We had an early arrival in Juneau this morning and were at
our anchorage just across from the downtown area. There were five very large ships in port and
I guess ours drew the short straw because we were the only ones tendered to
shore.
No worries since we were going to be here more than 13 hours
and we had a tour planned so our seats on the tender were assured for a certain
time. We all had early breakfast and
then suited up for our day in the Alaska State Capitol!
Our tour was out to the Mendenhall Glacier and we met our
bus just at the transit plaza in front of our tender dock. All 20 of us signed up for this tour so we
were a miniature version of Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey. All we lacked were some animals!
We opted for bus #2 to keep our group together and after a
delay of about 20 minutes while we waited for stragglers (NOT ours!!) we were
off! Mason had one of the front seats
right behind the driver so was in a great spot to assess everything. An older gentleman was boarding and started a
small conversation with Mason and after answering his age he’d had enough so
after the next question Mason said “Who are you, anyway?” Needless to say, we all cracked up! The old gent was a good sport and called
himself “uncle Claus”……..Mason was unimpressed!
As we were driving out to the Glacier Park our very nice bus
driver was giving us a running narration about the things we were seeing and
Mason was amazingly riveted to every word and agreeing with the driver!!! He was making comments like “oh, yes, I see
that” and “I think that’s right!”
Hysterical. At one point the
driver mentioned McDonald’s and Mason told him what his favorite meal was. After our self guided tour around the Glacier
Park we returned to the bus to find that the wonderful driver, Jeff Stein, had
gone to McDonalds and bought Mason his favorites!! What a kind and wonderful thing for him to do
and we were all so impressed and grateful!
Kudos to a very nice man!!
The weather started out foggy, misty and rainy! Boo!
By the time we did our two hours at the glacier and got back into
downtown Juneau there was glorious sun shining!
We all went in different directions for a lunch in town and walked
through the shops. Same T-shirts and
sweatshirts as always. Also the bags of
chocolate moose and bear droppings!!
After lunch we headed back to the ship and got onboard at
about 4 pm. Just in time to come in
second, again, in trivia. This has got
to stop!! We took a shot at another
musical trivia but also came in second!
What’s up with that?
It was a wonderful day and everyone got to see the glacier
up close and take wonderful walks around the park. We saw lots of salmon, saw where a bear had
laid down to eat a salmon and watched a porcupine in a tree! That was enough wildlife for me! Glad the bear had gone elsewhere to digest
his fish dinner!
The grandkids are having such an amazing time! They love being on the ship so much that they
start moaning just a bit when they have to disembark for a tour. Once they are out and about they enjoy
themselves but they are always first to suggest it’s time to go back to “our
ship”! They are all so well behaved and
it’s a real joy to the Commodore and myself to run into our kids all over! This whole trip is one of the best things
we’ve ever been able to do for our children and their children and it makes us
proud and blessed.
Tomorrow is our last port and it’s Skagway. Part of our group is going out to see a
“Musher’s Camp” and we’ll see what dogsledding is all about. I hear we are going to get to see some
puppies which will please the little ones.
We have a long day in Skagway so we’ll also stroll around the town and
stop for a drink in the “Red Onion Saloon”.
Let’s hope the sun we had today will follow us for tomorrow!
Bedtime!
XOXOXOXOXOXO
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