Friday 16 May to Juneau

A fair bit of rock and roll overnight with high swells but I slept soundly. Clocks back an hour so we had another sleep in with breakfast in our room at 8am. Hopefully the clouds will lift and no rain. It is currently 8 degrees at breakfast.

Time to head out for coffee and then check out the line dance class. The small dance floor was packed, people were spilling out onto the carpeted area. I gave it a try but was too crowded and much more like jazzasize than line dancing so I abandoned it. As we get closer to Juneau the scenery certainly changes.

There are at least 3 other cruise ships already docked when we arrive. We had an early lunch of fish and chips and then met Jeffrey aka Santa Claus, who was taking those of us not doing afternoon tours, a guided walking tour of downtown Juneau there was light rain a lot of the time we were walking but not enough to dissuade us from being out and about.

Joe Juneau had the town named after him because when it was time to vote on a name for the city, he bought everyone drinks, hence the capital of Alaska the 49th state of the USA (which the Yanks bought from the Ruskies,) was named Juneau. There's your fun fact for the day. Now the only reason the Yanks bought Alaska was because William Seward saw its potential so he paid Putin's predecessors $7 million and 2 years later gold was discovered. There's your second fun fact for the day. I'm on a roll...

Next we saw the Liberty Bell. Okay it's not the original one, because that's in Philadelphia but apparently each Stae of the USA got its own replica. Woo hoo!

We then made our own way wandering around the town and found ourselves at the Red Dog Saloon. Their signature drink is a shot glass of Duck Fart.I simply had to have one and downed it in one swig. Immediately prior to drinking it, one is required to say " Quack, quack. Knock this shit back!" For the uninformed, it is Kahlua, Baileys and whiskey. very nice...

We then headed back to the ship to rug up for our planned helicopter ride to the Mendenhall Glacier. I wasn't 100% sure that it would go ahead due to low cloud but thankfully it wasn't cancelled as happened the last time I was here however many years ago that was. It was amazing to be walking on a Glacier in the middle of a mountain range. very different from Athabascar, much more rugged and remote.

Time to head back to the ship and then straight to dinner which was fairly average. Then back to the cabin for the blog and then bed. We have an early start in the morning for our next adventure. It's been a good day today!