Well, here are headed towards Juneau once again. But first we will have the short sail into Tracy Arm to drop off a group of folks for a boat tour. They will see a glacier, a waterfall, and hopefully some wildlife. Then the tour ends up in Juneau 6 hours later. We seem to recall that this same tour last year had a short shoreline trek for about 40 minutes. But we also remember that the trail was uneven, rocky, and muddy. There may have been some unfortunate injuries and that part of the tour was eliminated. There was no hike at all….no one would leave the boat until the tour ended in Juneau.
Breakfast was early at 7:30am. It was sure nice to have that extra hour of sleep last night, although one of us tuned in the Cats of Africa, a Disney movie, and watched it to the end. We may have seen it before, but it worth watching it again. The weather looked dismal….much like last week, but wetter. It was cool and raining, but there was very little wind.
We had a Canadian Declaration Card left in our mail slot which had to be filled out and turned in before the end of the day. This was only for those of us that are in transit, continuing on for another 7 day cruise.
We went to deck six to watch our entrance into the Gastineau Channel as well as keep a lookout for wildlife. We did see some birds, but no whales at all. What we did see were the banks of the channel filled with many fishermen on the shoreline casting their lines for salmon we assume. We could see stacks of fish behind them. Rain or shine, the locals take advantage of the five species of spawning fish when they can. Besides freezing the catch, they like to smoke them.
As we approached the pier, a mature bald eagle flew from the trees and circled the ship. It sounded like the camera was taking shots continuously, which it was. It's not often that we see an eagle in flight. Most times they are perched in the evergreen trees staying dry in the rainy weather. It flew one more time, then it was gone. That was the only sighting we had despite the fact that there are over 30,000 bald eagles in the Juneau area.
The Zaandam sailed at a snail's pace to the pier where the Disney Wonder, Grand Princess, and RCI Quantum of the Seas were docked. By the time we were tied up, it was 1:30pm and the ship was cleared shortly after that. We stayed onboard until 2pm, then walked to the downtown area with hundreds of tourists once again. One thing we noticed was that there were no float planes or helicopters operating. Perhaps the weather with heavy rain and dense fog had shut them down. Safety comes first, although that is a big loss for the providers. We decided to try for lunch at the Hangar on the Wharf since it was getting close to 3pm. Last week we had a 40 minute wait to get a table. Today, our timing was better and there were many tables available.
Lunch was a shared platter of "Macho Nachos" with chicken and extra sour cream and salsa. Alaska Amber draft beers went well with the nachos. Naturally, we ended the fun meal with a heaping slice of mud pie. Excellent as always. The rain never let up as we relaxed for an hour.
We did do some shopping on the way back, stopping at the Alaska Fudge Company for a small bag of peanut brittle. The Juneau-Alaska Mining Co. had calendars (3 for $10), but ½ off today. Wow, 3 nice Alaskan calendars for $5 plus tax. Good deal. Usually we wander in and out of the big stores, but they were crowded. We really did not need anything else, so we headed back to the ship.
So far this trip, we have had the facial recognition in every port. It must be the way of the future because it is accurate. Of course, we still had to scan our room cards and go through the xray onboard. Most times, the buzzer goes off with my knee replacement, but so far it only happened once. So many people have had this type of surgery that they have lightened up on the strength of the xray. Besides, the line to get back onboard would take forever.
Back in our warm room, we worked online until dinnertime. We watched as the RCI Quantum passed by our window, totally blocking our view for a few moments. That is one huge vessel, although we think they have some bigger and newer ones.
All aboard was 9:30pm, so many folks were off the ship at dinnertime. It was not crowded on deck five. Some did arrive late, dressed in their tour clothes. A little too casual. We ordered one delicious bowl of tomato soup and a Caesar salad. Mains were two types of short ribs. One was a stroganoff with noodles, and the other was Club Orange short ribs, but totally different. Both were quite good and filling, so we did not order any dessert.
The Zaandam left the port of Juneau right after 9:30pm, and headed towards our next stop at Skagway early tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed, the rain will stay away.
Bill & Mary Ann
