Juneau Day!

It started with breakfast and then a swim because we had time before docking in Juneau at 1:30 this afternoon. I say “swim” but I should say hot-tub, because that was the priority. Then a bit of a swim just because there’s a pool there, then hot-tub again. Note: there’s a dolphin statue in the pool.

Then morning naps. Yes. Morning naps. Glorious. Mum missed one episode of West Wing, and then I missed the next. Then lunch, then a couple more episodes. We were almost done the second when the announcement came saying we were allowed off the boat, and we decided to just finish it off before going. You know. To skip the immediate rush of people piling of the boat straight away.

We looked at 2 museums in our time off the boat. The last time we were in Juneau it was the 4th of July and so the museums weren’t open, so we had to make up for that. In exchange, this time we didn’t trek all the way up the hill to the top of the town for the view like we did last time. But last time there was nothing else to do. And this time it was rainy so the view wouldn’t have been as splendid.

We saw the Alaskan State Museum first, which took us back in time to the indigenous villages and explored their way of life, through Russian, American, British colonizers, through to being a state, and what’s up now. Lots of great artifacts. My fave are the indigenous weaving and crafts, of course, but I also have never given any thought to Russian colonizers so that’s interesting. Also! Alaskan involvement in WW2! Also! The first tourists to visit were in the 1880s, coming to look at glaciers and gold miners.

The next museum was focused on Juneau itself. No Russians, but lots of gold.

Tomorrow is Skagway, and we’re taking the train through the White Pass. And then shopping.

I had a beautiful Malbec with dinner tonight, which may have been a mistake since wine makes motion-sickness worse. But! We’re only moving overnight tonight and landing at 6:30am tomorrow, so likely I will be asleep for most of it; the waters aren’t rough here; we’re not moving all day tomorrow. So I’ll see how it goes.

P.S. Mum now thinks that the hardware store we’re looking for is actually on the boardwalk by the pier in Ketchikan. Ketchikan. It wasn’t in Juneau. We did find an all-purpose hardware/homegoods/hobby/toy store that was most enjoyable. I purchased a power bar for our room, as we found we only have one power outlet and four (4!) electronics that need to be charged.