Alaska and Vancouver 2010
Butt-early arrival in Juneau seriously hurt. Room service (included) was kind of neat, but paled in experience to the morning's plans. 0.7 mile run through downtown Juneau to the start of the Mt. Roberts trail (2 miles) seemed like a great way to break in the morning. Then we got to the trail, found it wet, muddy, slick, and in some cases, blocked by fallen trees or non-existent.
It made a pretty good run hike, though. Did the half-mile loop at the top despite the rain and the clouds that made visibility almost zero, and we gave up on hiking the extra 3 miles to the actual top of Mt. Roberts due to the weather (and not being prepared for 10 miles!). Took the tram back down, which depositing you literally right atop the pier. Pretty cool.
Took the public bus to the Mendenhall Glacier, so we got to see a bit of Juneau on the way. Fred Meyer, Walmart, the hospital, etc. Walked 1.5 miles from the bus stop to the glacier, which was quite possibly the best thing to see on the whole trip. The Hubbard Glacier might be bigger, but the glacial lake, the waterfall, the ability to walk so close to the waterfall (if not quite the actual glacier), touching chunks of glacier ice... it was very impressive.
Then the usual for dinner, with passionfruit cheesecake (nom!) and chocolate nothing (literally, nothing) for the others... and of course more running. Oh yes, the free internet at Juneau's public library was excruiatingly slow. Tethering on Verizon was faster (!).