2nd August 2016

Juneau Partly Cloudy Temp 17c

Today there are 4 ships in town including us. As we are the smallest ship we have to anchor and use the ships tender boats to get ashore. This is the first time so far on this cruise that we have tendered but we are told that in this case it’s not so bad because if we had docked there is quite a walk into town but our tender boats will drop us right in town. I will report later. Today we are booked on a tour entitled Town Tour, Tram & Timberline Trek which left at 12.20pm and we had to meet on the shore where the tender drops us. As we wanted to take a look around town first we caught a tender about 10.15am and it all worked smoothly. We went to the Marquis Dining room and were given a tender ticket number we sat there for a very short while and we were called to the tender boat along with about 90 others. As previously stated the ride was short and we did get dropped in the middle of town. After a brief look around it was time for coffee which was the only bad move we made all day, the coffee was not good. We then looked around the shops some more, bought a Frig Magnet passing the time until 12.20pm. There were only 7 people on our tour and we travelled in a minibus on our tour around the town, past the public buildings such as the State Capitol Building and the Governor’s house. We also visited the district where the wealthier miners would have lived when the gold mines were at their peak. The houses here are still very nice and still fetch a good price. Next we journeyed over the bridge to Douglas Island where there is an extinct gold mine. It is now the fashionable area to live and the town is expanding out this way. There is even a sandy beach there. The sand is not real sand but ground tailings from the mine.  After this short tour we were dropped off with our guide at the Mount Roberts Tramway which is actually a cable car which smoothly whisks you up 1800 feet over the top of tall spruce trees giving wonderful views. At the top our guide took us on a trek through the quiet solitude of the timberline. Some of us took advantage of the walking sticks which were offered including Betty. Our guide explained about the edible and practical uses of the flora. Along the track we past an authentic totemic Tlingit tree carving.   Tlingit people are of course the indigenous people of Alaska. After our circle walk we ended back at the Alpine Tea House where we had the opportunity to sample a variety of genuine, made in Alaska products, created from the bounty of the rainforest like Blueberry Tea and Elderberry Tea, Blueberry Jam and Alaskan Spruce Tip Jam. We now have some Blueberry Tea to take home. Our guide then left us to explore the gift shop on our own and we could return to sea level at our leisure, which we did knowing the last tender left shore at 4.30pm. The entertainment tonight is Guitarist & Vocalist Ric Steel but we have decided not to go and hear him but rather to return to our cabin and I am finishing this entry to our Blog before possibly having an early night. Tomorrow we will be in Ketchikan and we have another tour.