Feast of St. Yakov (Netsvetov)
As we ate breakfast before disembarking in Juneau this morning, an eagle swooped by, outside the dining room on the Columbia. It was one of several of these great raptors we have seen. The locals are rather non-plussed in comparison to those like me, saying: “Look at the eagle! Look at the eagle!”
Our trip from Ketchikan to Juneau took about 15-16 hours and ran through the Wrangell Narrows, which made our Inside Passage route all the more spectacular. The Narrows are so-named because they are so narrow! The ferry is able to take this route. Cruise ships are not. One can sit in the front viewing lounge and see both banks easily on this 22-mile journey. Eagles, bear and moose are often viewed, though we just saw the eagles last evening.
Juneau, Alaska’s capital since 1912, has a population of only 31,000 and has the distinction of not being connected by highway to the rest of the state. The only way in or out is by boat or air. When the cruise ships started docking around 11 a.m., the capital city started waking up too. Before then, it seemed like there were only a few in town besides Matushka and me.
One of the principal sites in Juneau, besides the Capitol building, is St. Nicholas Church, which sits about two or three blocks away from it. It is the oldest original Orthodox church still standing in Alaska and dates to 1893. There we met Fr. Killian, a professed monk, who will be finishing studies at St. Vladimir’s Seminary this fall. He is serving this summer by running the church bookstore and conducting tours of the church.
St. Nicholas is a wooden structure, built in a style reminiscent of the tent-style belfries of many Russian churches; and thus, it is an octagon. The smell of incense lingered from a celebration of liturgy earlier this morning in commemoration of St. Jakov’s feast day. We were able to pray a while there. This felt so good since we had not had liturgy the day before.
We left St. Nicholas and headed right for the Postal Service Office to ship home the treasures we had purchased from the church’s own lavka.
Afterwards, we soon made our way to the Capitol building. It had served as the Federal and Territorial Building and Courthouse before statehood. Built in 1931, it is as unassuming as is the rest of Juneau. (What is spectacular about Juneau, besides St. Nicholas, is its physical setting, backed by Mount Juneau, surrounded by evergreens, narrow cascades descending the steep mountainsides, all overlooking the Gastineau Channel.)
Since leaving Seattle, we have been going progressively northward, by a tad northwest at times. It means that we are now above the 58th parallel in Juneau, and days have gotten longer and longer, again. It is past 23:00 (11 p.m.) and it is about dusk. Seoul, being south of the 38th (37° 34′ 08″ N), was seeing darkness fall before 20:30 (8:30 p.m.). (By comparison, Yakutsk is 62° 02′ N; Vladivostok, 43° 08′ N; and State College, 40° 47′ 49″ N.)
Tomorrow, we head for nearby Mount Roberts by tram, and then the Mendenhall Glacier. We caught a road’s eye view of the latter today. On Wednesday, we’ll take a day ferry, the Fairweather, to Sitka.
From anastasia:
i love you.