Cruising to Alaska (day 4)

We didn’t have much time as we hit Juneau at 6:30 am and had to be back in the ship by 1:30pm. Further, we kind of woke up late under threatening skies, so we contented ourselves with a visit of Alaska’s capital.

Local merchants had just started the end of season’s sale and stores were busy with everything at 50% off. We managed to walk from the ship and return, and went all the way to the nondescript looking capitol building, conspicuously sans dome, in a city with a multitude of street moving straight up into the mountain. 

We found a series of interesting totem poles, all with a story and a complete explanation of what we were looking at. We didn’t have time for an excursion to Mendenhall Glacier. We had planned for helicopter or seaplane tout but the weather wasn’t making it worth the money asked by the various operators, so we returned to the ship for a late lunch. 

Later, that afternoon, we were supposed to explore the Endicott Arm, a fjord with cascading glacier, but half-way into it, the ship’s Captain decided to turn around as the abundant floating ice was, in his judgment to dangerous for venturing deeper into the gorge. Too bad. 

At night, we went to see a tribute Beatles band called “The Beatles Experience” from Argentina, that was just okay, including a low-key, right-handed Paul McCartney that had a tough time assuming that role…