Juneau, AK

Today we spent the day in Juneau, the capital city of Alaska. Believe it or not, it is the 2nd largest city in the United States by area (3,200 sq mi), but it only has a population of about 32,000.  The area was originally a fishing area for the Auke and Taku Indian tribes before being discovered by Europeans in the late 1700's.  It took about 100 years, but eventually, the Europeans came back with a mining expedition.   Once gold was found, the area quickly became a mining camp and then a town (the first to be founded after Alaska became a state.)  The capital of Alaska was moved from Sitka to Juneau in 1906, and although there have been several attempts to move the capital city to Anchorage, so far the votes have failed.  One of the most interesting facts about Juneau is that it is not accessible by road.  There are three ways to get to Juneau - by ferry/barge, by air, or by birth. 

Mom and I had an early Whale Watching excursion, while Kelley and Zach were doing a helicopter tour of the Mendenhall Glacier at 10:30.  Mom and I ordered room service for breakfast before meeting our tour group in the theater at 7:30 am.  By 8 am we were boarding the bus headed toward Allen Marina on Auke Bay.  Although we'd already seen some whales on this trip, we were both really excited about this excursion.  The excursion boat had two indoor levels with large windows all around plus an outdoor observation deck.  There were less than 80 people in our group, so we had plenty of room to spread out.  The seat benches were padded and were set up with binoculars and maps, and a galley in the back served complimentary hot chocolate, coffee, and doughnuts.  The company that sponsored this excursion guaranteed a whale sighting or we'd get a $100 refund, so we figured it would be a win either way.  True to their word, we saw whales within the first 15 minutes...and then more whales...and more whales.  We saw at least six, but it's a little tricky to know if that was an accurate count.  We also saw more bald eagles, a couple of bears, Stellar sea lions and some Dall's porpoise.  It was truly amazing. 

Point Retreat Lighthouse - Admiralty Island

Blurry bears on the rocks

Play date?

Sea Lions waiting in the water for their turn on the buoy

Say cheese!

Zach and Kelley seemed to enjoy their trip to the glacier, as well.  They had a 10-15 flight in the helicopter before being dropped off on the glacier.  The helicopter left them for about 30 minutes while they went to pick up another group and then came back to get them.  They had a chance to drink very pure water right off the glacier, but unfortunately, they couldn't bring any back with them.  Ironically, I haven't seen the photos of their excursion (exactly how does that happen??) but I hope to someday add some to this post.

We were all back on the ship around noon for lunch.  After comparing notes about our trips, we grabbed the VIP books and headed off the ship to shop.  The shops are very close to the port but spanned a 2-3 block area.  We tried to take in slow and easy, but we would occasionally park Mom on a bench while we explored the shops.

Please humor me while I editorialize for a minute or six.  When we booked this cruise, we were scheduled to visit four ports:  Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Victoria.  Because of an acceleration issue with the ship that could not be resolved before the ship goes into dry dock next winter, Carnival cancelled the stop in Ketchikan and added Tracy Arm Fjord. (And in case you were wondering, we did know about this several weeks before the trip and were offered the option of a full refund, including air fare.) At some point in the past three years, Carnival has started selling these coupon books for $25.  The book is customized for the ports you will visit on the cruise , and the pages are color-coded for each port to make it easy to find the coupons. The coupons might be for a free charm or a charm bracelet, a free tote bag, a discount on an ornament or on fudge, etc.  Here's my beef....they charged $25, yet we would not be visiting Ketchikan.  There was an entire section of coupons that would never get redeemed.  Bryant, the Carnival "shopping expert", mentioned several times during his shopping presentation that several of the shops in Skagway or Juneau (particularly Juneau) would honor the Ketchikan coupons, but we found out first-hand that it was just a sales pitch.  The store owners in Juneau didn't know anything about it.  Now, I'm not saying they (Kelley and Mom) didn't get their money's worth because we used every coupon we could, but I do think it would have been a nice gesture for Carnival to reduce the price of the books (even by $5).  And for the record, Bryant thinks very highly of himself, but I don't.  He was a snake-oil peddler. 


After finding some bargains, we took a trip on a tram up Mount Roberts. It takes 6 minutes to make the 3,819 ascent to the top.  (I'm not a fan of heights, and I was doing pretty well until the tram swayed a little bit as it was docking....at which point I got cramps in the arches of my feet.)  At the summit,  there was a snack bar, gift shop, hiking trails, and a nature center that housed a recovery center for injured eagles.  The views of Juneau were amazing.

The Miracle from above

Two ships at port

By the time we came back down from the mountain, it was time to get back on the ship.  It feels like we've been going non-stop for days, so we were all exhausted.  We practically had to drag Kelley to dinner, but Zach, our energizer bunny, was the first one up to join our waiters in a conga line at dinner.  And another bonus?  My favorite dessert was served!

Doing the conga

Bitter and Blanc bread pudding...mmmm!



Zach's Word of the Day - Whale Tail
6,662 steps
3 miles walked