Land of the Midnight Sun? Well Maybe 4 AM...

Juneau…..I woke up and went outside to look around and we are already in the Gastineau Channel. I tidy up all our electronics that are charging, pick up all the crap we left laying around and make a place for room service to put the tray. I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth but took my watch to see what time it was. It was now 4:45 AM! Since we don’t even dock until 8 AM, I promptly went back to bed. The length of the day light here makes it hard to gauge the time. I was up before we arrived though and watch us dock. It is cloudy and overcast and threatening rain but I just know it will be sunny partly because our on ship paper says so and partly because Kay says so. Juneau (pronounced Juno) is the only state capital that you cannot get to by land—you either get there by plane or boat! I didn’t know that or maybe didn’t care before I got here but we are here. Since our tour is in the afternoon, we head into town on foot and it was exhausting…joking it was at the end of the gangway…literally we were in downtown. We walked through the shops and along the waterfront. We stopped at a local bakery and got some scones and tea (how British). We buy a few things to keep the local economy going and head back to the ship to drop them off and pick up our tour tickets to go meet for our excursion. When we get back to the room there is a letter waiting for us that states (we wrote to the tour manager of the conditions on our Halibut fishing experience) that Holland America Lines is refunding the entire amount of the tour to our on board accounts as a measure of good will. Wow, I must say I didn’t expect it but we wrote not to complain but to let them know about using this charter service in the future. Yes Debbie, this is impressive! Anyway, pleased with the results of our previous harrowing experience, we head out to our Taku Lodge, Feast and Float Plane Experience. We are all required to state our weight which they promptly write in huge numbers (Keith, even Cape Air didn’t humiliate you this way) on your ticket and put us into groups and finally had the right mix of fat and skinny people per plane. Kay has done this tour before and said it was worth the $300 we were spending. We have been watching the planes take off and land all morning but I am a bit apprehensive considering these planes are 60 years old! There were 10 of us per plane and 4 planes. Ours was the last one to leave and as he started the engine (only 1) and we started moving away from the dock it was really a cool experience taking off from the water. We were quickly in the air and heading over the mountains. You put on a headset when you get in and there is a recorded narration of both the safety instructions (Kay and I were pointing out the exits and how to buckle your seat belt like a flight attendant would normally do) and a description of what to look for below. This was “Oh God, Part 2” in a good way! I am now convinced this is the only way to see Alaska because you can see the vastness of the land and the sea surrounding it. We do see herds of mountain goats and once I thought I saw a black bear but it is difficult to say for sure when they disappear into the brush and trees. Next minute we are flying over a glacier and from this viewpoint you can finally appreciate who far they go and actually see how it just tumbles into the sea at the end,..wow is all I can say but we are not anywhere near being done. After flying from one glacier to another and over marsh and mountains, we see another glacier out of the window and we are flying lower and lower and lower…..we land just in front of it!!! Up the hill to the right is the Taku Lodge nestled in the trees and all alone out here in this wilderness. I am so awe struck I can hardly speak. We head up the hill and they are grilling the salmon on the huge grill outside of the lodge (it smells so good) and a couple guys with huge bamboo type poles are standing guard and staring into a tree just to the right. There is a black bear up there staring back at us!! OMG! We take some photos and head inside to stake our place at the table. They have a fire going and a huge moose head over the fireplace. We are later told all the animals hanging on the walls were caught in the woods close by over the years. It is so hard to look at this setting and imagine what the conditions were like 80 years ago when this place was built. On the fireplace mantle are their plates that had been signed by recent guests to the lodge in the last few weeks…Paula Dean was there last week and Reba McIntyre just had 2010 on hers. There is a gift shop and a hiking trail although I would be concerned about what I would encounter here. We are soon called to dinner by the young people working here, most just for the summer. The salmon was absolutely delicious! Kay hates salmon but says this is the only place she can eat it. The whole meal was good and the iced tea (and apparently all their ice is harvested from the water near the glacier just yards away) had glacier ice. The lady sitting across from us said her iced tea tasted “fishy” and she was sure they washed their dishes by hand and they weren’t cleaning and rinsing them properly. Ok then. We have found on this cruise that there are many things people complain about which only firms up in my mind that I could never have a job like this because I would have to throw these chronic complainers overboard! Anyway, more on that tomorrow as we will sum up the people and ship then. After walking the property and taking tons of photos of this beautiful place, we head back to the dock as the planes land again full of the next group that will enjoy this wonderful lodge. Again going back are views that are stunning and then we can see Juneau again and the cruise ships up ahead. We land next to the ships (now there is another HAL ship the Volendam) which wasn’t there when we left and the Island Princess is departing. Kay and I head back to the ship and open up our last bottle of wine that we brought on. Since tomorrow is a sea day (our last one) we had reservations at the Italian place for dinner…again the service was exceptionally slow, then I went to the casino for a while and played slots, then 3 card and didn’t do bad but didn’t win either. This table has been empty almost the whole cruise Debbie..usually if I play it is me and the dealer. Last night the girl who was the dealer had been on Carnival her previous 6 contracts she said she knew Amber our casino hostess on the South America cruise! Kay went to the piano bar to hear Diane Fast her name is and she is quite good and has made it lots of fun in there. I joined Kay later and we stayed until her last set was finished. My brother in law Glenn would have loved last night in there since it was her “Diana Krawls?” (not sure of spelling) night and she did “Popsicle Toes”. She did Margaritaville last week and at the chorus where it says “some people say there’s a woman to blame” she had the girls yell “yeah right”, then the guys yell “make me some pie” and then the girls yell “make your own damned pie” and then the guys yell “yes dear” and we all died laughing. That became our saying for the cruise that would make us laugh was “make me some pie” and then Kay would say “make your own damned pie” and we would laugh and laugh. Now the other night we are watching this western on TNT with Tom Selleck and he saves this Indian Squaw from the local hoodlums and the hoodlums yell back at Tom….”get your own damned squaw”…we as usual, found this extremely funny. Our cabin steward thinks we are so funny because we are always laughing. Last night we came back to see another towel of indeterminate animal…we are going to leave Luki with funds to go back to towel animal school. Again, my clothes are drying on the balcony as we speak.

I have been writing for nigh onto two hours now. Kay had gotten up, drank juice, went back to sleep, got up again, finished her breakfast, showered, complained about the “blitch” (this is Filipino for bleach) on her pajamas and I am still sitting here or was. After she read about the “blitch” I had to shower so now I am back and will post this so that we can actually do something on our last full day at sea. Tomorrow morning will be packing as we will arrive in Victoria at 4 pm. Kay is on the balcony and has just spotted some dolphins Carol…now that everyone on the ship has heard about them, the ship is listing to the starboard side as they run with their walkers and sticks to take photos…ok that is your last laugh for today