After picking us up from Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier, our bus driver drove around for a bit and then dropped us off at the Glacier Gardens located on Glacier Highway. First, we learned about the history of the garden from a guide named Shilo- my husband thought he looked like Justin Timberlake. In 1994, a couple named Steve and Cindy purchased this land when it wasn’t much to look at, and the pair spent four years renovating it into the lush and stunning rainforest it is today.

Tour guides chauffeured us around the garden/forest in golf carts. We rode up 580 feet altitude above sea level on Thunder Mountain with a guide/driver who was a music student- I’d asked her to give the tour in song, and she played along for five seconds. She pointed out different plants and trees-I didn’t have time to take notes on any of this for I was taking in the beauty of the wet greenery, covered by a dreamy mist from the fog. Though I’m not big on fantasy lit, the rainforest reminded me of a breeding ground for pink-haired goddesses and creatures who talk in riddles. I could take a nap underneath a willow tree and wake up a hundred years later and find that I have grown fairy wings out of my back. After we got up to the top of the mountain, we strolled along a short walkway where we got a panoramic view of the trees and fog.

On our way down from Thunder Mountain, our guide/driver was Zach- he revealed that his parents were the owners of this green wonderland. A real down-to-earth guy, Zach shared some more tidbits about the forest. He showed us this stump suspended in the air and asked us what we saw– a whale’s tale or someone’s head. I said I saw a cruise ship. Zach told us that his parents had named parts of the rainforest after members of the family– his mom had a wall named for her and his sister had a waterfall named for her. But with him being a middle child, nothing was named after him. =( After Zach dropped us off, we spent a few minutes in the green house, which housed a gift shop, refreshment stand, and many colorful hanging plants. There was also a huge wall wreath shaped like a heart- it reminded me of the old high school formal picture backdrops. I actually don’t know too much about gardens and greenery, but I still enjoyed myself in this magnificent rainforest where every plant and tree was regarded as a prized gem.

To make the most out of our one day in Juneau, we signed up for the Rainforest Garden & Mendenhall Glacier Combo through Princess Cruises ($59 per person)–two excursions in one. Before taking us to the glacier, our bus driver took us through downtown Juneau and drove by the house of Sarah Palin, Alaska’s first female governor.

First, we stopped by the Mendenhall Glacier, which is 13 miles from downtown Juneau. I was taken aback by the enormity of this monumental mountain of ice. It was raining pretty hard and there was a thick fog that day, so our pictures don’t actually do the majestic beauty of Mendenhall Glacier true justice. Looking carefully at the glacier, I spotted hints of blue in the ice. Why is glacier ice blue? Here’s the explanation given in the FAQ section of the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center’s web site: “Glacial ice appears blue because it absorbs all colors of the visible light spectrum except blue, which it transmits. The transmission of this blue wavelength gives glacial ice its blue appearance. Glacier ice may also appear white because some ice is highly fractured with air pockets an indiscriminately scatters the visible light spectrum.”

We were warned beforehand that there might be bears, but I didn’t spot any here. Because of the weather, I was unable to go on the hardcore hiking trails, which I’d been looking forward to trying out. So we ended up going to the nearby visitor center where we watched an eleven-minute documentary about the Mendenhall Glacier. The attendant in the theater told us that the glacier is depleting much quicker than it should be, no thanks to the adverse effects of global warming. Scary to think that in a couple hundred years, this jewel of the earth might cease to exist.

Taking a break from the summer heat, my husband and I went on a 10-day Alaskan cruise on Princess Cruises’ Dawn Princess. We stopped at Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, Canada. Our first port stop was at Ketchikan, a small town located about 650 miles north of Seattle, Washington and 240 miles south of Juneau, Alaska. Although we didn’t have the chance to get out to the Totem Bight State Park, we still spotted totems scattered throughout the city. We went on a leisurely stroll along Creek Street, where we walked past Dolly’s House, a former brothel. Then we headed over to the Salmon Landing Market to look around. After that, we crossed over to the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, where we’d booked tickets for their 11 AM show ($34 per person- We found that the excursion price is the same as the actual get-it-yourself price). The show’s woodsmen have all been specially selected for their athletic abilities. The hour-long show featured a contest between different woodsmen, or woodcutters, representing the American Spruce Mill Camp and the Canadian Dawson Creek Camp. We were told to cheer for the Dawson Creek Camp, but being the non-competitive person that I am, I cheered for the other camp as well. At the beginning of the show, audience members gave the lumberjack shout–”YO HO!”

The rest of the show was marked by a series of adrenaline-packed challenges, fun folk music, and occasional trash-talking between the players, which sometimes seemed a little scripted. One of the earlier challenges was the “underhand chop” where two woodsmen standing on logs competed to be the first to slice through their log. In the “axe throwing” challenge, each woodsman hurled an axe to hit a designated bullseye. There was the dangerous “spring board chop” where the woodsmen chopped through a log while crouching on a wavering springboard held up above the ground. One of my favorite challenges was the “speed climb”- the woodsmen raced up a towering, 50-foot log. The finale was marked by a “log rolling” challenge- two competing woodsmen balanced themselves on one end of a log as it rolled around on a shallow pool of water. When someone fell into the water, the other person won that round. Sometimes a woodsman would try to psyche out the other player by throwing weight on their side of the log. During one round, a woodsman “slipped” and landed his privates smack into the log. The crowds loved it.

My husband and I went into the show skeptical about partaking in such a tourist-centered activity, but we actually enjoyed the show very much. It was the kind of pick-me-up we needed after being at sea for two days straight. Come early so you can pick out a good seat and be prepared to laugh.

It’s just not fair that my husband has mile-long lashes he has no use for while I have to make the most of my short, straight eyelashes. To make the lash-curling effort more difficult, the dimensions of my eyes are rather narrow- therefore the average curler head won’t fit along my lashline. So that’s why I adore Shu Uemura’s Mini-Eyelash Curler ($17)-one of the few beauty items I’d packed with me on a recent Alaskan cruise. For most people, this curler is designed for lash touch-ups after you apply Shu Uemura’s infamous Eyelash Curler ($19). But the Eyelash Curler, which seems to work wonders for many Asian lashes, refuses to fit along my lash line. Fortunately, the Mini-Eyelash Curler does everything the Eyelash Curler does, except with the baby lash curler, I need to curl my lashes in sections. I start from the corner of my eye from my ears and work the Mini-Eyelash Curler towards my nose. I curl the lashes upwards two or three times in each section before I move on. The particular silicone rubber that they use at the frame of the curler keeps my wispy lashes locked in so I don’t have to worry about those teeny hairs slipping off when I’m holding the two frames together. It takes less than five minutes to finish curling the lashes on both eyes. See what a difference some simple lash curls can do to open up my eyes in these before and after pictures:

On our road trip to and from Mount Shasta, we dined at the Black Bear Diner three times. I enjoyed the life-sized bear-carvings for the cheesy photo opps and our waitresses were always bear-y nice (yes, it’s that kinduva restaurant). Plus this seems like a very kid-friendly venue. Their general entrees run big, probably inappropriate for anyone on a diet, but their food beats your run-of-the-mill greasy spoon diner. The weather was foggy and overcast for most of the time that we were in Mount Shasta and we could barely ever catch a glimpse of the mountain. On our last night at Mount Shasta, as we were standing outside of Mount Shasta’s Black Bear Diner, we finally spotted the snowy white peak of the mountain. Being such obvious tourists, we whipped out our cameras and eagerly snapped some pictures of the mountain, which looked like a gigantic piece of chocolate lava cake with powdered sugar sprinkled all over.

Black Bear Diner serves all-American comfort food-steaks, burgers, omelettes, and a variety of dessert pies and cobblers. At the Mount Shasta restaurant, I asked for Mikey’s Chicken Pot Pie, but they were out, and so I ended up with Fried Chicken instead. See how healthy my meal looked and notice how huge the portion was. This is a great meal for a trucker, but not for a lady who is trying to watch her feminine figure. I was full after eating all the greasy, skinny McDonald-like fries (this is not a knock, as I love McD’s fries). I could only finish two of the four fleshy, fatty chicken pieces- the chicken was sinfully crispy and the batter used for the frying was top-notch (but boy, did I punish myself with some hardcore cardio when I returned home).

The next day, while we were driving back down, we stopped again at the Black Bear Diner in Willow (we had also eaten here while we were driving up). To cancel out my heavy dinner from the night before, I ordered a senior-sized soup and salad. They used fresh veggies for the salad- it’s your typical garden salad mix. And the vegetable soup, made with tomato base, was filling and pleasantly non-greasy. See how much healthier this was than what I had the night before? Okay, I confess-those were my garlic fries in the background, but hey, at least I shared. No regrets here. Their finger-licking-good garlic fries were competitive to that of the renowned garlic fries you’d get at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Mount Shasta has a number of New Age stores where certain rocks are touted for their properties. I talked to some locals who stand by the healing properties of the stones that they wear. Back at the Sacred Mountain Spa, Cindy, the massage therapist, wore a necklace with a beautiful milky, sheer-toned pendant. I asked her about it, and she explained that the rock was a moonstone, known for giving its wearer a nurturing, maternal energy. Gayla, the nail technician, was wearing a pendant of a green stone with silver specks in it. This serafina stone, Gayla told me, enables contact with angels.

I visited Middle Earth: The Crystal Room located in downtown Mount Shasta. There are rooms leading into rooms with museum-quality crystals and rocks, some of which were made into pieces of jewelry. I asked Beverly, the owner, to recommend a rock with properties that could help me alleviate stress. She recommended kyanite, a blue stone that is supposed to help calm the spirit while repelling negative energy. She showed me the kynanite stones around the store and led me to the back where she picked up a crystal singing bowl made with kyanite so I can feel the essence of this mineral by hearing its sound. She picked up a stick and rubbed it around the edge of the singing bowl so that a rich, pure hum filled the room- I could feel its intensity in my head. The sound of a singing bowl is meant to affect a person’s energy centers, or chakras. I ended up buying a pair of earrings made with kyanite. Time will tell if this wearing this mineral will help replace my jitters with tranquility. But even if I remain a bag of nerves, I’d still have a cute pair of earrings.

Following the whirlpool bath at Sacred Mountain Spa was my spa pedicure ($45 for 60 minutes). My nail technician was Gayla. She told me that a sanitary precaution, they don’t use jet-action foot baths here. I dipped my feet into the hot water of a round, bright turquoise foot tub. Gayla poured cold water from a gardener’s water bucket  into the tub to adjust the temperature of the water to my liking.  My feet got the fixings of a basic pedicure but with additional perks, such as a rigorous exfoliation with Naturopathica’s Bamboo Lemongrass Body Scrub. After the scrub was rinsed off, Gayla applied a cooling brown foot mask that smelled like chai tea, chocolate and mint all rolled into one, then she wrapped my feet up in plastic bags while the mask set in. After rinsing off the mask, Gayla oiled up my feet with a lavender moisturizer, then massaged them. Nice. She applied a shimmery blue nail color by Zoya and said I could keep the emery board and toe separators, which they usually dispose of after one use. Gotta give them bonus points for being sanitary! 

I’m curious to find other salons that carry Zoya. It’s a nail brand known for being free of toxins like toluene, formaldehyde, and DBP (dibutyl phthalate).  And the polish itself lasts for quite awhile before it begins to chip. 

At Mount Shasta’s Sacred Mountain Spa,they had to shuffle around my pedicure appointment, so to apologize for the inconvenience, they offered me a complimentary 30-minute whirlpool bath (regular price is $20 for 30 minutes). An opportunity to unwind and detox for free? Sure! After my foot reflexology treatment, I was led to a dimly lit room with a filled whirlpool tub and shower facility. The particular Sanijet whirlpool bath I sat in had some nifty functions for color therapy and hydrotherapy. The bulb in the tub emitted a new Crayola color in the water once every few seconds. Each color is supposed to have a therapeutic affect, my nail technician explained to me later on. For example, red is supposed to revitalize, green is supposed to be for healing, blue is suppose to relax you, and so on. There was also a panel in the tub that allowed me to select my desired frequency pulse so the jets can massage my back, arms/hands, and feet. If I selected the linear function, I received one massage function at a time. If I select the aerobic function, I receive all the massage functions at a time, but at different levels of intensity.  Selecting the random function, I never knew what combination of massages I’d get. I liked the linear function the most. Because I was so busy playing around with the functions on the panel, I didn’t actually get to go into a deep relaxation. But my pleasure from this bath came from experimenting with the different settings.

After a rigorous morning hike, Wency and I indulged ourselves at the Sacred Mountain Spa in downtown Mount Shasta. In the waiting area, I listened to mystical New Age music and the soft sounds of trickling water. On the coffee table was a book titled Buddha- the statue pictured on the cover matched a live statue up ahead near a small boat in the lobby.

One of the treatments I’d booked was a 15-minute foot reflexology session ($20 for 15 minutes). Foot reflexology is actually NOT the same thing as a foot massage, although it involves a little of the poking that people associate massages with. Foot reflexology is healing technique that involves the application of pressure to certain points of the feet which correspond to other parts of the body.

A massage therapist named Cindy worked performed my foot reflexology. I lay on the massage table with my back down as Cindy wrapped hot towels around my feet, then spread some essential oil of lavender all over them. With her thumbs and hands, she applied pressure to select points on my feet while explaining where each given pressure point corresponded to. For example, the neck of my big toe corresponds to my neck and thyroid and parathyroid glands, while the pad of my big toe corresponds to my head. There are other parts of the foot that are supposed to be linked to the intestines, kidneys, and even my reproductive organs. Of course, I wasn’t sure if any of this was really legitimate until Cindy pointed out the there seemed to be some sensitivity in the area of my foot that corresponded with my middle back, and she asked if I’ve had problems in my middle back. Now it just so happens that my middle back is often tight from sitting at the computer and even my chiropractor finds my middle back the most challenging part of my body to adjust. I hadn’t even mentioned this at all to Cindy when I came and I was in awe that she was able to figure this out just by feeling around on my feet. She felt around the rest of my feet and told me that I seem to be in good health. Cool beans.

One of the things I love about Mount Shasta is its fresh, clean air, and I certainly got plenty of that when we went hiking at the Shasta-Trinity National Forest along the McCloud River Loop. The Lower Falls region greeted us at the beginning of our walk. Many of the people spread out here clutched fishing poles, their lines dipped into the water. Trudging onward, we arrived at the Fowler’s Campground-RVs and vans were parked next to campsites and picnic areas. Campers sat around on fold-up chairs making relaxed conversation. Some folks even looked up to wave hello to us as we walked past.

The Middle Falls path brought us into the midst of the sky-high cedar and pine trees, some of which looked like giant Christmas trees. Along the way, we greeted parents hiking with their children and pet owners walking their loquacious dogs. We were careful not to trip over the rocks and fallen tree stumps or brush up against suspicious-looking plants with three leaves. The waterfall was beautiful- its cascading, bright alpine sheets washed down into the river on a soothing soundtrack of rumbling, crashing water. A great photo opp here. We continued to climb upward along the hiking route until we reached the top where we were able to look down on the waterfall. More pictures. Getting to the top of the waterfall and returning to Lower Falls with the occasional picture stop took roughly two hours. A decent semi-cardio work-out.