6/16/13 Juneau

     

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!  Dave LOVED the card and I had picked up two brand-new Denali quarters for him  when we were at Mt. McKinley.  He was surprised.  We got up extra early this morning to have breakfast as we have a tour today.  We had a fantastic bus driver – very entertaining!  We are in Juneau, which is a land locked city.  There are 40 miles of road here, but everything dead ends.  The only way out is by plane or boat.  We visited Mendenhall Glacier, which has receded greatly over the years, but is still a gorgeous glacier.  Next to it was a huge waterfall!  There were large icebergs floating in the lake under the glacier.  Some of the wildflowers were in bloom and we feasted our eyes on lupine and large buttercups.  We drove to a rainforest garden.  There were lots of things in bloom there including wild irises.  The walking path through the gardens and forest was very nice and we were treated to orange/cinnamon tea and muffins.  We drove to the Alaska State Museum and enjoyed the early Eskimo exhibits, along with informational exhibits on totems, fishing and gold mining.  We got dropped off in town to walk around a few of the shops and then John and Kelly stayed to ride the tram to the top of the mountain, while Dave, Lana and I walked back to the ship.  Again, we lucked out with the weather: hot and sunny!  We must be living right as the weather has been so much better than we expected it to be.  We went to a slide show/lection by Libby Riddles.  She was the first woman to win the Iditerod.  She had great stories about her dogs and the sport of mushing.  I have been sitting on our balcony writing today’s entry and watching eagles soar overhead – life is hard.  We just cast off and are moving out of the bay – I will keep my eyes on the water – still looking for whales, otters, seals, etc.  After dinner this evening, we went to see a comic/musician in the theatre.  He was fantastic – very funny with a wonderful singling voice while he strummed the guitar.  We then went to the Universe Lounge for a stage show set is New Orleans – it also was very good.