Troop 248 Alaskan Adventure Update: Day Eight

(Editor's note: The following is from Scoutmaster David Matzen, whose troop is on a 10-day excursion in Alaska)

A great day in Juneau.

No Rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
We are staying at the University Of Alaska campus, a wonderful room overlooking Auke Lake. A million-dollar view room and no cost — what a deal!
 
Took a cab to the airport, picked up our four rental cars, paying the "winter rates," so one car is free. Thank you to Ms. Budget Rental Car Counter Lady.
 
Off we went to Downtown Juneau for some looking around and shopping. I spent most of my time chatting with a local police officer to get some good ideas for dinner and other fun and new things to see in Juneau.
 
He directed me to take the Scouts to the Fisherman's Memorial, a curved wall that you stand in the middle of and it echoes. If you whisper at one end, your voice carries around the wall to the person on the other side, who hears everything very clearly — a really neat thing.
 
We then boarded the Mount Roberts Tran to go up almost 1,800 vertical feet to the side of Mount Roberts. We were fogged in most of the day, but spaces of clearing came around for some awesome views looking down at Juneau and the channel. We were served a hamburger, fries and pop lunch, all courtesy of the crew and owners of Mount Roberts. A few walking trails go around the top for some more awesome views.

Down the gondola to the grounds and we were met by our driver to take us to Lake Mendenhall to be fitted with rain pants, boots and life vest for our next adventure...river rafting down the Mendenhall River!!
 
The scouts all got onto one raft, the adults the other (I thought the adults one had the open bar, but I was wrong). A short safety briefing by our guide..."Don't fall in the water, it is VERY cold" is about all I heard.

 
A nice rafting trip around the lake, all gray water from the silt from the Mendenhall Glacier, then down the rapids of the Mendenhall River.  A few nice bumps, a few very cold sprays of water and off we went for 90 minutes of rafting. There were some nice Class 2 & 3 rapids, nothing too bad, but fun enough for us all. All I heard from the Scout's raft was laughing and cheering.  (Too bad these boys are not having any fun).
 
We landed out rafts near the mouth of the river, had some crackers, cheese, salmon spread and reindeer sausage, and back onto the bus to downtown Juneau.

We drove back to the college, grabbed some fast showers and went to the Nugget Mall for a late dinner at a nice family style place called "Broilers", and back to the college for bed.
 
Another fun-filled day, only one more full day up here in Alaska. Three of us are going to go run a half-marathon in the morning, then we all will be hiking off to the Mendenhall Glacier, spend some time downtown to do some last-minute shopping and sightseeing and have a final nice dinner, to celebrate our last day up here.