Juneau

The cruise line has several tour options in each  of their ports of call.  Now you can sign up for the same tours on land and save 50% of the cost, since they want their cut of your wallets content!  But, if you are planning on leaving town for an adventure ... well if you book through the cruise line, they guarantee to wait for you if your tour is delayed for some reason!

Big deal you think?  Well, the one guy whom had to hire a speed boat out of Juneau to catch the liner, they transfer at full speed to the ship's gangway ... will never do that again!  Yeah, it was hair raising for him.!   And I heard that four had to pay big bucks for a flight to Skagway for the same reason.  Suddenly, a few hundred seems a small cost!

Juneau surprised me in that it is no larger than my small town, less than 35,000 people without cruise ships in port!  And seems to be split into two parts: a tourist area by the port and a main section where the government is located.

Of course, the big attraction is a cable car which runs almost straight up the side of one of the mountains! I think everyone on the boat got in line for this - but this boy was born to keep his feet solidly on the ground!  Yeah, you should see me squeal when I have to fly!  Well, maybe you shouldn't, it is not pretty ...

I opted for two tours since we had a full day.

A morning hike to the Mendenhall Glacier.  It was beautiful.
The salmon were running and filled the streams.  The counters said that they were getting over 800 fish an hour!  In those tiny waters!  Yes the smell of rotting fish filled the air and I was more than a little nervous at the thought of hungry bears sniffing around!  Certainly, there were plenty of sign!

In the afternoon,  It was time to hunt whales!  I managed photos of dorsal fins of humpback and killer whales, plus two kinds of dolphins and a sea lion!  In all our boat pilot managed to find us 14 whales.  Very impressive!

Back at the ship, after a long day of hiking and bouncing around with no food(!), I hit the buffet table like it was the last food on the planet!

I slept like a rock!