Contrary to Expectations

Before I even start talking about what we did there I just want to say it was cold! I should have probably dressed in something heavier than a sweatshirt considering its right next to the water but that aside i was dying. Regardless we sucked it up and pushed on. The first thing we did was find the history walk. The intent was to vaguely follow it, but for the most part we were going to explore and see if we could find anything interesting that would stand out aside from the normal tourist spots. However; there was nowhere to go aside from the history walk. It literally just went straight through the port. What was interesting was checking out the Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon, where Jack wrote some of his most well renowned novels. The saloon was incredibly small and we sadly couldn't go in because of the age limit, but there was some interesting writing on the outside.

Right beside the saloon was the cabin that Jack London resided in while living in the Yukon. The history of the cabin doesn't really pertain to the port but it is interesting how the cabin got there. It had to be disassembled after his death and reconstructed at the square at a later date. Also it was nice to see a place that he had lived in for a short amount of time. It allowed you to get a better idea of what his life had been like. Right next to the cabin was a statue of a dog, which was definitely an animal that was considered very common across some of Jack London's novels.

Across the way there were the docks, the only busy part of the entire location. What was nice was being able to look at and see what Jack London had seen. It was definitely beautiful but i wonder what it would have looked like during his time and through his eyes. What had he seen that grabbed him in such a way to create the pieces he did? Aside from the water what stood out was the Potomac, F.D.R.'s personal yacht that he had during his presidency. I'll go a bit more into the history of it later. It was clear that the main source of income for Jack London Square was still linked to the ocean instead of to tourism, which used to be an equally large part of their income. Which lead me to believe that the water would be taken better care of. Some docks looked disgusting.

One of the things that did catch my eye was how they marked the history walk. It was through wolf tracks and each mark was dedicated to someone and had some short sentence to immortalize a single moment or idea.

Sadly that was about it that stood out in Jack London Square. I had been there once with my dad as a kid, but the square that we had returned to was vastly different. Almost every single store had gone out of business and the surrounding are was incredibly poorly taken care of. 

The only places that survived were the ones that were much more high end and even they looked like they weren't having the best time business wise. After about an hour and a half we had seen everything that Jack London Square had left to offer.