Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt
Welcome to Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt where cousins Christmas and Cara tick off the wild, sometimes ridiculous wishes from the bucket list of the late, great Bonnie—Christmas's mom and Cara's bonus mom. Every episode, we unpack grief and life’s absurdities through belly laughs, bizarre encounters, and the kind of soul-searching that only happens when you're half a bottle deep into questionable wine, munching on crackers and what-the-hell-is-this cheese. It's not just about where we go, but the oddballs we meet, the unbelievable stories we gather, and the existential crises we tackle together. Strap in and hold on —Bonnie's list isn’t going to complete itself, and things are about to get hilariously out of hand!
Dead Mom Scavenger Hunt
If Juneau, Juneau... (Alaska Part 3)
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From floating among glacier ice chunks to soaring down North America's longest zipline, our Alaskan adventure delivered one extraordinary experience after another. The majesty of the Hubbard Glacier left us speechless as we kayaked through what our guide described as "a giant margarita" of floating ice, witnessing the thunderous calving of ice chunks into the crystal-clear waters. Though we missed our kayak excursion in the Indian Islands due to timing confusion, the resulting Zodiac tour took us to breathtaking wilderness areas where we spotted sea lions, otters, and countless seabirds against pristine backdrops.
The adrenaline peak of our journey happened at Icy Straight Point, where we conquered North America's longest zipline – a heart-pounding 5,490-foot ride soaring at 60mph while dangling 1,330 feet above sea level. The emotional release upon landing caught us by surprise; we found ourselves simultaneously laughing and crying, overwhelmed by the beauty and exhilaration of flying above the Alaskan wilderness.
Quaint towns delivered their own magic. In Haines, we discovered the charming Hammer Museum with its passionate docent describing their collection with "craftsmanship out the yang." Juneau captured our hearts with a delightful food tour introducing us to spruce tip products and local delicacies, while teaching us about Tlingit culture, including the fascinating tradition of "shame poles" and the symbolic eagle-raven "lovebirds." But perhaps our most cherished Juneau memory was discovering Deckhand Dave's fish tacos – so incredible we returned three times in one day! Throughout our journey, we experienced what we call "travel magic" – those unplanned moments and serendipitous encounters that transform a trip into something truly special. Come along as we share these unforgettable Alaskan moments and the travel wisdom we gained along the way.
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Welcome back to Dead Mom's Scavenger Hunt. I'm Christmas, I'm Cara, and here we are.
Speaker 2This is Birdie.
Speaker 1We are still on the Alaskan tour. Yep, so we're recapping all of this. I mean, and obviously I think it doesn't even need to be said, if you don't want to hear this, like, skip these episodes.
Speaker 2Absolutely. This is as much for us to just enjoy reliving. Yes, but I am going to put all because we did a great job of photojournalism, putting it on, if we do say so ourselves, if we do say so, except when Kara was taking pictures, because she sucks absolute donkey dick. True, but I am going to put these on our DMSH, instagram, in Instagram highlights which you can find at DMSH pod on Instagram.
Speaker 1Yes, so when we last left off. We left Sitka. We got back on the boat, but I just want to circle back because I did just call the P-Bar.
Speaker 2Oh, the Pioneer Bar, the P-Bar.
Speaker 1Yeah, if you're cool people up there called the P-Bar. Yeah that's how she answered the phone P-Bar. So I called to remind us what the name of the signature shot was. It's been confirmed it is wet pussy it is a wet pussy um.
Speaker 2We saw her make 27 of them like at once and we drank one. One was enough for me. Yeah, there was a.
Speaker 1It kind of tasted like a cosmopolitan I think I had like some guava and some gin, and no, that was cranberry, there's no that wasnopolitan. I think it had like some guava and some gin and some vodka no, that was cranberry.
Speaker 2That wasn't tropical, it was like ocean spray cranberry.
Speaker 1and regret I mean if you go there, you kind of have to do it, though.
Speaker 2Oh, it was fun. I'd do it again. Yeah, anytime I'm there.
Speaker 1So I just learned too they have a signature drink in addition to a signature shot, Because their their signature drink is a turntable.
Speaker 2If you have two turntables and a microphone, is there a?
Speaker 1microphone. Okay, Anyway, we digress On this episode, on this leg of the trip, on this at this juncture in our great adventure. We have left Sitka and we are on the open seas. I think this is where we went from, like kind of the inland area. Oh, when the boat was rocking.
Speaker 2Yeah, we had to get up to the.
Speaker 1Hubbard glacier. So we did spend a bit of time on the open ocean.
Hubbard Glacier Kayaking Experience
Speaker 2Not in the inside passage and because it is a tiny boat, you could feel the rocking, like we were in bed and I was like I'm looking this way and then I wouldn't move and I'd be like and there's kara, and now I'm looking back this way and I'm rolling over and I'm all up in kara's nape and yet it was very safe and cozy absolutely, I, I was, but I was glad I had my dorky uh motion sickness patch just during this point.
Speaker 2This is the only point where it was even a thought in my brain.
Speaker 1I don't get seasick and I never felt seasick, so maybe it wasn't even as bad as we thought it was you felt the rocking though, yeah definitely like it was enough to wake you up. You were like rocking and rolling. It's just a little bit of a weird feeling when you don't have your. We probably didn't have our sea legs yet either, because do you remember. Okay, we'll get there, never mind okay okay, no, I don't remember we were like four or five days, three, four or five days into this, at this point.
Speaker 2Okay. So we were still getting our sea legs. We had a day at sea and you and I chilled and played cards and played Yahtzee and had a grand old time. Yep, there was a party on the Lido deck it's not called that because there's only one deck on this boat but it was fun. They had great singers. Great entertainment music. It was a good time hung out with uh, luke and mike. Oh, michael, I know I shouldn't call mike um and next stop.
Speaker 1I believe it was the next morning we did have so. So, as we alluded to before, there were certain excursions.
Speaker 2We missed our first one. What do you Remember? We were booked on an earlier one and we missed it by like 15 minutes because they say you have to no let me tell this, because you're not, you're fucking it up.
Speaker 1Okay, we did decide I'm going to have a cracker.
Speaker 1We did so. There are a ton of excursions you can do, excursions you can do. We have already discussed in previous episodes of this podcast that certain things we opted out of because we felt like we could do them on our own. In sitka, we went to the fortress of the bear and we did the the raptor center he wanted to call it, like the big bird preserve the raptor percent center and so we felt like we could get to certain places and do more in a shorter period of time and have more freedom. So we did that. But there are certain things that we knew we could not do without an official excursion, one of which was kayaking at the hubbard glacier. Christmas really wanted to kayak at the hubbard glacier. I could have taken it or left it, because it's cold and wet and freezing and fucking cold. It was also gorgeous. So this was when I was like when, when?
Speaker 2are we ever going to be able to do this? Again and it was like kayaking in a giant margarita, because there was big chunks of floating ice everywhere. Kara was afraid that one like a chunk of ice was going to capsize us, because you're in this tiny two-person kayak.
Speaker 1Yes, so there was some confusion as to what time we were supposed to show up in the morning to get fitted and to fit in our dry suit. Dry suit, you got to have a dry suit.
Speaker 2And get out on the water.
Speaker 1Yeah, we showed up like an hour early.
Speaker 2Yes, we did, we were confused.
Speaker 1We did show up an hour early. We were signed up for this. We showed up like an hour early. The guy was finally like you can go and come back, like leave your dry suit here, come back in an hour, whatever. So we come back, we go hover, we hovered glacier kayak.
Speaker 2It's like floating in a, like you just said in a giant margarita not a blended one, but just one with ice cubes ice and and it's absolutely gorgeous freezing cold misting on you the entire. But we also got to see what's it called when a glacier like loses a little bit. You could hear it, you could see it. Yeah, echoes.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, it's like really I forget it's not sloughing, but it's something like that Vamp while I look it up.
Speaker 2Okay, um, it is so beautiful and so blue and the water is so clear. I remembered it, okay.
Speaker 1Calving. Yes, it calves. Yes, the Hubbard Glacier is. Isn't that glacier? The Hubbard Glacier is one of the only glaciers, or maybe the only one in North America right now that's growing right? Isn't that something that sounds familiar? Does that sound right?
Speaker 2It sounds familiar, let's go with that.
Speaker 1Yeah, we're going to go with that. We do know that the Hubbard Glacier is still growing.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Whereas many are receding. Yes, and this one calves all the time, so we can only get so close as a ship. Well, even in our little baby kayaks In a zodiac yeah, in one of the like motorized zodiac, right? Yep, it's called a zodiac In the water is going to take you over because it's fucking cold and you do not want to end up in that water.
Speaker 2No, even with a life vest.
Speaker 1We had to stop in Ketchikan after the initial briefing about this trip and we found out we needed extra warm beanies and we needed to buy some gloves because, the Thank goodness we did. Yeah, then mine got all wet. It didn't really do me much good I did I would have. If I was to go back in time, I would buy waterproof, like rubber gloves is what I would buy.
Speaker 2I'm just imagining you and like the, the rubber thing, rubber like gloves that you use to do dishes.
Speaker 1Next, yeah, next time I take my dog for a walk here in california, where it's 40 degrees and it's not even that cold, I'll send you a picture of what I have to wear to be comfortable. It is so many layers, it's embarrassing.
Speaker 2I believe that.
Speaker 1Anyway, so we did do the, we did do the Hubbard highly recommend the Hubbard Glacier um kayaking it was so fun.
Speaker 2Our, our Zodiac ran out of gas on the way back, Cause they they take you out in a Z zodiac and then you have to like, get into the kayak from the zodiac boat and throwing glitter in the air for the seaborne expedition team. They were so great, so great. They also gave very cool dorky lectures that we attended on indigenous people and birds of the area and nature and they're all really smart and really well informed and they're, you know, scientists and naturalists and boat capt. And they're all really smart and really well informed and they're, you know, scientists and naturalists and boat captains.
Speaker 1They're super smart super informative, like the the hiring the level of hiring prowess at seabourn is top notch hiring prowess I like that term I would take. I would take any of those people to dinner and hats off all these people. Um, so we went on the kayak and you loved it so much you were like we got to do this again tomorrow because the next day stopped with the. Indian islands.
Speaker 2It was the Indian islands. Yeah, yeah I.
Speaker 1I N, I A N. Indian, indian, yeah. So we went from the Hubbard glacier to the Indian islands, and there were again Indian. Yeah. So we went from the Hubbard Glacier to the Indian Islands and there were again excursions that really weren't like you can't catch a cab to do this, no. So we wanted to do the kayaking again. The only option was like a 7 am takeoff. They had a couple spots at 7 am.
Speaker 2Yes, we again fucked up the time. Well, because we had gotten there an hour early before were like, oh, we'll just get there half an hour early which turned out to be half an hour too late.
Zodiac Tour in the Indian Islands
Speaker 1Yes, in at this, so we were super confused. Ended up at the like help desk in the main like lobby area. Uh, guest, guest services crying to guest services because we missed our kayaking trip and that guy. That guy had no time for our bullshit so like listen here, I think he was, I think it was swiss or belgian and he just had, like he was so neutral and had no time for our bullshit.
Speaker 2He was like well, I'm sorry you missed your excursion, I can get you on a zodiac. Well, he wasn't sure.
Speaker 1We ended up getting a call, oh yeah, yeah. Later we went back to the room to drink our coffee and cry about it, um, that we'd missed our opportunity to kayak in the indian islands because we had been told by one of the excursion professionals that's where all the animals are.
Speaker 1We would really see we would really see some animals, yeah, up close. And we were like, okay, we got to do this. We missed our boat. We literally missed the boat. We missed the boat, missed the motherfucking boat. Then we got a call saying we can get you on one of the Zodiac tours.
Speaker 2Yeah, which we hemmed and hawed about a little bit.
Speaker 1Do we want to do this? Because we're like other people in a boat with other people. They suck. They were like 15 minutes, lido, deck go, yeah. And we were like, okay, fine, we're going on the zodiac boat. We didn't have to wear a dry suit, we got to wear whatever, which is where my rain pants came in really fucking handy. And you were like I'm not fucking bringing rain pants I should have brought you when I was wearing my rain pants, because we did get misted on quite a bit, but we were comfortable.
Speaker 2No, it was a heavy mist, but I was I didn't feel like soaked to the bone.
Speaker 1I would absolutely do a Zodiac again tour again. Yeah, Because we did get to go out and see a lot of stuff where they never would have let the kayaks go.
Speaker 2That's a hundred percent true. Yeah, we got, to cause we could have gotten.
Speaker 1Yeah, we were practically on the open ocean at certain points. Yes, we were out there by the last little island before so many so many birds, so many seals, sea lions, otters, otters. All the things, so many things. We saw so many amazing things and it was really fun. And again, the tour guide was so knowledgeable. We learned a ton of stuff. Yeah, highly recommend. So that was day two.
Speaker 2That was our open ocean day.
Speaker 1Yes, A couple more open ocean days.
Speaker 2I think we only had.
Speaker 1we had one at the beginning and one in the middle, which is to say that we were only stuck quote stuck on the boat for limited days. Yes, we were never stuck I never felt like I was trapped a hundred percent.
Speaker 2I didn't either that in to be on. In all honesty, the days that we well, the one day that we had boat day I was like it's kind of nice just to like chill and have a boat day you know I'm down with chilling. I did not always want to I think we both wore sweats that entire day we did remember at the aquarium in vancouver we bought orca socks.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, and when we went out on the kayak we did wear our orca socks we were trying to manifest the orca.
Speaker 2We didn't see the orca, but we failed. We failed, it's all right. It's all right um, yeah.
Speaker 1But then we had another amazing dinner. That was when you got in the fight with the waiter about white chocolate, white chocolate um, because I think we can all agree that white chocolate is not chocolate yeah, we've got some great pictures from both of those trips. And then where did we go?
Speaker 2pains, oh my god I took so many pictures on that zodiac, holy shit we're not going to post all of them, because we all know about kara's photography skills she, I mean some of them are okay a broken clock is right twice a day. Oh wait, is icy point straight next? Uh-huh, oh shit, okay, oh shit y'all here's the deal with icy point straight.
Icy Straight Point Zipline Thrill
Speaker 1Holy shit, fuck. We were so. Remember the back to a few episodes ago, when we were talking about the seattle and the ferris wheel, the big wheel in the sky and my fear of heights, and stuff. Um. So another way we were going to test this was was that the one of? Was that one of the longest zip lines in the world is at Icy Point Strait?
Speaker 2And I do believe, if memory serves, that it is the longest zip line in North America. That sounds right If we're wrong.
Speaker 1Somebody tell us they will, and so we did an excursion to go out there and do that. We wanted to see that. So we I mean I don't know how really to lead up to this we did we did it, but it wasn't a zip line.
Speaker 2I've been on zip lines in Mexico, in Hawaii. We actually have a zip line here in Occidental, like through the Redwoods. This was so much bigger and so much higher. To get to the start of this zip line you take a ski lift basically a gondola yeah, gondola, gondola, did we figure it out?
Speaker 1I call it a gondola, I've heard it both ways I was surprised at how weird you got on the gondola the, the incline that we were okay also.
Speaker 2Here's why I got weird it was before before you get on the gondola.
Speaker 2Right before you get on the gondola, they weigh you. Nobody warned us that they were going to make us. You have to get on a scale. Yeah, we've also been on an all you can eat and drink boat for four days, so we're not at our like, we're not at our. Shove off weight Pounds have arrived in in the time so, and they have to weigh you, I guess, to make sure you're not going to break the damn thing, I guess.
Speaker 2So right before we get into the gondola to go up a very steep incline, I mean, it was almost straight up. It was almost 90 degrees. I'm gonna call that. It was more than if this is 45 degrees you guys can math with me and this is 90, it's got to be like 60 something, 70 degrees. It was fucking tall and straight and if you fall you're gonna die. And they weigh you to make it feel like, oh, if you're, if you're too fat, you're gonna break this goddamn thing and it's gonna fall yes, it was not um, don't weigh me before I get on a ride, get out of here, yeah.
Speaker 2So I wasn't. I wasn't stoked about the gondola especially because it kept stopping.
Speaker 1It stopped. That's when you really freaked out.
Speaker 2And you're just dangling Um. Are you looking at how? How high steepness? Okay, Kara's going to see. If my math is correct, I say there's about a three percent chance that it's correct. Okay, so the zip rider has a 25 percent grade and that's the zip line, the zip rider is what we rode yeah, god damn, that thing was fun um, and it has speeds of 60 miles an hour.
Speaker 1So fun it's 5,490 feet long and 1,330 feet above sea level. So cool, it was really fucking cool.
Speaker 2So we get up to the top of this there. That is that I will say that is your peak videoing of all time are you being facetious?
Speaker 1because I thought that was the best I did on the whole trip. It is.
Speaker 2That's what I'm saying that was peak, that was the best I did. You know, whole trip it is. That's what I'm saying. That was peak, that was the best I did. You know how some people you're like oh, you peaked in high school.
Speaker 1Yeah, like I peaked at icy point straight. Yeah, yeah, icy straight point. Whatever, it's, icy straight point.
Speaker 2I've heard it both ways. I have a Christmas ornament with it written on it.
Speaker 1I'll tell you in November when I put up my Christmas tree. Yeah, so we met a lady while we were waiting for, while we were waiting to go over.
Speaker 2We had to be like escorted off the little gangway. Yeah, before they release you into the wild, they make sure you're not going to just wander off. So, they must have seen it all, and that's where we met Roz.
Speaker 1Yes, roz was a woman that was traveling alone. Yes, and we were inspired by that.
Speaker 2She was traveling alone. She was in Australia. She was in australia, she was in her 70s and she was about to ride the zipline and we were like fuck yeah, roz yeah, and so we went up to the top.
Speaker 1We did the gondola. Christmas braved the gondola, we went up to the top. I braved the being weighed yeah yeah, let's say that yeah got to the top, um decided to grab a beer, and they have a bar up top.
Speaker 2Bar up top because we were like, well, if this is how we go out, we're just going to like go out together.
Speaker 1I was nervous. And so you can see in one of the videos when you're trying to talk about how tall the zip line is and how it's like as tall as the Empire State Building or something like that, and I'm clearly trying to disassociate yeah, you can see you disassociating and then we see Roz come around the corner and I'm like, hey, roz, yeah, I've never laughed so hard in my life. I, looking back now, I think I was trying to tune you out because you were just saying things I didn't want to talk about.
Speaker 2I feel like that's not the first or last time that's gonna happen.
Speaker 1That's fair um, so we hooked up with Roz and then all three of us went down and we hiked down to where you get on the zip rider. Yeah.
Speaker 2And it's not a zip Like I imagine, like growing up we had a real low-rent zip line.
Speaker 1Her Grandpa, my Uncle Bob yeah.
Speaker 2We had a real low-rent zip line that he attached from the top of a not even the top, the midpoint of a windmill down to a chicken coop.
Speaker 1I thought it was a fence or whatever, but it had a mattress. Yeah, Up against the fence or whatever it was.
Speaker 2Yeah you slam into the mattress to stop yourself. Low rent. This was the white trash is strong in me. Y'all the white trash is strong in me. I love it, and this is one where you're not holding on. No, you're sitting in like a seat. You're sitting in like a seat, you're sitting in like a swing, but there's four lines.
Speaker 1Four or six, four or more, I think there are six.
Speaker 2And so you go down everyone in their own lane.
Speaker 1They release you all at the same time.
Speaker 2Yeah and you're each in your individual string, on your individual line, and they can kind of control how fast you go.
Speaker 1There's like ratchets, there's a setting and they can control, like, how fast and how abrupt it is and stuff like that, I think.
Speaker 2Okay, I thought it was just like how, like people who weigh more have more inertia and they go faster.
Speaker 1I don't know, but I think they definitely let me go fast, because I was out way ahead of you and I do weigh more than you probably.
Speaker 2Yeah, but not that much.
Speaker 1No, I was. Yeah, I think they were fucking with me, but jokes on them because I had a great time. Oh, we both had a great time I had so much fun.
Speaker 2I don't know why, when we landed, I was crying.
Speaker 1I was too, but it wasn't great. I was like I don't know why I'm so emotional.
Speaker 2Like it was so therapeutic, it was such a like release.
Speaker 1I was. It had built up in my mind because it's not something I would do here at home, knowing that I was afraid of heights and stuff like that.
Speaker 2Sure or was afraid of heights Was.
Speaker 1You see that you hear that past tense Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. So I was on the zipline when you hear me screaming and laughing.
Speaker 2Oh, that is pure joy, it's joy, it's all joy, and it was absolutely gorgeous, so beautiful, amazing.
Speaker 1I wanted to do it again. And then it stops you and it like jerks you when you stop, it is an abrupt stop. That was hilarious. Then there's a bar at the bottom. Of course we had to get victory drinks. So we went and got victory drinks and then we're like well, I said you probably did not say I said we better get back to the boat, yeah, Kara's very concerned.
Speaker 2If they say we have to be back on the boat by 530, kara's like we have to be back there by five because that boat is shoving off at 531.
Speaker 1You know, they give themselves a buffer Well now we know, but I will never show up late to the boat.
Speaker 2Oh, I hate being late, but I also don't like being too early.
Speaker 1Well, in this case. It was a good thing that we were a little bit conservative about that, because we were on the wrong side of the island. I thought we were right back there by the boat. We were so you know, caught up in the romance of the zipline we were in the.
Speaker 2is there such a thing as zipline afterglow? I?
Speaker 1line we were in the. Is there such a thing as zip line afterglow?
Speaker 2I, there is now we were in it.
Speaker 1We were in a zip line afterglow. Yeah, just admit it, I was being held in the warm embrace of the zip line. I mean, it was, it was and so we leave the bar.
Speaker 1We're like we better get back to the ship. And we go outside and we're like, where's the ship? And then we learned that we have to get on another gondola this one was flatter to like traverse the island to get back over to where the boat is. Um, it didn't take that long. We discovered there was like a whole obstacle outside obstacle course obstacle course for humans.
Speaker 1It was closed at the time but we would. I would go back to if I was, I think I would like to go back to icy straight point at some point and do the zip line again and I would like to do that. Outdoor human obstacle course.
Speaker 2Well, and that is going to be all you're going to do, because there is nothing else there. I don't think there was much else and you can't, you can't drive there, no, you have to either boat in or fly in. Well, even even if you were just live there, you have to. You know, it's an island unto itself. Yeah, it was pretty cool though.
Exploring Haines and Its Hammer Museum
Speaker 1So we got back to the ship. We did make it back on time. Cheers to us, cheers to us. No brag, let's see. Let me get through all these Vamp for a minute while I figure out what we're doing, okay.
Speaker 2I know I keep saying every time like, oh wait, is that when we went to Hanes? Oh, is that when we went to Hanes.
Speaker 1I think now it actually might be when we're going to Hanes.
Speaker 2We're finally in Hanes.
Speaker 1I fucking loved Hanes. This was where we saw the guy sitting on the ground painting the parking lot lines. Yeah, by hand. Yes, by hand with a paintbrush and a bucket.
Speaker 2We thought that is very old school or it was some kind of community service. But he had a van that made it seem like that's just what he did. It was a painting van. He was a painter it was.
Speaker 1It was just really interesting. I think we posted that picture on instagram too we will, we will.
Speaker 2No, we already did. It's no, but I mean on our, on our other one, our one that I'm now posting to, and that's where we found Alaska Rods. Yes, and my dad's name is Rod, uncle Rod.
Speaker 1So we took pictures in front of Alaska Rods and apparently the story is that there's this. There was this guy, this old miner named Rod yeah and he slapped a bear that kept coming into camp.
Speaker 2He punched it in the face. I thought he slapped it either way, did he?
Speaker 1I thought he slapped it, but maybe he punched it. Whatever Anyway he accosted the bear. It never bothered them again. Well, that's where we got the pizza. That's what you do with the bowl. The artisan pizza? Mm-hmm, I wish I had the name of the pizza, but again there's only one pizza place.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's only one. We got great pizza. We had. Well, I had beer in a park. Kara was scared to get busted for drinking in public. Yeah, Because I imagine this is a lot what the Alaskan police do they roll up to middle-aged ladies in parks and be like ma'am, are you drinking a beer with your artisan pizza? What's?
Speaker 1hilarious is that also this was in Haines, which is where everyone kept offering me weed.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, things are loose. Haines is really pretty Loose. In needs Hanes is really pretty.
Speaker 1Beautiful, it was so tiny, you could walk the entire town in like 10 minutes.
Speaker 2Hammer Museum. We went to the Hammer Museum which, as you know, you've met Hammer, if you're on the, if you've been around. If Juno Juno, if Juno Juno, the Museum of Hammers is exactly what you think it is. It is all about the tool.
Speaker 1All the hammers in the world that you could imagine, and some you never could imagine.
Speaker 2Absolutely, and the docent there might be one of my favorite people of all time. He is such a character.
Speaker 1He was so excited about all the hammers and when we walked in there happened to be no one else in there, so he gave us a few minutes of a private tour.
Speaker 2Oh yeah.
Speaker 1Where he explains.
Speaker 2You can see on Instagram where we took a video of him explaining this really cool like hammer that he thinks was actually a gift because it had a secret compartment in the face of the hammer. Yeah, and it had what he described, which is one of my favorite descriptions of all time craftsmanship out the yang, yeah, craftsmanship out the yang he Craftsmanship out the yang.
Speaker 1He was. So funny we loved him. Tip of the hat to the Hammer Museum and it's docent.
Speaker 2Well, and also I got a limited run hat where they maybe it'll be worth something one day, like the stamps that have the plane upside down. They did a run of hats from the Hammer Museum but they spelled Hanes wrong. They spelled it like the underwear, yeah. So I have a hat from the Hammer Museum with a misspelling of the city, which is pretty fun and pretty funny.
Speaker 1So we went to the park. Then we went to the brewery next door, which is probably Hanes Brewery, I'm guessing. Oh, and then we saw this weird restaurant that was called um the chill cat restaurant and bakery oh, that's right.
Speaker 2It had hamburgers and thai food, which also served thai food. I took a picture of the menu was bizarro town yeah, it had like chinese food, thai food it was all items, it was all over the goddamn burgers uh went to the hammer museum oh, port chilcote brewery we were.
Speaker 1That was one of the things that you really wanted to do. We went. I wish we had um spent more time there, because they had more cocktails that I wanted to try great.
Speaker 2I would love to go back to haynes. Oh, and then when we got back on the boat, that was the night we had the fancy pants dinner. Um, we might not have mentioned this about seaborn, but the it's in partnership with a local chef.
Speaker 1We have around my neck of the woods fellow by the name of thomas keller maybe you've heard of him, maybe you've heard of him and they had the grill by thomas keller so we got one night where we got to go eat at this restaurant. That was fabulous and beautiful. I will admit, I was a little drunk by that point of the day.
Speaker 2I think I was too.
Speaker 1I was, I mean, I just remember being like this is bread and butter is so fucking good yeah, I don't really remember the meal I don't either, but I do remember the bread and butter I'm sure it was good, but we had been going kind of hard since haines in the morning.
Speaker 2And we went to the distillery. Yeah, we were distilled down to our pure essence, I was pickled by the time we got to dinner Great steak, nice yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1It was a beautiful environment. It was lovely. We had a lovely little corner booth.
Speaker 2We did. It was so romantic, highly recommend. And then I think the next day is juno, I think we get off the boat. The next day we got off the boat um in juno I believe we did.
Speaker 1What is this picture here? Oh yeah, we took a picture in the hallway of um. If anyone from seabourn does listen to this or you want to like answer a question for us, where in the world do you get the giant?
Speaker 2oh, those lunch bags. Yeah, those are so cool. And what goes in them?
Speaker 1Yeah, there was the last day. And again we had to give up our bags, which I was like. These fucking things better get off the boat.
Speaker 2Hopefully we'll find them. Oh, and I was like is today the day I get my knife back?
Speaker 1Yeah, we still had a big question mark as to whether or not Christmas was going to get her precious knife back. So here we go, we're getting off the boat. We get off the boat in Juneau and you don't.
Speaker 2You don't walk off with your bags, you get off the boat and once you're on the boat, you cannot get back on.
Speaker 1No, and that's right. That was. The only night I got annoyed with you on the trip was the night before we got off the boat because you wanted to go out and party and dance and find our friends. I've blocked this out. So I was hammered and I knew I needed to go to bed. Okay, and we had to. We had to put tags on our bags and put them outside our door, yeah, before we turned in, like by 10 PM or something, and then we just had our backpack, we just had a backpack to get like to have anything like important that we needed, like passports, whatever, whatever.
Speaker 2You know, passports, whatever, whatever you forgot your key.
Speaker 1You didn't have a key and you hadn't dealt with your bags and I wanted to go to bed but I had to wait up because I probably didn't. I mean, the codependent in me waited up is what happened? Because I didn't want. Why didn't I have a key?
Speaker 2You waited up is what happened sure, because I didn't want.
Speaker 1Why didn't I have a key? You forgot it, I don't know you just you fucked up well that track. So you went out partying we do. You didn't have a key, you didn't fucking deal with your bags, and so then, at like the last the 11th hour, while I'm trying to sleep, she's in there banging shit around by the the 11th hour is 12 hours before we're getting off the boat. It was like 10 pm, it wasn't that. It's 12 hours to go're getting off the boat.
Speaker 2It was like 10 pm, it wasn't that late. It's 12 hours to go. I needed to be asleep like way before that. Well, and I will say, you set your bags out that night and you don't see them till you get off the boat and hopefully they're on the dock waiting for you or on the mainland waiting for you, because also, once you depart the boat, you cannot go back on.
Speaker 2Yeah, Like the facial scan is done. Oh, yeah, yeah, they have to do a face scan when you get back on the and you're to make sure there's no interlopers.
Speaker 1You're down you're out, you're out of here, yeah, so um they.
Speaker 2I think we can all tell by the tone of my voice and the merriment that they did give me my knife back.
Speaker 1Your handsome English robe, my handsome. British head of security Handed it to you and said here you go, ma'am. Yep, I've never been so happy to see that knife, but it sounded way sexier than what I just said it did.
Speaker 2I'm not even going to try. It would be, it would.
Speaker 1It would sound Scottish if I tried to do it right now. I think here you go, mom, here you go, it's a disservice to him and his cute accent.
Speaker 2Yeah, okay, sorry sir, sorry, sorry. Nigel his name might have been, I think it might have been. Well, it is now. We walk off the boat. Our bags are there Bags?
Speaker 1are there, we don't have a ride to our B&B that we're staying at, but you had overheard someone talking about the name of the bed and breakfast that we stayed at. Yeah, and you secured us a ride. Yes, but it took like 45 minutes for the guy to get back. He made it sound like it was going to be really fast, but this turned out to be travel magic. Yes, because as we waited for the guy and wondered if we were stranded at the dock, I got a phone call from London, which I thought was really weird. So I cleared it, as one does when they get a weird phone call. But then London called Christmas too and I she was like London calling and I was here to in her infinite wisdom, realized that if London was calling me and then London was calling her, one of us should probably and I was thinking is it Nigel?
Speaker 1London called. So thank God, christmas answered her phone and it was the. It was escaping. No, no, no, it was the guy that we thought we had annoyed so badly with our kayak issues. The boat ship services guy.
Speaker 2Yeah, ship services guy that couldn't care less about our issues. The Belgian or maybe Swiss guy.
Speaker 1He was calling to say, to ask if we had forgotten a set of eyeglasses in our room which we had, which. I had and I am blind as a bat. I'm legally blind. I can't see shit without my contacts. So for me to forget my like, if I lost a contact I would fucking freak out. I wouldn't have, I'd have to have someone drive me, I think.
Speaker 2If I luckily we weren't driving but also I was really happy that.
Speaker 1I didn't. That would have been a sad scene because we had to wait. The gentleman from the boat was able to run down to the off-boarding area where I ran to meet him and he handed off my glasses to me that I had forgotten. That is travel magic right there. So I got my glasses and we continued upon our way. Mr Driver man did show up again. He did. I think his name was Ben.
Speaker 1Maybe I know Ben winters in texas and then spends summers in alaska yes, I believe his name was ben and he was starting a like taxi company in juno, because there was really no one to do it. There's not a lot of them, yeah so that was his plan and he was very cool. He took us to the bed and breakfast, we dropped our bags off and we walked, and then he dropped us downtown and we walked around everywhere. That's where we discovered Deckhand Dave's Tacos.
Speaker 2So fucking good.
Speaker 1And we had. Was it that day that we had the tour, the tour? I think it was.
Speaker 2Probably because then we went to Deckhand Dave's like every single day.
Speaker 1Yeah, so we had a little bit of time to kill before we went on this walking food tour, A walking food tour which I recommend, anywhere you travel in the world, anywhere you go, if you can do a walking food tour, do that.
Speaker 2Juno was the only place in our little stops that we were at that happened to have one that we're aware of. I looked, I looked, but maybe there, maybe I didn't look hard enough, but juno is also you know, it's a capital city. It is.
Speaker 1It is a big deal, yeah so we did this, we had signed up for this walking food tour and, um, again, the link, the, the address that they had emailed me, um, we were headed that direction and we kind of thought it was a little off the beaten path, which seemed kind of strange, but was a little off the beaten path, which seemed kind of strange. But we walked out there. We walked like half an hour to get to this location and we finally got there like 10 minutes before it was supposed to start and it was clearly not where we needed to be.
Speaker 2There's not a soul in sight.
Speaker 1You kept calling we couldn't get ahold of. Finally you got ahold of somebody and they're like oh yeah, the email has the wrong address in it. You need to go over to basically the pier where we got off the boat, like where we were where we had been.
Speaker 2Yes, Initially we just dropped our bags and had been drop us back where it was. But where Ben dropped us it was yeah, yeah, we would have been fine. Yeah, so we had another.
Speaker 1We ran, we basically ran, you got a hold of the actual tour lady, yeah, and you were like we're coming, wait for us. And so we ran through Juneau back to the port where we got connected with this and this was some travel magic too, because we met up with the food tour. She was like no, it's cool, we'll wait for you. We were only like 10 minutes late Cause we were like we ran we show up huffing. We were sweating in Juneau, which was not warm.
Speaker 1No, and it was this beautiful young woman who was hosting the tour, yeah, and three other women, and that was it. And she, the hosts, actually said she was like is this is everybody? Oh my God, this is the first time I've ever had just ladies on the walking tour, and one that's small, so we felt very, very special. Yeah, and it turned out to be two sisters, oh, that's right. And their mom and their mom, and their mom Was had just been diagnosed with Parkinson's.
Speaker 1And they were doing a bucket list trip together, yeah, so that was very fortuitous. Kind of like kismet type situation. I kind of forgot about that. That was really cool. We we follow them on instagram. I don't see them. Maybe they don't post very often, but they were also very like, kind of like politically the same way that we are, and one of them was a therapist right the mom was a therapist, just like bonnie was.
Speaker 1Yeah the mom was a therapist, a retired therapist, yeah, and one of the daughters worked for planned parenthood or something like they both were in, like advocacy and male reproductive rights. Yeah, they were both very like, aligned with how we would like to see the world be.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was very cool.
Speaker 1So we went on this walking food tour 100% highly recommend we all.
Speaker 2We both bought way too much stuff that so much, so we had shipped home yeah, um, yeah, so much seaweed themed pickles they eat a lot of seaweed, yeah salsas uh, spruce tips, spruce tip.
Speaker 1I still have to put the spruce tip um syrup on ice cream. Oh, I bought a little jar of, or a little bottle of, the spruce tip syrup that I'm supposed to put on ice cream. Remember the guy the tour guide said her favorite spruce tip ice cream they don't make anymore in town but that if you put the syrup on vanilla ice cream it's like a close second.
Speaker 2I did use the spruce tip salt to salt rim a cocktail not that long ago.
Speaker 1Okay, I didn't know you bought that.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, so do that Also, she told us the legend of the lovebirds oh, yeah, which, oh? And that's where we saw our first shame pole on that tour oh, yeah, we had okay so in on the zodiac tour in the in the indian islands is where we learned about what a shame pole is, yes, and how there are only like three of them, still, still in existence about yeah, because if you, if you pay your dues, do your due diligence, they will take down the shame pole yeah, it's a native tradition that you can they.
Speaker 1They'll erect a shame pole in honor of some.
Speaker 2Yeah basically, if you dishonor, yeah, basically if you fuck up, if you like, say you're gonna pay someone and then you don't, they it's, it is a totem pole. But is a totem pole of shame and shows you basically being a shitbag. Yep, and there are only like but once you pay your debt or whatever it is, once you've righted your wrong, they will take down the shame pole.
Speaker 1Yep, yep. And there are only a handful in existence, like three, I think.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And we got to see one of them in Juneau and it was funny because we knew exactly what it was. We were Juno and it was funny because we we knew exactly what it was. We were like, oh my god, a shame pole. She was showing us this pole and kind of like this totem, and telling us the story and we're like, wait a minute, is this a shame pole? And it turned out it's the shame pole for the Exxon mobile guy. Fuck that guy. Yeah, so that was pretty exciting and she.
Speaker 2I felt cool because she was like oh my god, you guys know what a shame pole is.
Speaker 1She was like nobody ever knows what a shame pole is. And we're like, well, we're on the seaborne adventure, we're very learned women if Juno Juno yeah, we also trademark.
Speaker 2We didn't see anywhere any swag, anything anywhere. That said, if Juno Juno, which is a real missed opportunity.
Speaker 1I'm not a marketing genius, I mean, but hopefully, by the time this airs, we might have like a t-shirt you can buy that says if Juno, juno because I would wear that.
Speaker 2I would wear it too, and I will take credit for it. If I see it anywhere else, I will. That was us. That was us.
Speaker 1Absolutely it. If I see it anywhere else, I will. That was us. That was us, absolutely. Yep, yeah. So we went on the walking food tour, had some amazing stuff, learned about the lovebirds, learned about the lovebirds so you got a little bit obsessed with the lovebirds, yeah in uh Tlingit lore, which is the one of the indigenous tribes of Alaska and the one that was in the area that we were mainly in.
Speaker 2there were basically two not clans, that's our people Like. I forget what they two tribes two, two factions.
Speaker 2I don't know Two different families yeah, families and one is a Eagle, bald Eagle, and one is a Raven. And I have a very soft spot for ravens. I've had pet ravens who were not. They were injured, they couldn't be out in the wild. Kara sends me raven stuff all the time and it's also very smart evolutionarily, because if you were a raven you had to marry someone in the from the Eagle family and vice versa, and they both have their specific attributes, like one is loyalty, one is intelligence, one is, you know, love, one is valor, and they say that together the Eagle and the Raven are a perfect union and they call them the lovebirds. So there was really cool art and jewelry depicting one eagle and one raven.
Speaker 1That's how we heard about the kindred post, which is the store that we recommended, I think, in the very first episode of this, but oh, that's right, our tour guide was wearing cool lovebird earrings. She had these cool like um resin like baccalate almost I don't know what that means, but they were cool and they were the lovebirds. It was one eagle and one raven which, kind of like at a distance, look similar but they're not.
Speaker 1They're different and they were very cool airing Very cool, she said I think I got these at Kindred Post. Yeah, go check it out. So we went immediately over to Kindred Post and shopped there while we waited for Deckhand Dave's to open so we could get our fish tacos. Yes, and they were fucking good.
Speaker 2So good yeah.
Speaker 1We got a margarita and some fish tacos. That first trip. I think we went there three times in one day. Yeah, like it wasn't just the one, because we were only in Juneau for two days, but I think it was three times in one day. We went there and got fish tacos.
Speaker 2I believe that, like I said before, I think about those tacos once a week easily. Yeah, I think about those fish tacos more than I should.
Speaker 1Yep, I do as well. It's not right, but it is what it is.
Speaker 2We also went to a Michelin star restaurant in Juneau that is a crazy good wood-fired pizza place that was our last meal in Juneau.
Speaker 1That is a crazy good wood-fired pizza place. That was our last meal in Juneau.
Speaker 2Yeah, cafe Lupo, something Lupo, something about a wolf. That sounds right, so good, really talented pizzaiolos, the dough perfect.
Speaker 1I think we got like a tomato and we got a caprese salad.
Speaker 2We got a margarita pizza, because I judge a pizza place by their authentic margarita fair. It was so good. The crust was blistery with beautiful bubbles we got to sit at the bar but don't. Yeah, we're total bar dwellers. Anytime we go to a restaurant, we prefer to sit at the bar. You're gonna get the best service. Your server slash bartender has eyes on you constantly. It's so fun to talk to the locals.
Speaker 1That place was so good that was, and it was fun to watch them like work back there.
Speaker 2You could kind of see the yeah, the bar overlooked the kitchen and that sexy ass. Uh, pizza oven, a brick.
Speaker 1I thought you were gonna say sexy ass pizza oven guy, because you were like we had a long discussion that night about how he was managing the heat over there Because he had like a beanie on and long sleeves and shit and we were like what is this guy?
Speaker 2He was not sweating. No, he was, and he was standing in front of a brick pizza oven, yeah, and he was doing things with the dough with his hands, like doing things with the dough with his hands. Like I can't, I can't toss a pizza. Get your head out of the gutter. I I'm thinking about the pizza more than anything, honestly, but I can't toss a dough like that. I wish I could the stretch.
Speaker 1Stop you, stop you, stop it we did have some really good pizza on this trip. I mean when I think alaska, I don't think pizza, but I will.
Speaker 2I do now I think fish tacos first and foremost, obviously, yeah, yeah, fish tacos. The halibut, oh my god. We had some of the best halibut, just for the halibut that's on a t-shirt for sure, and we were smart not to toot our own horn. But we were smart, but a lot of people got off the boat and then flew home and we took a couple days in Juneau and explored.
Speaker 1So did Luke and Michael. Yeah had a blast Yep. We'd occasionally see a blue seaborne jacket.
Speaker 2We would and we clocked it. Yeah, we clocked it.
Speaker 1We're like oh, there they are, I'm glad we did that because I wanted to kind of like, to kind of like decompress yeah, and that's where the sea legs thing comes in, because after the week on the boat oh yeah, you felt it. I really feel it. I kept feeling like every once in a while, my whole world was.
Speaker 1It lasted for like three days I didn't have that everyone's because of my my dorky motion sickness patch probably yeah, probably because everyone I started to wonder like is something wrong with me? Because every once in a while it felt like the world was kind of like shifting underneath me and moving around. Yeah, just out of nowhere huh.
Speaker 2Um, then we flew from Juneau back to Seattle, spent one night in Seattle at, I think we stayed at the Fairmont. The Fairmont, um, gorgeous, great, had a lovely time. Amazing. Where did we eat that night, do you remember?
Speaker 1we went to thai food oh, we walked to thai food.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, my friend kainoa told us about a great thai food place and he was throwing glitter and confetti in the air for kainoa um yeah, we walked up.
Speaker 2He's one of those that if you ever need to know where to eat. He's your man. And yeah, oh, and the room they put us in was so nice. They gave us a beautiful room with two queen beds. But I got to say we were both kind of laying in bed after you know, sharing a bed for 10 days. We were both kind of like I miss you over there, I miss you over there too, you over there too. Hello, hello, all right. Well, hello into the void. I guess we'll see in the morning. The beds were literally three.
Speaker 1We did crawl in the same bed at one point with our wine and chocolate and yeah, and watch all of our adventures back, yeah, on instagram.
Speaker 2Yeah, so that was pretty fun, yeah and then cara got in her plane and flew to the Sacramento airport and I got in my plane and flew to the Sonoma County airport and, um, and we and that's Alaska guys we said goodbye and headed out. Yeah, yeah. So and then called each other when we got home safe. My drive from the airport was like less than 20 minutes.
Speaker 1Mine's only like 25. Sacramento to Auburn is only like 25 minutes, yeah, so it wasn't that bad, yeah, but yeah, that was. I mean, all in all, we had some amazing, like amazing coincidences, like travel magic and things that just line up the travel magic is when you don't plan for things and they just happen.
Speaker 2And sometimes you think it's a bad thing that happens, but then something else happens and you realize that it was the best possible thing that could happen. Yeah, Like us waiting so long for the ride to the that you got your glasses, I got my glasses. Yeah, cause that would have sucked. Or that we just happened to walk into that one dive bar where the lady was obsessed with Dolly's house and told us all about it. Yep, we had a lot of travel magic.
Speaker 1So I guess the moral of the story is you never know.
Speaker 2And leave room for travel magic. Don't plan every hour of your day. Yeah, leave room for travel magic to happen. Stay loose, stay loose.
Speaker 1Yeah, room for travel, magic stay loose, stay loose, stay loose.
Speaker 2Yeah, find a dive bar, ask that bartender. But also, don't miss the boat. Don't miss the boat, yeah, that's good advice. And if you're gonna miss a boat, have it be just your kayak and not your ship it's okay to miss the kayak, but don't miss the boat, don't miss the ship, yeah yeah well, I guess on that note we'll wrap up the highlights of alaska.
Wrapping Up and Travel Lessons Learned
Speaker 1Visit us on instagram at dmsh pod or see all the highlights. Email us at dmshpod, at gmailcom, or check the show notes for any relevant links to places that you might want to check out. I do want to link to the Kindred post because I think they do have an online store that you can check stuff out.
Speaker 2They do. I have looked at their online store. They have great stationery, they have great jewelry. They have great little gifts.
Speaker 1We're still waiting for them to come out with a sticker that says if Juno Juno, which we might end up beating them too, We'll see.
Speaker 2You know what? They haven't done it by now. We gave them first dibs and they didn't take that and run with it. So challenge accepted, challenge accepted. Did people ask you I meant to, I meant to ask you about this Did people ask you when you got home, like how did you guys travel together, do you guys? Did you guys travel?
Speaker 1People were worried about if we were going to get along Okay.
Speaker 2Me too.
Speaker 1If, like, we were going to get along okay, me too.
Speaker 2If, like, we were going to have conflict along the way or whatever I was not worried, even a little bit, and you were annoyed with me once when I wasn't in the room which I also took with a grain of salt, because I know that I once I hit the wall. Yeah, I am a kind of an asshole oh, you were not an asshole to me in my head I'm an asshole, I like I'm going to go say goodbye last night with our friends.
Speaker 1I'm aware that people like to stay up later than 8 pm, and I'm not one of them.
Speaker 2So I was trying to be like, not always, but on vacation, on vacation. I will stay up later.
Speaker 1I'm an old grandma sometimes.
Speaker 2Yeah, I didn't get once.
Speaker 1I mean you're welcome, but I when we got back, I was like oh, my God, we travel so easy. It was really easy. Yeah, it was really easy and it was um. It was fun and exciting and um highly recommend traveling with someone you love and enjoy.
Speaker 2Yeah, and travel with someone that, uh, you get along with really well.
Speaker 1Yeah, I will say it's helpful that we both are early risers. Yeah, and we like to crawl into bed and put our earplugs in and go to sleep.
Speaker 2Yes, like we also care about kind of the same things, like good food, being chill, flexibility, flexibility, like I think our temperaments are pretty similar.
Speaker 1Yes, I don't like to be locked into a plan.
Speaker 2No, but.
Speaker 1But I also don't want to miss the boat.
Speaker 2Right, and if there's something we you know wanted to do, like zipline, we're going to be locked into zipline or we're going to be locked into Raptor Center. I think that was key that we agreed on what we wanted to be locked into ahead of time and that we were both pretty flexible. I think we each only picked like two things and there was overlap within those two things. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1So that's it for the Alaska trip. All right, call at us. Let us know what you think of how we're doing, if we sounds okay, you know, like all that nonsense.
Speaker 2Are you guys amazed at how much my dog can sleep? We've been, we've recorded multiple episodes today.
Speaker 1We're batching because I'm in Santa Rosa visiting and, uh, my dog has been asleep the entire time. My butt's asleep, my legs are asleep. It's time to start moving around all right, love you guys.
Speaker 2Bye.
