By Jeffrey A. Rendall, Photos by Jeffrey A. Rendall, Bethany Rendall and Shari Rendall
Alaska Cruise Review Part IV — Alaska ports of Call – Juneau. Alaska Capitol, Tracy’s King Crab Shack and Whale watching
The third port day stop on our Alaska cruise was in Juneau, which is about halfway up the inside passage. We were originally slated to spend the afternoon hours in Juneau, but due to the unfortunate weather 
conditions that took place prior to our arrival in Alaska, we were informed the day before our slated time that excursions involving the Mendenhall Glacier and Rainbow Falls were cancelled until further notice.
In other words, we were out of luck with no alternatives.
It was a little hard for us to understand, but apparently there was a dam up in the high country that was dangerously close to giving way, endangering the communities down below it. Mendenhall Glacier was part of the area in danger. Thinking of the area being flooded when hiking in the region wasn’t exactly a pleasant thought, so we didn’t take the news too hard. It was just kind of a bummer that a major part of our Alaska visit was cancelled with not much leeway to rebook a new tour.
But getting to spend extra time in Juneau, the state capital, was also welcome news.
Upon arriving in port and glancing across the way, we immediately saw that Juneau was heavier populated and significantly larger than were Sitka or Skagway. Right across the way from our stateroom balcony, in fact, Tracy’s King Crab Shack was situated. We’d heard a lot about Tracy’s and people who’d visited there have said it’s a must to go there if given the opportunity.
So, now that we had an additional five or six hours in Juneau, the chance was there. So we added the local legendary eatery to our personal itinerary.
Seeing as Juneau is Alaska’s State Capitol, we figured a jaunt up Capitol Hill would also be worthwhile. The Capitol itself was about a mile from Anthem of the Seas, so it made sense to head there first. Coffee aficionado Bethany had heard about some local coffee shops in the vicinity, so we certainly could find one if we looked long enough.
We hadn’t heard for sure whether our planned excursion, which included the Rainbow Falls hiking trail, was officially closed. And we also didn’t know whether the Visitor’s Center for Mendenhall Glacier was still open. In short, we didn’t know what we didn’t know.
So we exited the cruise ship and started out in the direction we thought was the right one. Immediately upon hitting the main street, we noticed that Juneau contained many of the same types of shops as the other Alaska towns, if not bigger and more crowded. There were several that looked enticing to locate the final few souvenirs we’d wanted to purchase, so we planned to build in time for later in the day. After all, now that we were in Juneau for the entire port hours, the sky was the limit.
It wasn’t evident from the outset how to reach the Alaska Capital building, but I’d heard it was on a “hill” and would require some hoofing it to get there. After seeing signs that indicated “Capitol Hill”, we reached an office-type building that looked like it might be the one. Upon talking to a few folks, we located one couple who knew where to go – and yes, the “hill” part was real.
This was no small hill, either, but desiring to get more exercise, we tackled the couple block uphill “hike” to reach the actual capitol, which looked like a state capital with statues and plaques, etc. There was one monument dedicated to Lincoln Secretary of War Henry Seward who was instrumental in obtaining Alaska for the United States. I think. There’s 
an Alaska city called Seward, so that had to be it.
Inside the building there were the usual metal detectors, etc. A casually dressed gentleman said we were welcome to go to the second and third floors to visit the Alaska House of Representatives and Senate, both of which weren’t in session in early August. But we could at least view the chambers, if we liked.
There were photos of past Alaskan legislators on the hallway walls, some names we recognized. The late Congressman Don Young and former Governor Sarah Palin being a couple of those pictured. The House chamber seemed pretty small compared to most state lower houses. The same for the senate chamber, which, as I recall, only had seats for 20 senators. That’s barely enough for a good argument, isn’t it?
There was a staffer present in the senate chamber, so I asked him which issues were contentious in Alaska. Halfway expecting him to say “Energy”, he instead mentioned how Education funding was the top order of the day. Boring? Not really. There were fights over Energy, too. One can only imagine what it must be like to be a legislator in a state like Alaska, which is huge and spread out.
We took a very small elevator up to the third level to just peer into the Governor’s suite, which was empty and didn’t exhibit any signs of activity.
After our capitol tour, we decided to go find a local coffee shop to discuss what we would do for the balance of the day besides visit Tracy’s King Crab Shack and go shopping. We officially received a refund for the excursion that we’d planned, so we didn’t have anything booked to take advantage of the Alaska landscape. Was that a good thing?
At one intersection on the way back towards the ship from which we came, there were two local type coffee joints. We didn’t know which one to choose, so we asked a local who said Heritage Coffee Roasting Company was definitely better. The woman was quite friendly, and she’d said that everything associated with Mendenhall Glacier was closed, so to not even bother going there.
It turned out that the Visitor’s Center was still open for visitors, but not the outside parts. From what we heard, the glacier would’ve been visible from a distance. But what fun is that?
The Heritage Roasting Company was crowded and there was only one cluttered table semi-available. So we took that one, ordered coffee as we’d done the day before in Skagway, and sipped the product while discussing the rest of the day’s plans.
We eventually decided to go down by the vendor area opposite the cruise ship and see what we could come up with. Tracy’s King Crab Shack was in that direction anyway, as were a number of the souvenir places we’d hoped to stop at. Sure enough, there were a plethora of sales reps aggressively recruiting displaced people to entice them to try their tours. One guy was over-the-top by hyping his whale watching excursion, which purportedly guaranteed that we’d see whales. But it was $170 a person, which was basically double what we’d originally budgeted and selected.
Take it or leave it. And there were only a few slots left. We’d been whale watching before, which usually involves an hours-long boat ride and a whale sighting or two that you had to be ready for with your cameras to catch. We’d heard from various people that we’d probably spot whales from the cruise ship itself, but thus far, we hadn’t seen a single one.
“Better than nothing” and, “we’re only going to be here once”, and, “we don’t have anything else to do” won out. So we signed up, snagging the last three spots on a boat called “Big Mike”.
There was only a couple hours until the tour would leave (on a bus to the harbor), so we headed straight for Tracy’s, which was a block away. It was about 11 a.m. and already there was a fairly long line to get into the place, which is what we’d been told to expect prior to visiting Juneau. This must be quite a spot, right?
The line did move fairly quickly and it “only” took about 20 minutes until it was our turn to order. Shari and Bethany are big crab fans, so it was an easy choice for them, though you were supposed to order the crab by the pound – and it was $75 a pound, which would include three or four legs. Plenty for us. I thought beer battered shrimp sounded good, so I got an order and we tried to hear each other above the din of the patrons in the rather smallish but packed-to-the-rafters first-come-first-served dining area.
Tracy’s atmosphere was part of the uniqueness of the experience. Periodically a bell would ring above the din and hazy light of the place, signifying something, and the employees would shout “(something, 
something)”, which wasn’t understandable to this visitor. Was this kind of like going to an Alaska version of a Buck-ee’s truck stop? They do that rhythmic shouting thing too!
We managed to find a table to share with other crab eaters and three stools. It was a warm day by Alaska standards and it was very hot in the restaurant itself. With the noise and the hungry people and the loud classic rock music blaring, the atmosphere was like that you’d find in a… well, touristy crab restaurant in Alaska. We just got some cups for water to drink and the bill was over a hundred bucks for the three of us. But we HAD to go to Tracy’s, right?
Shari and Bethany set off trying to figure out how to crack open the crab leg shells to reach the edible insides. There were a couple tools provided for that purpose, and it took them a minute or two to get it right. No tutorials provided, either. My beer battered shrimp was simpler to conquer, and there was a sauce that looked similar to ketchup to dip it in.
This was quite an experience. Local residents staffed the place and there must’ve been a couple dozen busy with cooking, serving and cleaning after the raucous crowd of visitors. As soon as a table would clear, people would sit there in the cattle car lunchroom environment. I could see where some would get frustrated with this place, because, as I said, it was loud, hot AND expensive.
The food was filling though. We didn’t leave hungry, though I’d imagine heartier appetites may need another crab leg or two to satisfy their cravings. A large part of the experience was just wrangling with the “lunch” catch to find a way to eat them!
After stuffing ourselves at Tracy’s, we went across the main boulevard to a t-shirt store that was, again, packed with people. But the offerings were very reasonably priced, so we got a bunch of stuff for less than a hundred bucks. Finally, a bargain!
And because we found much of what we still sought to purchase from Alaska there, it left time to make a quick visit to our stateroom on Anthem of the Seas, docked across the way from Juneau. The day had become mostly sunny and warm, but would it be just as warm out on the water for the whale watching excursion?
We arrived about 45 minutes before departure time to the appointed place to catch transportation to “Big Mike” and our whale watching adventure. We were told by the opportunistic salesman that the tour would include views of a couple glaciers, including Mendenhall Glacier, so this would be about as close as we’d get to realizing our goal of seeing Alaska’s many glaciers.
We boarded a comfortable van for the twenty-minute ride to the harbor where “Big Mike” awaited to take us to find whales. The ride to the harbor was uneventful except for one portion where a pair of adult bald eagles were perched on street lamps. We’d seen quite a number of eagles in the wild the previous couple days, but we hadn’t realized 
that eagles aren’t the least bit shy. Cars whizzed by as the eagles perched calmly above the road. Quite a sight, for sure.
“Big Mike’s” crew of two greeted us on turning into the parking lot and presented safety information on the excursion. Not knowing what to expect, the passengers listened closely to the instructions. Our guide prefaced everything with “in the very unlikely occurrence of…” and admitted that he’d been on about a thousand such trips and no dangerous situation had ever occurred.
We boated out to the bay where the whales were supposedly located, not realizing we were primarily looking for one whale called “Kelp” who frequented one particular spot. Our guide explained that the best way to find whales was to watch for a whale surfacing and expelling old air through his blow hole, hence the call “Thar she blows!” from a lookout.
Or, simply drive out to the spot and watch for an accumulation of other whale watching boats, which I think is what we ended up doing. Sure enough, about a half hour into the trip a whale was spotted – a dorsal fin and a tail (called a fluke) which indicated the presence of one of the massive creatures below the surface.
We were told it was “Kelp”, who was a 16-year-old male whale definitively identifiable by his fluke. All whale tails are different, like fingerprints. The tour operators apparently know that this is where Kelp hangs out, so they feel safe in offering their 100% guarantee of seeing a whale.
We circled around the area for a while, watching for Kelp to surface every four minutes or so, which he did regularly. It was fascinating watching the whale go about his feeding ritual, which Humpback whales do every year in Alaska. They’re regulars. They spend the winter in Hawaii. Our guide said he heads to Hawaii in the winter to follow the whales.
Though the captain tried positioning the boat as close as practicable – and legal – to the whale, you still couldn’t see much. We didn’t see how big Kelp was, for instance, and the only evidence of his existence were his visible extremities. Fun to watch, for sure – and exciting for a few seconds – but whale watching is more like… “There’s one! See his fins and fluke! That’s what a whale looks like from a hundred yards away!”
After a while, the captain announced that we’d leave the area to search for other whales, so we sped away keeping eyes out for whales surfacing. But the only thing we encountered was an ocean buoy with a collection of seals lounging on top of it in the warm sun. There must not have been any orcas on this day 
either. The guide said they see orcas about 15% of the time.
No additional whales were to be found, which wasn’t too surprising. It was a big patch of ocean, after all. We went back to Kelp’s hangout area and saw him another time or two. According to the crew, Kelp feeds about 20 hours a day, on schools of fish and shrimp. Interesting animals with distinctive behaviors are whales.
One would surmise Humpback whales would be susceptible to attacks from pods of orcas, but because of their size and assortment of rock-hard barnacles on the Humpback flukes, orcas leave them alone lest they be injured or killed trying to prey on a massive whale. An unwritten agreement in the animal kingdom? Who knows.
At the appointed time the captain announced we were headed back to the harbor to conclude our whale watching jaunt on the warm (for Alaska) afternoon. We dressed for cool weather on the water, but could’ve conceivably lived with lighter dress.
We learned a fair amount about whale behavior and even saw a few seals, but whale watching probably wasn’t as fulfilling as would’ve been a trip to Mendenhall Glacier (which was visible in the distance from the whale watching boat “Big Mike”). The crew of two did its best to provide value added, but this was a “take it or leave it” type of proposition.
Just part of the Alaska experience.
Alaska Cruise Reviews:
Alaska Cruise Review Part I – Why cruise to Alaska? Let us count the ways. Bring a calculator
https://www.golfintheusa.com/1448-2/
Alaska Cruise Review Part II — Alaska ports of Call – Sitka is all about wildlife with culture and history thrown-in
https://www.golfintheusa.com/alaska-ports-of-call-sitka-is-all-about-wildlife-with-culture-and-history-thrown-in/
Alaska Cruise Review Part III — Alaska ports of Call – Skagway; Waterfalls, gold miners and a taste of the old west
https://www.golfintheusa.com/alaska-cruise-review-part-iii-alaska-ports-of-call-skagway-waterfalls-gold-miners-and-a-taste-of-the-old-west/