Day 3
Today we hit Juneau. At population 32,000, this is the third largest city in Alaska. Actually, a bridge that we are fairly sure was not here last time (1982) connects Juneau with the community of Douglas just the other side of the fjord.

Juneau in the sunshine

Town also extends much farther south than it did when we were here so many years ago. Our memory is that the Red Dog Saloon, which we visited back then, was at about the southern edge of town. Now it is at the north end of the super tourist shops and has its own souvenir shop. We did not go there. The south end of town is not much fun, but we enjoyed the rest of town.

Community art

The weather has been absolutely unexpected and fabulous. We awoke and emerged from our dark cave this morning and made our way to the upper deck only to discover clear blue skies and warm temperatures. In Alaska! It made the sailing through the Inside Passage to Juneau even more beautiful. We unfortunately slept too late to catch the whale sightings reportedly espied as we entered the passage, but Tami did claim to see another spout. A small one with no visible mammal to follow, but it was a spout.

View that includes a glacier peaking through

We were soon docking in Juneau, the first of four ships to hit town today. We headed immediately to the north end of town where we knew some of the more authentic galleries were supposed to be located and were rewarded with some nice local arts.

Go Sounders!

We both found some native design sunglasses in Sounder’s green – score! Mike did wear down under the weight of all the shopping bags (actually they were mostly full of the layers we kept stripping off as the day got warmer).

The packhorse

As the last of the four ships disgorged their hordes, we felt the sidewalks become overly crowded so we headed for the Mt Roberts Tram. It is a quick trip up the mountain where you have a great view of the town and surrounding mountains and water. There are several trails and we thought about taking the trail back down the mountain to town until we saw the warning signs about steep trail, unmarked in places, muddy at times, etc. We could just imagine ourselves lost on the hillside in Juneau as the ship pulled away.

From Mt Roberts

After such strenuous activities, the only solution was to find an appropriate bar so we found the Hanger Bar that overlooked the floatplane dock and waterfront and enjoyed some local brewskies with appropriate deep fried treats.

Goodbye to Juneau

Back to the ship in time for yet another delicious dinner, including king crag legs, Granny Smith apple and cider soup with yogurt and calvados, chilled. We are just pulling away from the dock at 10:25 pm. Tomorrow is Skagway!