list.
It’s hard to say because of the time zone changes and the stopovers. It wasn’t a straight flight. On the way back, for instance, I left Alaska around 10/11am but it was around 5AM local time in Atlanta when I got back. I had one stopover in Seattle for a few hours and we didn’t stop at Sitka this time.