Bullwinkle and the Chum

After the day's journey, we checked into room 206 and found ourselves in need of some hot dinner. We decided to stretch our legs and walk down to the Mendenhall Mall to find something to eat.

At first glance, this mall looked like it had its heyday in 1982. On one wall inside there was a panoramic aerial view of Juneau from the mid-1980s. The mall was anchored by the Super Bear Supermarket, a Sears Hardware and a branch of the Juneau Public Library. Many shops were closed. One Chinese restaurant was closed for the entire month of July, according to the handwritten notice on the door. There was, however, a Bullwinkle's Pizza restaurant that featured questionably licensed Jay Ward characters from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

We ordered the Garlic Veggie pizza and took in our surroundings. It was like a bowling alley without the bowling. The walls of the dining room were lined with two-bit video and arcade games, and the tables were all sturdy with padded small bench seating in bright colors of red and blue. This is the type of place where the youngsters of Juneau probably beg their parents to take them. A major feature of the dining room was the "Thirst Station", where one could get free popcorn with every drink order. A wide selection of drinks was available, including several imported beers and an apparently local brand of wine at $20 per bottle. The pizza was delicious, albeit somewhat heavy with green onions.

After dinner, we mosied over the library. Katherine found a book about gypsies and settled in for a little reading. Chris was intrigued by the children's story hour, all about salmon. The presenter was telling the little children how there are some parts of the world where people don't have so many salmon (how sad it must be for them), and she sang a short song that was written by a local Juneau woman that would remind the children of the five types of salmon in the area (sung to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean):

Chinook is the King of the salmon,
Coho's the bright Silver one,
Sockeye is red,
Humpy's pink, so it's said,
And the Dog salmon's always a Chum, a Chum,
The Dog salmon's always a Chum.

Chris found himself singing this ditty for days afterward.

Apparently the library moved out of the mall in 2015 after being there 30 years. Article: https://www.ktoo.org/2015/08/09/30-years-mendenhall-valley-library-moving-mall/