We arrived in Juneau by ferry at 5:30 am., after a 4 and 1/2 hour ferry ride from Haines. The ferry docked at the Auke Bay Terminal, about 14 miles north of town. 
There are about 45 miles of road, 40 miles north and 6 miles south. It's hard to remember that Juneau is not on an island, but is only accessible by boat or plane due to the surrounding icefields and mountains. To make things even more confusing there is an island off of Juneau accessible by bridge known as Douglas Island. This is Alaska's third largest city (28,000) and is the state's capital as well. However someone told us for several years now most of the legislation process takes place in ????????. The Tlingit Indians were the first visitors to this area, fishing along the Gastineau Channel. In fact it was the Tlingits who helped the white men discover gold in this area in 1880. At one time three hard-rock mines were in operation, two on the mainland, the Alaska-Jueau and the Alaska-Gastineau, and one on Douglas Island, the Treadwell Gold Mining Company.
We started driving north from the ferry terminal stopping at mile 16 (2 miles north of the ferry terminal) at the Auke Village Campground. This was a small campground with 11 sites, some by the beach. It was pretty full. We drove on to Lina Beach. We saw something jump out of the water about six times. Probably a fish. This became a common occurance during the trip, but the first few times was a big deal. 
We stopped at the Shrine of St. Theresa at mile 23. There was a large parking area and retreat center. The actual shrine was about a quarter mile walk on to an island with a land bridge. Here was a church made of stone in the middle of the woods. It was larger than we expected from reading about it. All around the church were 12 statues and plagues depicting various moments in the life of Jesus. On the way back to the parking lot we found a pay phone to call home from. It seemed like an odd place to find a pay phone. Looking back at the island from the highway, the church wasn's even visible through the small forest. From here we drove all the way to the end of the road at mile 40 at Echo Cove. There was a nice little inlet here with a boat launch. You could probably pitch a tent here. On the drive back just a mile or so we stopped at Point Bridget State Park. There was a trail to some cabins and the beach. A sign noted the milage to three cabins and the beach was between 2 and 4 miles. We hiked along a narrow boardwalk through a lush rainforest. After about an hour and a half we decided to turn around. We figured we had about another half mile to go to the first cabin.
We started back into town stopping at the Mendenhall Campground at mile 9. We were disappointed to find out it was closed due to construction. 
It's a large campground (60+ sites) and the descriptions we had read sounded like the place we wanted to stay. Now we weren't sure where we were going to spend the night. Since we were so close we decided to stop at the Mendenhall Glacier. This was a mistake, as it appeared this was where everyone else was too. It was quite crowded and it was also under construction. After taking the crowded path to the glacier with everyone else we left as soon as we could. There are several trails in the area. This glacier is 12 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide. While the glacier is receding, the lake in the forground is growing by 25-30 feet a year. It is estimated that the glacier is several miles shorter than it was 250 years ago when the Russian explorers found it. A century ago the area which is now the visitor's center was covered with ice.
We finally drove into downtown Juneau. fournd a parking spot on Seward street and started walking. We had heard that visitor's could get free parking passes to extend their parking time at the downtown meters at the police station. Found the police station and got a ticket to put on our dash that allowed us to park free at any meter in town for the next 48 hours. We spent some time shopping. 
There are some good bookstores in this town. Jacob discovered Ben Franklin (a dime store). We have one in our home town, but he didn't remember it. He found it a great place to for bargain souvenirs, as well as the stuff they usually carry. Around 1:00pm we stopped at Pizza Verona, an Italian restaurant, owned by a Greek. They were really busy. Came back an hour later and it was much quieter. Then we went to the Juneau-Douglas City Museum ($2 for adults and kids were free). They had a lot of displays on the mining done in this area. Dale picked up a map of the abandoned Treadwell Mine at Sandy Beach on Douglas Island. We hiked up the hill to the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church. This is a small blue and white church, with distictive Russian architechure. This is the oldest orginal Russian Orthodox Church in Southeast Alaska and continues to have a small but active congregation. Then we walked past the Capital Building and through the State Office Building. We walked up one street of narrow stairs. I lost track of how many flights there were, but it would be a long ways to pack a baby or a sack of groceries. I'm not sure if these were homes people owned or apartments, but I assume the people who live here are singles or couples with no children.
Next we drove over to Douglas Island. The island appeared to be mostly residential. We found an old Indian cemetery that had not been kept up, just as you cross the bridge (the first left, on the left side). We drove as far south as we could til the road deadended at Sandy Beach. Then we turned around and took the turnoff for the Eaglecrest Ski Area. Not a soul was around. Turning around, we went back down and continued north til the road came to another deadend. Most of the main road on this island (Douglas Highway) follows the Gastineau Channel. There were several great places to take pictures.
Driving back into Juneau we decided to try looking for a hotel room for the night. Every place we checked was $120-150 a night. Juneau has a major traffic jam between 4:00 and 6:00 pm. Good time to be on a trail! We stopped at the USFS Office in town for maps of Prince of Wales Island and the Tongass National Forest. They charged $4 a piece for these maps, but we also picked up a lot of free brochures. We drove south to Thane. The bridge near the fish hatchery was full of salmon, a lot of them were dead or dying. Driving back into Juneau we took some of the side roads where houses had been built on the side of the hill. They reminded us of some areas in California where they build expensive homes on the hillsides. We ate pizza at Pizzaria Roma's on the Merchant's Warf at 9:30 pm. They put pieces of crushed garlic on top of every pizza. At 11:00pm we pulled over near Auke Lake and slept in the truck. 200 miles today 3200 miles total