2016 Alaska. Cruise - Day 10 (Juneau)

Today is Saturday, July 30th, and we are in the capital of Alaska...Juneau.  We arrived around 7 AM.  We were up fairly early to get breakfast and go to the Guest Service desk to get some charges moved around.  We messed up and had charges put on all our rooms for our meals at the Steak House when it should have all gone on Dale and Julee's since the travel agent had put the credit on her account only for everyone.  Naturally, that takes an act of congress to get done...and it took a while.  Finally, they said to check back later in the day and they would have it done.  We'll see....since it is about 3 PM right now as I write this.

After breakfast, we headed off the boat to catch up with our tour bus.  7 of us signed up for the Mendenhall Blacier and Salmon Bake tour.  We found our guide easily who was driving a big motor coach.  But only 11 people got on.  Once in route, we were given the tour of downtown Juneau.  The port area is small but as we drove the valley expanded a bit into areas where people live.  There are about 35,000 people who live here.  We drove about 20 minutes up to the Mendenhall Glacier.  It is quite a thing to see all these Glaciers.  They are receding quite quickly due to the warmer temperatures and lack of snow fall in these areas.  We were given an hour to explore the area and basically we took the only trail (2 mile round trip) out to a large waterfall and great view of the glacier.  It was a beautiful walk.

Upon returning, we boarded the bus and headed back towards town to one of many Salmon Bakes in the area.  The Salmon bake is an all you can eat thing in the woods.  It was really, really good.  The salmon was baked over an open fire and then coated in a brown sugar sauce...very yummy.  There was much more relative to salads, drinks and dessert.  They even had a camp fire going for marshmallow roasting.  

After eating we hiked up to a little waterfall to take a peak at the salmon who were returning to spawn. End of the trail for most of them unfortunately.

We are now getting ready to sail once again down to Ketchikan...our last Alaska stop.

Pictures:

Nadine shaking a leg with our server last night....

Mendenhall Glacier to the left....

Gold Panners...

Four of the 5 sisters....

The glacier and waterfall hikers...Tim, Denise, Bruce, Nanette, Nadine and Michelle....

Tim and Jeff waiting for a ride......

Two mama bears.....

Our little 'towel' friend....we have a whole zoo in our room.  We'll have to get a picture of them all.

Lorenzo taking a bottle....so glad his health is improving.  Hopes to go home from hospital on Friday.