Slept better. Ish. Having a shower was an improvement. Surprisingly, despite the small room, the bathroom is quite reasonable. Bathtub with shower, vacuum toilet (like in an airplane), with enough room to change where you’re not needing to become a contortionist.
We ate breakfast in the Dining Room, with a window seat on the starboard side. Saw a whale flip a fin through the window, figures I didn’t have my camera with me. It was probably a humpback whale. I hope I see more.
After breakfast, I went for a walk around the Promenade deck again. I saw the pilot arrive from Ketchikan (the ship was emblazoned with “Ketchikan” on the stern). It’s a delicate dance of speed and precision. Even on calm waters, such as today, there’s a risk of being caught between hulls. The experienced folks make it look easy. A little while later, the excursion ship arrived to pick up a bunch of folks to whisk them off to the Taku Inlet for wildlife watching. I saw enough just off the side of the ship – more whales (possibly grey, not really sure). I found out later that my damn focus was off, having latched onto something else.
As we weren’t arriving in Juneau until 11am, we had time to attend a “Coffee talk” hosted by the Cruise Director, featuring the Executive Chef. This is a guy who runs a department of nearly half the crew – cooks, porters, wait staff, cleaners, prep cooks, and the bars, including three large kitchens that have to prepare thousands of means every day. The logistics to acquire all that food are impressive. Though perhaps not as impressive as the man himself. From India, he had been raised a vegan. But that was incompatible with being a chef in a kitchen. A former chef of his had once stated: “If you can’t taste the food, get out of the galley.” He had to learn to eat meat. His favourite dish, now? Steak tartare.
Following that was a presentation in the Crows Nest about the animals native to Alaska that we might see over the next few days. Presented by a native Hawaiian. He was good.
It’s wet and cold. I brought the right layers, but not by much. A little colder and it might be snowing.
We regrouped at the Dining Room for lunch — fish and chips, an appropriate meal before our visit to Juneau. We sat with two Aussies who were doing the cheaper tour than the ones we’d met the first night, two Americans from Georgia, and two fellow Albertans from Watrous who kept pretty much to themselves. The meal was decidedly lower quality than the conversation. Even our snail’s pace docking was more interesting than the meal.
Shore leave began shortly after. For a cruise line that’s stopped at this particular dock with this particular ship countless times before, this was a less-than-ideal experience, as they rammed everyone through one door. The line wrapped all the way around the floor. Why so long? Because everyone’s pass had to be scanned so they knew who was off the ship.
We walked down the steps, onto the pier, up the ramp, and onto the boardwalk to try and find a shuttle to get us further downtown. Which isn’t saying much, as we were already downtown, for all intents and purposes. Juneau isn’t very big and the bulk of the activity is around the main cruise ship dock. (I’m mildly convinced that if the cruise ships pulled out, Juneau’s economy would suffer, as about the only thing they seem to have is being the capital of Alaska.) Thing is, Juneau ain’t very big, and we ended up wasting time accidentally getting on a bus to the AJ Dock (where the Disney Wonder was berthed), which was when we found out it was the AJ Dock shuttle.
After disembarking from our little “tour”, we walked to Caribou Crossings, a gift shop that would, in theory, provide a selection of local and/or indigenous-crafted objects. Which it didn’t. And run by affluent white people. This was as far as Mom wanted to go.
We walked back, mostly as I wanted to make sure Mom got back to the ship. And my missions began.
Alex was not thrilled that I was going on a cruise to Alaska. Alex isn’t a fan of cruise ships, so it’s not the cruise per se – it was the destination. She’s wanted to come here for some time but we’ve never pushed to make a go of it before, especially with littler kids. (Alex really wants to see orca in the wild. So far, it’s been a net zero result.) So in lieu of her coming – this was a Mom and me thing – she had me hunt down some geocaches for her. And lest ye think I hate geocaching, I like the adventure part of it, so this was about as good a way for me to see Juneau as I was going to get.
I then walked south(ish) along the cruise ship boardwalk to the Ruby Princess berth for the first of three Adventure Labs. I would switch frequently between all three, as unlike regular geocaches, you can have Adventure Lab stops that practically overlap one another. This took me back north(ish) along the boardwalk, around the tip, through the Historic Merchant’s Wharf, along Egan Dr. to the Seawalk (stopping a couple of times for pictures), out to The Whale Project on the west side.
The Whale Project was a sculpture conceived by a local artist to feature a life-sized Humpbacked Whale breeching from the waters. It’s an impressive bit of work, which includes a regular fountain that helps give you the impression of breeching. And in the near-constant drizzle/rain, the whale was quite damp, which helped with the effect.
After point, I turned easterly, over Gold Stream, which looks little more than a water viaduct or open sewer, though is really meant to handle the sudden and significant flooding without causing significant damage to the city. I wound up the hillside to the Governor’s mansion, then over to Alaska’s Capital Building (easily the ugliest in the Union), before finally heading back to the ship … via a souvenir shop (as a parent, I had to come back with things for the kids). I changed when I got back, dripping from the rain.
Mom was waiting in the Crows Nest. We had a drink, talked a bit, then went for the salmon bake being held in the Lido Market. It had some highlights, but I don’t think I’ll ever find the equal of a meal Pam had arranged many, many Easters ago.
After dinner, Mom fixed our train tickets for tomorrow (more on that … tomorrow!). Then we went to see the magician, who while entertaining, relied heavily on mathematics, might have a PhD in psychology, and knows exactly how to shuffle a deck of cards to get exactly the order he wants (my only complaint was the sound guy had the music up way too loud, making the magician hard to hear).
We watched the Ruby depart from the outside Lido deck. It was a slow exit, turn, and depart down the channel out to wherever it’s headed next.
On our way back to our room, we ran into a couple from Vancouver, Washington who were on their umpteenth cruise. This spurred me to ask: “Why? Why keeping going on cruises?” Their point: cruises get a lot of repeats, not for the experience but for the easy of the holiday. A particular audience are repeat cruisers within 100 miles of Vancouver or Seattle – you basically drive to your hotel and check in. That your hotel happens to travel to other places becomes more of a bonus than the point.
I think I’m starting to understand.
