I play by college rules. It’s not tomorrow until I wake up, so let’s begin on…
Friday
I usually get up, use the bathroom, take pil and get in the shower. I have Hashimoto’s disease, so I have to take a pill so my thyroid can perform normally. Well, go for my pills and…go for my pills and…go for my pills…huh? I forgot to pack them and deodorant. The Deodorant isn’t a big deal, but the pills…I don’t know. I only found out about this in the fall (I think lived with it most of my life) and the first time off em. ADVENTURE!
I use the bathroom and flushing took a lot of trial and error. Also, surprisingly for how the rest of the place looks, the shower head was brand new. I showered and decided to walk a block to the FoodLand Gorgery story.
The Motel is right next to a little dinner. I look in and see some people I meet and chatted with last night. Their table looks full and deodorant, I keep walking, but my thought is, I’ll check it on the way back.
Foodland seems like a fake store in a movie or something, but pretty nice. I’ll write more later, built into it there was an Ace Hardware. Inside the Ace, old spice. Walking outside, it’s slightly overcast and wet. There are Crows everywhere. You look around and birds, birds. It hit me later, I don’t think I have ever seen this many birds before. I’m not worried or anything, just more of a huh…that’s interesting. Let’s go get breakfast.
The Sandpiper Cafe, I walk in and look around. I see two people and they ask if I’m at camp. I say Yep and joined them. They were Oliva Li and LJ Baptiste. We get to chat and just enjoy the company. We had an extra seat and Haley Boros joins us. It feels odd, I’m closer to 40 than a child, but haven’t sat down with new people and almost become friends in an instant. I order some food, it was close to 20 bucks. Not shocked, but more than I wanted to spend. Order, chat, and the plat comes out.
This thing is huge?! I am used to Atlanta that’s the price and half the food. I wouldn’t call it a bit, but my dad and I always get excited when there are real hashbrowns. Not potatoes called hashbrowns. It is extremely tasted and we are joined by another artist, Kat Klockow. Who informs about the local graveyard…I got no plans.
GRAVEYARD
A good group of like twenty artists are walking there. Some have been before, but a lot it’s their first time. Let me talk about this part of Juneau for a moment. This isn’t near the tourist area, more of the local. You got a mix of some new builders, but a lot built like in the 50s? I didn’t get a shot of either, there are these old-school government builds. I called one “Generic Goverment building 5.” Mountains anywhere you look, but not the whooo side of town.
Now, how does Juneau have mountains everywhere? Glaciers formed and melt. When they melt, there is water. Last time, I posted an image with a little white line coming from the top. I thought it was snow, it was moving water. Around and through the town, there are areas for water to move. It’s not deep, but a ton of water moving none stop. It’s kind of crazy since you hear the running water randomly when walking throughout the town.
We walk by a school, now I’m taller than most. I notice an old stone, then another. I think this is the graveyard. Turns out it was.
Things I didn’t realize going up to Alaska, it’s more of a rainforest than anything. Since it gets so much water for most of the year, which caused things like graves fall into the earth. It is always interesting to see a graveyard, it’s a snapshot of the past, but shows how things are currently. It’s clear this hasn’t been well kept and you can see who had cash at what time. I’ll post more at the top, it was fun to look at moss, old graves, and ravens.
This was interesting, these all had covers, pull ’em out and boom a vace. Never knew this. I love that texture, seems like a fun one to ink with. Well at this point, half of us had to start heading back to the school visits. Will explain later. We were off again.
Neighborhood
The group ended up splitting up. New people wanted to look at things like water and whatnot. The issue, we ended up roaming the neighborhood since we took a couple of wrong turns. It was fun seeing more of Juneau, and also seeing how much water follows from the top. Also, like in Savannah you have some insane steps that take you to a lower section. Enjoy the photos.
We went to this nice cafe and hung out a bit more. Saw more campers and enjoy a local dry place to sit. It’s insane how many bars and cafes there are in this town, like everyone corner has two it feels. I forgot the name of this place, I didn’t get anything since full from breakfast. At this point, we were walking back so people could catch school visits. I decided to peel from the group and head to Foodland. Get lunch and some food for tomorrow’s con.
Okay, School visits. The camp is bringing like 60-odd artists up to this town of 30k. Pat and Aaron arrange for the artist to come to visit the schools. I don’t know because I was off the waiting list or my material, but no visits for me. Each artist got a different grade and would do like a thirty-minute presentation. Two things I knew, The School is called Thunder Mountain (METAL) and I had the afternoon.
Foodland was a nice local grocery store. I should have taken more photos, crazy to see brands have different flavors and products. The reason to bring ’em up is one got a Land O Lake Hot coco (the butter company). The reason is the hot bar. It had fried chicken, corn dogs, and the usual Middle American food. Then they had a strong Asian section. Curries, and I forget the rest, but it was a clear reminder…oh yeah Asia is not too far from here. Not close, but closer. I thought it was cool.
AFTERNOON!
Before coming, we had a work event at the office. It was fun, but this is now day three of walking over 8 miles a day. Yesterday was in boots to cut down on weight, my feet were dog-tired. That said, I was in JUNEAU. Strap up the boots and hit downtown.
After like a ten-minute walk I hit downtown. Downtown is interesting, up the hill locals, down the hill, and near the bay tourist. I had a couple of goals, but on top of them Alaska Robotics. I didn’t get a shot of the shop, it is small. I was disappointed by the size, then I started looking. Banger, Banger, Banger…damn that’s good, BANGER! They packed every inch of that with some amazing series, art supplies, and board games. I was told later, they are about to move to a much larger spot. I am curious to see how it looks in the future. I got the first volume of Barefoot Gen…you know…since life isn’t hard enough haha.
I got my book, I decided to let my nose wander a bit. I smelled some fish tacos, I remember everyone complaining that the Ravens would eat ’em. I thought, eh it’s vacation. Let’s check it out. I ran into Cat Farris and Marry Shyne about to order. I decided to join ’em. They filled me in on what was happening tonight, including Chilli at a house. Realizing I didn’t have to pay for dinner, I got a drink. A local Cider for $8 bucks. Half what I’m used to and once again twice as much. Cat and I went to a local smoker down in the tourist section. It was insane how many jewelry shops and typical tourist spots there are. I learned from one of the locals, those jewelry shops are shady. They overcharge for junk, standard. Here where it gets dirty, they will stay in business for like 4 months, file for bankruptcy, and close shop. They then will change the name and reopen next year. Doing this, they don’t pay anything to the community. I was happy to leave this section. I did find this cool sticker and a wooden postcard for one of Cat’s patrons.
Cat then took me to Amalga Distillery (Not my photo, but a place you need to go to). This place is amazing, they mainly do gin, but their true goal is whiskey. Mix drinks are $6-$10 bucks. Tasty and highly recommend them. They donated X amount to the camp, and a lot of companies did. Had a drink with Cat and waited for Garry Tyrrell. While they were getting a refile, we found more campers and chatted for a bit. It’s crazy how quickly and great these conversations were. I feel like the conversation is something that gets overlooked nowadays. An amazing, in-depth one is something that can have the soul flying.
The day was winding down and we decided time to head to the library. What does this mean, no idea…just following the flow. I did learn a big building with some great indigenous art was the museum for the local tribe known as the Tlingit. I didn’t get to learn much, but that is one I want to do. Always love the look and style. Okay, nighttime!
Friday Night
Like the school visit, the idea was to bring artists and let ’em do a small presentation on well, whatever they want haha. We had one that was on different kinds of molds and fungus. Another one talked about how Mine Craft can be used to tell an in-depth emotional story. Where the Urban myth of Bloody Marry started, why clowns are fun. Rounding it out to two of the artist sharing their comic. It was fun to learn some of the wildest facts and rest my feet! It was fun.
We then piled into the Chilli. I got into a car and had a debate about…what is a desert. At the time, just a local and two Canadians. I learned later the local has the cutest dog and the two Canadians were kind of big in comics haha. That is what was fun about this, I had no idea who most people are. Crazy coming back and learning how talented almost everyone is. All those bangers at the shop? A good number are campers. I didn’t feel imposter syndrome learning this, moreover, I wanted to see more people’s work. I wanted to learn what answers they have to questions I have. I was hungry.
Chilli time, we stop a very modern home. I say that since most look like they came from the 60s. It was three stories and the party was going. A local couple not only cooks enough food for an army, Vegan Chilli and Meat chili. I’m talking like one pot could feed thirty people. Amazing Cornbread, I live in the south so that means a lot. The drinks? They had beer and Glacier water carbonated (cleaned of course), but then Amalga Distillery canned drinks! OH man, between the food, company, and drinks. It was a perfect night. They had a lovely home and still shocked they open it to so many strangers. The husband was also one of the campers. Sadly, I didn’t get to go on his “This where I had sex in Juneau tour”, but maybe next time haha.
We are talking and one of the campers who have done it for a while was talking to the new campers. They let us know that everyone will feel imposter syndrome. At which point I went, “OH no. I know I belong here, my check cleared.” Got a good laugh.
I am dog tired, I am done. I am so tired, I don’t want to get up since I’m so tired. Around 11:30 (3 am to my body) I follow a group of people back to the hotel. I have no idea where we are, turns out…ten minutes walking distance. It’s crazy how small downtown is. Thirty minutes, you can walk all of it. I spent an hour just zoned out to Rick and Morty. I then fall asleep and end day one of Juneau.
Here was the plan, do Friday and Saturday in one post…BUT THIS IS LONG. So next time, con and the camp. Thanks, y’all!
-Greathouse
P.S. I didn’t get to cover all the amazing people there. There are so many amazing talents. Just too many to name. Everyone I included is worth following!