Day 3: Juneau and Watching Bald Eagles Sail over our Hot Tub

Day 3:  Juneau and Watching Bald Eagles Sail over our Hot Tub

I had to ask someone what day of the week it is. Wasn’t sure if it was Monday or Tuesday! Then I realized it couldn’t be Tuesday because the All Star Game is tomorrow night! Anyway, we’re in Juneau, our first port of call.  Juneau is the State Capital and the interesting thing for State legislators is that to get here, they either have to fly in or come by boat.  Can’t get here by car!

The morning began early, sunrise was at 4am. The ship had entered the Inside Passage with mountains on both sides.  The water was relatively calm, almost like a lake.  It was quite cool and the sky was a deep blue. From our cabin window we saw several whales breaking the surface. Wow, who needs to spend big bucks for a shore excursion? This was free! In addition to the whales we saw several Bald Eagles.

We’ve been to Juneau before and had taken shore excursions with the exception of the Tramway to the top of Mt. Roberts.  So off we went on our own and were soon on the tram going up the 1800 feet to the top.  Our first stop there was a visit to the captured Bald eagle. She was found injured and nursed back to life.  She is unable to fly and is cared for by the personnel at the Mt. Roberts Nature Center. 

From there we started out on a nature walk.  I’ve been looking for a “Varied Thrush” ever since I started keeping a record of the birds I’ve seen.  I’m still looking because I didn’t find it.  We did see several Bald Eagles and some Ravens.  Our hike up the nature trail was shortened when we came upon some “fresh” bear droppings.  Fresh is the operative word.  I didn’t feel like walking into one of these animal so we decided to turn around and check out the café instead.  We selected a nice table on the deck and I had a hot chocolate and MA had a cup of coffee. For some reason the waitress said it was “on the house”!  We left a nice tip for her.

We rode the tram back down, stopped in a shop where I got another Alaskan cap.  I need another cap like I need a hole in the head, however, all my caps are back in Texas.  From there we made it back to the Star Princess and had lunch at the buffet on Deck 14. We practically had the place to ourselves, so I took a few pictures of the desserts just for fun.  We later enjoyed the pool, again just the two of us, also the hot tub and took it easy the rest of the day.  I’m guessing that well over half the passengers are here in Alaska for the first time, out there doing all the stuff we did on our first two trips up here.  This time we’re just “cooling it”, pretending to be “natives”.