Juneau (June-oh) hustles and bustles like no other city in Alaska. The steep downtown streets echo with the mad shopping sprees of cruise-ship passengers in the summer tourist season and the whispered intrigues of politicians during the winter legislative session. Miners, loggers, and eco-tourism operators come to lobby for their share of Southeast's forest. Lunch hour arrives, and well-to-do state and federal bureaucrats burst from the office buildings to try the latest restaurant or brown-bag on one of the waterfront wharves, with the sparkling water before them and gift store malls behind. The center of town becomes an ad hoc pedestrian mall as the crush of people forces cars to creep.My Juneau is close at hand, but very different. Downtown, the crush of visitors can be overwhelming when many cruise ships are in port at once and the streets around the docks have been entirely taken over by shops and other touristy businesses. Many of these are owned by people from outside of Alaska who come to the state for the summer to sell gifts (which are usually not made in Alaska). But only a few blocks away are quiet mountainside neighborhoods of houses with mossy roofs, and only a few blocks farther are the woods and the mountains, populated by bear, eagles, and salmon.