Report from Juneau
It seems like no one ever writes casual travel diaries anymore. We have an entire box of postcards that were sent to my great grandmother by family members (starting in the 1920s) and I love them. Granted they aren't true travel diaries (there is only so much you can convey in a postcard) but they are still fabulous. So here is my travel diary, which starts with Juneau where I arrived yesterday.
Juneau is our state capitol and a former gold mining town on the water and surrounded by mountains and glaciers. It's pretty spectacular scenery-wise (as you can tell from the pics) but still looks like a frontier town on the ground. (It's built right up against the hills so you have rows and rows of houses that are generally accessible only by steps - so it's like living on a boardwalk all the time!) (without sand or bikinis though).
Yesterday I had a radio interview (it will be broadcast in a week and a half). I have two more interviews today (one is about the event tonight, one is about the book) and this evening I have a slide show & signing for the local bookstore. I am most excited about that and hopeful that I will connect with the bookstore folks so that they will share MAP with their customers and the tourists who come through here every summer.
Hopeful hopeful hopeful!
Last night I had dinner with my old friend Katrina and her husband as well as Juneau author Lynn Schooler. Lynn's most recent book, WALKING HOME, won the 2010 Banff Mountain Festival Book competition for Mountain Literature and it's a great title that manages to blend some Alaska history and a Tracy Kidder "HOUSE" vibe about carving a place out for yourself plus a serious personal hiking adventure. (And he is prepared!!!) We talked about books and publishing and facebook (Lynn posts a photo a day for Juneau - you should friend him for some amazing pics). We talked about frustrations with the business and still doing the writing while trying to figure out the selling. It was a very good time.
Tomorrow I head for Anchorage which also has amazing mountains; we shall see what I can find with my camera there!
[Post pics of an actual glacier (!) and "Sandy Beach" which is where part of the old gold camp is still present and you can see some serious mountains. Juneau is just across the strait.]
