Day #10: Juneau

We awoke to see our ship docked in Alaska's capital city of Juneau.  Art reminded me that Juneau is the only capital that cannot be driven to.  It can only be reached by plane or boat.

6:30 Buffet Breakfast

The bus to take us on the 9:00-12:30 Rainforest Garden and Mendenhall Glacier Combo Excursion was on time.  Our tour guide was Jim.

Jim informed us that Mendenhall glacier goes 12 miles up the mountain.  Tongass National Forest is the largest temperate rainforest in the world.   Ummm... he also told us that Subway foot-longs are $7.00 in Juneau instead of $5.00 like the rest of the 49 states.

We went to the Nature Center first where we were able to see the Mendenhall glacier and watched their intro video.

There was a piece of 250 year old glacier ice that was on display.  Ummm.... it was cold.

Close up, the ice was very beautiful.  It's made of interlocking ice crystals.

Mom and Auntie Grace had fun with with the bear skin.  They didn't realize how soon they would come in contact with the real thing.

On our walk to view the glacier, we saw this black bear not 8 feet away from us.  It was busy foraging for good things to eat in order to store energy for the long winter ahead.  There were about a dozen of us mesmerized by this close-up view when I noticed someone actually trying to get the bear's attention in order to get a better photo.  I wanted to bop him upside the head (the idiot guy, not the bear).  What the heck, I was behind him so it didn't matter.  The bear would get to him first.

The glacier was gorgeous!  We saw lots of snow in Chicago... but this was special.

The ice was blue where there had been recent calving... which again we did not see.

Next on the tour was the Rainforest Gardens.  I have to say Art was not entirely impressed by it.  However, Auntie Grace and mom found it fascinating.  All it was were trees that had been uprooted, turned upside down, stuck back in the ground and had flowers planted among the roots.

Back at the ship preparations were underway for an evening New Years party.  Gracious!  First we get Christmas in August.  Now we get New Years on September 1st.  Strange.  Interesting, but strange.  No, we did not stay up for the balloon releasing festivities.

This was our second Formal Night.  Notice that Auntie Grace had brought another outfit.  Here we thought she had struggled to find one suitable formal wear and she had TWO gorgeous outfits.  This lovely blouse had glittery designs all over it and shimmered when she moved.

Our maitre d', Ricky said he had an extra, extra special dish he wanted us all to try.  As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was.  Art and I had it in Paris many years ago.  I told Ricky not to tell mom or auntie what it was just yet.  They tried it and pronounced it excellent.  Must be the butter and salt.  We then told them it was escargot.  Snails!!!  Surprisingly, mom said she now understood why the French like it so much and why it was famous.  Both Auntie Grace and mom really enjoyed it and Ricky was pleased.

When we looked around, we noticed nobody else had been given escargot.  We wondered if it might be because we were first time cruisers and they wanted to encourage us to come again.  On two or three other nights, Ricky and Chris had brought us special dishes they said were just for us.  We couldn't figure out why.

And now here's a sampling of a few of the other dishes we had.  This was a Crab, Scallop, Shrimp Salad with a duo of Caviar and Papaya dressing.

Broiled Lobster Tail and King Prawns with Lemon Butter came next.  I've heard several people saying they ordered two servings of this dish.  We could barely finish what we were served.  I was worried that it was going to be a bit messy to get the meat out of the shell.

No problems!  Chris came around and did the job masterfully for all of us.

Then came the desserts!  The Milky Chocolate-Hazlenut Souffle was OK. 

This Semi-Frozen cookie and Cream Parfait was much more to my liking.  Too bad it wasn't the one I ordered.  It was Art's and he gave me a taste.  This doesn't quite strike me as looking like a parfait though.

And just as we were getting ready to leave feeling we could not possibly eat another bite, Chris came around with yet another plate of something (we didn't order ourselves).  Petit Fours!  Sheesh!  But you know what?  We ate it!

Totally stuffed, we went back to our cabin, changed to our informal clothing and went to see yet another fabulous musical show by the Princess singers and dancers.

The ship sailed to Ketchikan while we slept.

Day #9: Skagway

We ate our breakfast at 7:00 AM and were on the gangway leaving the ship by 8:10 to catch the Out to the Klondike Summit bus tour that began at 8:30.

As we were leaving we noticed that the water level was very low.

When we returned later in the day, the tide was high.

There's not much to say about that bus tour.  It wasn't very long.  We were back at the ship by 10:00AM.  It was foggy so we couldn't see much.  The ad promised lots of photo opportunities.  We had two stops that were lackluster.  The bus tour followed some of the White Pass Trail.  Our tour guide, Pete did give us some interesting information about Skagway and tried his best to make the tour meaningful.  We saw a valley where 3,000 horses were said to have perished during the gold rush.

We did enjoy seeing the fireweed... true.

After returning to the ship, it was still too early for lunch so we just grabbed another breakfast buffet.  There are so many choices that it was easy enough to find something else to eat.

We walked out to Skagway, visited some shops and did the usual tourist type shopping.  Our cruise book had an ad to visit certain shops to collect a FREE charm and coin.  We were told it was a fun thing to do.  The first shop was fine and we got our charm and coin.  It's a chain of jewelry shops and it is definitely a tourist come-on.  The second shop had an extremely annoying, obnoxious salesperson who insisted we had to try on a bunch of rings or jewelry of some sort.  There was NOTHING in the cruise ad that said you had to try on jewelry at these shops.  This was such a turn-off. 

Once that was over, we walked to a river where Pete had said it was the end of the line for salmon after they had done their spawning.  It was sad to see so many salmon coming to the end of their lives.

We could see the salmon coloring had changed to gray and white.  Salmon at this stage are apparently not very good to eat for humans.  Bears don't care.

We saw a lot of salmon who had already come to the end of their life cycle.

Here's another one of those "Killer" red squirrels.

Mom and Auntie Grace love their sweet wine so we surprised them with some sangria that we purchased during our walk through Skagway.  It was a lot cheaper than the $30 bottle of wine we purchased for them during the first formal night in the dining room.




OK... here's some of delicacies that we enjoyed on this evening.

Herb and Sea Salt Marinated Seafood Antipasto,  Creamy Lemon Emulsion

Nippy Peach Soup with Sparkling Prosecco

Baked Zucchini with Cheese and Onion Stuffing

Classic Veal Scaloppine in Marsala Sauce

Gamberi alla Fra Diavolo (Flambeed Scampi in Hot and Fiery Marinara Sauce, Pearl Rice)

Tiramisu

After dinner, mom and Auntie Grace loved seeing the Fiesta String Quartet from Ukraine perform.
All in all, an OK day.  The food was the highlight.

Our regular server, Chris was from the Philippines.  Our maitre d', Ricky was from the Caribbean.  Another girl who also served us was Victoria from Hungary and the head waiter was Loida's husband, David (also from the Philippines).  They REALLY worked hard to make our meals perfect and they always made our days end on a high note.

Day #8: Glacier Bay National Park

Art got up at 5:45 and went jogging on the deck.  I woke up at 6:30 and we went to breakfast at around 7:15.  After breakfast, we went to buy tickets for the Totem and Eagles Shore tour in Ketchikan.  We were told this would be an awesome experience.  It cost $139.00 a person.  Rather steep, but most of the excursions were quite expensive.

We then went to a short Ranger talk about Glacier National Park.  We walked around the atrium and saw a display of t-shirts for sale.  The prices were actually quite decent so... of course... we bought some.

Lunch was an excellent buffet.  The early morning had been fog shrouded but it soon lifted to a magnificent sight.

We all took a walk around the deck.  Auntie Grace took the lead.  She has got energy to spare.  She is fabulous about encouraging her slightly older sister (mom) to do and try different things and is always game for new adventure. 

Walking around the deck, the views were breathtaking. 

At the end of the bay, we came right up to the Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers.  The Margerie is a beautiful whitish-bluish color.  The Grand Pacific is gray and dirty with sediment deposits from the smaller Ferris Glacier that it connects with upland.

I'm surprised the ship didn't capsize with everybody leaning over the side looking at the glaciers and waiting for it to calve. 

We waited and waited.  Sigh...  Nothing happened.  The captain finally had to leave without our seeing any chunk of ice fall into the water.

Then we walked around the ship some more.  This is the front of the ship.  Ummm... nobody was in the water.

In the middle of the ship was a giant movie screen.  They did show The Green Lantern and the deck became very crowded.  However, we opted not to watch.

Here's the back of the ship.

Cruising is really so much about the food.  We took tons and tons of photos of food but here's just a sampling of our dinner.

Marinated Vegetable Antipasto with Basil Oil

Provencal Style King Crab Legs Tossed in Garlic Butter

Fried Tofu with Miso Sauce and Chinese Pea Pods

Turf Beef Tenderloin Surf Jumbo Shrimp

Steamed Cod over Warm Lentil Salad

Oh shucks!  We forgot to take a photo of the dessert menu so I can't remember the name of this dessert.  Take my word for it.  It was fabulous!

This was a cheesecake.  It was all so very beautiful which made us just want to look at it and not eat it.

But we did.