Juneau

After I wrote yesterday's post, we still had several hours of sailing before we reached Sitka, Alaska.  The views continued to be stunning! 

For lunch, we decided to go to Izumi, and we had it all to ourselves for most of the time.  We both ordered salads that were pretty and tasty, followed by chicken teriyaki (not pictured).



It was incredibly windy on the deck outside Izumi, but Charlie managed to get this photo of some of the houses along the waterfront as we neared Juneau:


After lunch we ran into Montserrat, a former suite concierge we'd had on two previous ships. She is now a genie! I was amazed that she recognized us, given the hundreds of passengers she must have met since she last saw us.

Our ship was the FIFTH to arrive in Juneau, and we were relegated to a far-away port that required a shuttle bus, as it was an industrial port.  Given that and the fact that we'd been to Juneau before, we opted to stay on the ship again. As we told Nikki, our lounge concierge, this cruise is about staying cool and enjoying beautiful scenery, not the ports.  We had a nice view from our balcony, and we enjoyed watching all the sightseeing seaplanes come and go. (The cost per person for a 15-minute flight was $150, according to Nikki.)  Here's a video for Patrick, especially!


Last night we had dinner at Giovanni's Italian, and I enjoyed their always-good osso buco while Charlie had a steak.  Pistachio gelato was my dessert -- tasty!

This morning we dutifully walked while we had the sixth deck all to ourselves. Charlie spent some time in the casino while I did my Duolingo in the lounge. I had to include this next screenshot of Ketchikan's heat advisory warning for today:


We're back from lunch at Chops Grille and are on the balcony to await our arrival in Ketchikan.  The gangway doesn't go down until 3:00, with a back-onboard time of 9:30 p.m.  Will the Tolberts actually get off the ship today?  Stay tuned!  



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