July 26 Juneau

 It's on to the state capital of Alaska, Juneau.  It's a rainy day, not heavy, not enough for ponchos, but coming more like a mist.  Our Destinations Manager Antonia has a solution.

 We had to tender ashore because three BIG ships got the port berths.  Once again we're stuck at the little kids table.

If it weren't for the weather, we would have thought we were in a Caribbean port.  This (empty at 9am) street was lined with jewelry shops.  Diamonds International was one of the big ones.  The locals told us these shops are owned by the cruise lines -- Holland America for example. I personally have already purchased a lifetime supply of tanzanite and wasn't interested.

 

Here's a street I won't be walking down in Juneau.  Apparently bears don't mind the steps.  One jewelry store owner showed us pictures of a bear coming into his store, with cub in tow.  He didn't say what kind of jewels they were after -- diamonds, tanzanite, Rolex...

Street art outside the Juneau Public Library.

The Alaska Capitol building, with a statue of William Seward in front.  Seward was the purchaser of Alaska which was called Seward's Folly during his lifetime.

We spent a few minutes talking to a security guard outside the Capitol who invited us to go in and walk around.  He said, "You've passed the security test."  Apparently anyone can walk around the Capitol if they're so inclined.  Neither chamber was in session, so few people were around.  We could walk past all of their domestic touches.

Embossed are on a meeting room door.

We could walk into the viewing galleries of the chambers.  This is the House chamber.

And the Senate.  It appears that the senators can pick their chairs.

As a call back to their origin, here are two phone booths on the ground floor, complete with ROTARY phones.  Don't know if they work.  The drink machine does work.

We walked up the hill to the Russian  Orthodox Church.  Not very impressive for a state capital.  But then it wasn't a state when the Russians were here.

Street art on a parking garage.

There was a large float plane base here in Juneau.  It was the hub of the hub-and-spoke system.

View down the wharf on the walk back to the ship.  This was the worst weather we walked around in for the entire cruise.  The Hubbard Glacier was worse, but we were safely aboard ship for that day.

While we were dining at the back of the ship, in the course of ten minutes all five planes of the airline landed on the water.  Ten minutes later they all took off again. Fascinating.