Before I move on to today’s port let me describe the rest of yesterday. Part of the reason for the extremely short stay in Juneau – besides the fact that the total number of ships in port = 6 (for an area with a normal population of 32k) is that there was the plan to cruise Endicott Passage up to the Dawson Glacier. (Note, this is what I heard over the tannoy. I can’t find a reference by this name. The closest I can come is a reference to the Tracy Arm which is here on Wiki. ) We weren’t able to get as close as last year, but it was obviously and appalling how much further it had shrunk in the ten months since I saw it last fall.
Today, compared to the last stop, the only other ship docked was the Celebrity Summit. Even so that obviously put more people onto this island than either live here – and certainly more people than bears.
No, thank goodness, I did not see any bears. I walked the trail fro the dock to the cannery,
looked around, used the Wifi (as the cell phone connection was worse than the outside deck of the ship) and then hiked back. I bought nothing, but noted that serious upgrade work had been put into the museum exhibits which now were all clear, readable, and obviously professionally done. It made it much easier to follow the story of the salmon canning which was the reason for the initial commercial expansion onto this location.
Today’s highlight was meeting some birders standing along the trail looking up into the trees toward the water. I asked, one of the guys helpfully pointed out the bald eagle purchased on the branch way up the tree and facing the river. And me without my good camera.
Do you see it?
How about now? With back to us and brown feathers all ruffled? I just couldn’t manage to get one with its head clearly visible…
I am now relaxing and making lists of what I will need to pack on Saturday night for our Sunday departure. Clothing might be important – I need to figure out what I will do for both a jacket and pick a sweater from the pile on the shelf. Then there are the electronics, camera, and, of course, stitching sufficient for 32 + days….
