DAY 5, CONT. – WALKIN’ IN JUNEAU

Back in Juneau after the flightseeing tour over the glaciers, we still had almost three hours before we had to be back on the ship, so we went walking. Juneau is a great town for that.  

South Franklin Street is the “main drag” just across from the cruise ship terminals; then just before you get to the Glacier Smoothie Soaps Shop, highway 7 continues around the waterfront and Franklin goes more or less straight, heading into downtown. The street near the port is lined with all sorts of interesting little shops.

Many are what you expect in a cruise port: lots of jewelry shops selling diamonds and tanzanite, souvenir stores selling tee shirts and knick-knacks and refrigerator magnets. There are also a number of shops unique to Alaska, such as the many fur shops and the House of Russia.

The latter was one of my favorites, as it was full of the most intricate nesting doll sets I’d ever seen, along with lovely artwork reminiscent of the pre-Soviet era, the Czars and the Russian Orthodox Church.
 
Of course, it’s almost illegal to go to Juneau and not visit the Red Dog Saloon, so we stopped by there so Tom could get the obligatory photo to prove he’d been there (I already proved my presence back in May).

One of the things that I really love about Alaska is the wildlife. It was fascinating to see injured bald eagle in the raptor center, but even more so to see so many of them in the wild, soaring high above the town of Juneau as we walked.

The local crafts people have drawn inspiration from the birds (and other native wildlife), creating gorgeous pieces of art featuring them.

After a while, Tom got tired and decided to go back to the ship, but I wanted to walk some more. It’s a lot more fun to get my exercise on the streets of Juneau than in the ship’s fitness center, and I still had souvenirs to buy for some of my friends and family back home.

I walked for another hour or so, until it was getting close to “all aboard” time, then made my way – laden with packages – back to the Miracle and back to our cabin.

Back on board, it was soon time to get ready for dinner, which was delicious as usual. That evening, Tom even acquiesced to having a formal picture taken in the dining room (and it turned out pretty well. Unfortunately (or not, depending on your point of view regarding “food porn” pics), I didn’t take any photos of our dinner that night.

After dinner, we went to the theater for the Best of J.C. and the Miracles, followed by the Big Band show. We thought about checking out the Liar’s Club in the Mad Hatter Lounge, since there were no comedy shows scheduled for that night, but we decided we were tired after another long, full day – and even though Sunday was officially a “fun day at sea,” our dance card was pretty full. That’s when we were scheduled to do the Behind the Fun tour, and that night (the second elegant night), we had reservations in the Steak House.

We added the latest “creature creation” to our collection and turned in (somewhat early), looking forward to the next day’s funship adventures.

DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER
deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com