Our day in Juneau started with overcast skies and a very light mist. That didn't stop us from seeing the sights!
Our first sight of Juneau was this interesting waterfall off the mountain that appeared to disappear into the city itself.
Our adventures began with an excursion to see how dog sled teams train in the summer. We were able to take a spin on their summer sleds (with tires) then we got to spend some time with "our" sled team. As you can see in the video, most of them really enjoy interacting with us. The seasoned veterans of the team lead with the 'newbies' bringing up the rear. The youngest on our team was the black dog in the very back - her name is Joker and she is VERY enthusiastic. After the sledding, we were able to spend some time holding the newest of the sled dogs - they were 3 weeks old - and having some hot cocoa.
We learned about the heavy gear the Iditarod teams use and how the race got its start. We also learned a lot about the Alaskan Huskies that were bred specifically for use as sled dogs. We discovered that there was no breed of dog that could handle the heavy loads of the sleds and have the speed necessary to travel long distances so humans bred Siberian Huskies to a variety of other dogs and, thus, developed the Alaskan Husky. Siberian Huskies, we were told, are more suited for transporting heavy loads over short distances and the Alaskan Husky is more muscular and streamlined.
After we returned to the city, we walked around seeing the sights.
This picture of the bear is directly in front of the Capitol building in Juneau.
This is called the 4-story totem. Not because it is 4 stories tall, but because it tells 4 stories! This is outside of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. The museum used to be the sight of Juneau's public library. In front of this building is a U.S. Flag with 49 stars. Our tour guide told us that this building is the only place in the country that is authorized to fly this flag. The library was also the place where the citizens gathered to party when the territory was granted statehood on January 3, 1959.
This building is the Alaska State Capitol Building. It is very unusual in that it looks more like an office building than the traditional state capitol buildings in the lower 48.
This totem is called the "Old Witch." It is inside one of the government buildings. The totem was carved in the 1880's. We were told that the indigenous peoples who carved the totems never intended them to last forever. If left outside, the totems would break down after about 20 years. Totems were carved for many reasons - to celebrate a person, to shame someone, etc. This was a dying art as most indigenous people in Alaska were forbidden to practice their native traditions; however, there is now an active attempt to bring back these arts.
This is the Alaska Governor's Mansion. It sits as one of the highest residences in the City of Juneau. Also, we learned that Juneau is completely cut off from the rest of the state and can only be accessed by ferry or plane. The reason is that Juneau is completely surrounded on land by glaciers and ice fields over which roads cannot be built.
This is an Eastern Orthodox Church. It was one of the first churches to be built in Juneau. The reason that this church was among the first is because Russia originally owned Alaska and Juneau had a large population of Russians living here, and they were primarily of Eastern Orthodox faith. This is still an active church. We toured the inside (we did not take pictures) and we learned that congregants stand during the entire service.
After the walking tour ended we headed back to the ship to rest up for our next day's adventures in Skagway, Alaska. Thank you for viewing and stay tuned for our Skagway post!
Icy Strait Point, AK is near Hoonah, AK. Hoonah is home to indigenous Alaskans who traditionally were loggers and fishermen. As those industries are dying out they have developed Icy Strait Point for tourism and they offer many activities including: Whale Watching, Zip Lining, ATV and Jeep Expeditions, Wildlife and Bear searches, Ocean Rafting, Hiking, and other leisure activities such as Beachside Crab Feasts.
We chose to do Whale Watching and they guaranteed we would see whales or our money back. We didn't take many pictures on the island but there are a few in the video below.
We created this video during day 8 in Skagway, AK but was unable to get it uploaded before the ship sailed. Now we are on land in Anchorage, AK and we hope to have time to catch up on our postings.
Ketchikan is the Tinglet Indian name for 'Thundering Wings of an Eagle'. It gets 240 days of rain or snow a year, mostly rain. It has a population of about 8200. It is the earliest incorporated city in Alaska. It has the worlds largest collection of standing totem poles. It is located in the Tongass National Forest.
Ketchikan, AK
We had 7 hours in Ketchikan to do any activities. We decided to go Kayaking. Our kayak trip was out of Clover Pass Marina and was about 4.5 miles. They made us sign a waiver because Alaska is inherently dangerous and if we got eaten by a whale they would not be responsible. Fortunately no whales were spotted. But we did see an Eagle. We didn't do much else in Ketchikan.
Not much went on today. It was very foggy and we couldn't see much beyond the sides of the ship. Later in the afternoon the fog cleared and we were able to see whales in the distance. I got a video with my cell phone of one blowing it's spout then dive. We expect to have better video from day 7 when we take a whale watching tour.
The Internet on the ship is pretty bad so we are a couple of days behind. Our only hope of uploading anything, pictures or video, is over the mobile network while in port.
This is the day we've been waiting for. Time to board the ship and head to Alaska. We got a quick breakfast, packed, then took an Uber to the terminal. It was relatively easy to get through check-in and Customs. Now to the ship - Celebrity Millennium.
In our stateroom we found an invitation to a sail away party on the helipad. Not sure why we got this inventation but we went.
And they served drinks
The Cruise Terminal
Our last view of Vancouver
Lion's Gate Bride on our way out
As we were moving out of the bay a little red boat was passing us on the right. They were pulled over by the Port Authority. Not sure why. I assume they were not supposed to pass the cruise ship as it was being escorted out.
The internet access on the ship is less than ideal. We are unable to post anything until we get into a port. Depending on mobile access speeds we may not be able to post videos. We should be able to post more tomorrow.
Today's activity was primarily renting some bikes and riding the 6 plus miles around Stanley Park on the Seawall path. The weather has been absolutely beautiful since we have been here. We brought mostly cooler weather clothes for our trip to Alaska. We did not expect such warm weather in Vancouver. It has been in the 80's each day. Tomorrow we plan on being on the cruise ship by lunchtime. We sail at 5PM.
We are staying at a nice and quaint hotel call Victorian Hotel. It's a very clean no frills hotel. We like it.
Covid Test
We had to do our Covid test today. It was a supervised self-test. Basically they watched us do it via a video conference. The whole purpose for this trip was to take the cruise so we were a little worried about the Covid test. But all is good.
Gina waiting on results
Gastown Walking Self-Tour
Now for our "Adventure". We decided to do a walking self tour around Gastown. We saw a couple of things that were noteworthy but our adventure came from some things that were not expected. We visited the Vancouver Lookout which is a 553 feet tall tower with a 360 degree view looking over Vancouver. From up there we can see various things to include Mount Baker which is in Washington state.
Vancouver Lookout
Sun Tower
Can you see Mt Baker in the hazy background
The Cruise Terminal
We also saw the Gastown Steam Clock. This clock runs on steam from a sidewalk steam vent. It was built in 1977 and is still in operation today.
We did go to the Maple Leaf Square only to find out that the statue of 'Gassy' Jack had been removed. Gastown was named after him. Nothing else on the official tour was noteworthy.
Now for the noteworthy items that were not on the tour that no one told us about. First we found that there are a lot of homeless people living in this area. We saw two parks that were primarily inhabited by the homeless. There were two aromas that were prevalent in this area: one being cannabis and the other was urine. We came across a sidewalk that was taken over by the homeless that was mostly tents. As we walked through this aria we saw drug use and what we think was a drug deal going down. We kept our eyes forward and moved quickly. We decided to cut out the last two destinations of our official walking tour to head back toward the hotel. But the show was not over. As we were waiting at a light to cross the road we saw two homeless men get into a fight. It ended with one man on the ground bleeding from his head while the other was yelling at him to leave. We decided to take a different route back to the hotel. I really wish I had my GoPro running during this adventure but I didn't feel it would be prudent to pull out my camera. I don't think the locals would of liked me recording their activities.
Devil's Elbow Ale House
Although if you ever find yourself in Vancouver, I would recommend the Devil's Elbow Ale House for a meal. It is a restaurant that prides themselves for serving southern cuisine food. One of the items on the menu was North Carolina Pulled Pork BBQ. Therefore we had to try it. While it was not the vinegar based BBQ we love, it was excellent.
On our first day traveling to Vancouver, BC, we didn't take many pictures or videos. We were primarily making sure we had all of our stuff and got to our flights on time. We had little trouble and our tickets were upgraded to first class.
We did see a beautiful sunrise in the BWI parking lot.
Once we got onto our first flight in the morning we were offered water or mimosas. We took the mimosas...of course. We were delightfully surprised to have them in REAL glasses,
According the United Airlines we were supposed to get a snack but it was more like a meal. Gina got the scrambled eggs. Again, our "snacks" were on real plates with real napkins and dinnerware.
As we were approaching Vancouver we got some good views out the window.
Once we landed in Vancouver we caught the CanadaLine train from the airport to downtown then checked into our hotel. Our challenge now was to stay awake as long as we could. We got up at 4AM and went to bed at 8PM which was like 11PM at home. The bad part is that we were up at 4AM the next day.
