Pacific Northwest Trip, Part Nine

The next day we headed towards Juneau, stopping first to spend several hours at Mendenhall Glacier. The weather was about the worst we had had -- a steady rain. Mindful of the illness that had run through the ship the previous week, I decided to spend all my Mendenhall Glacier time at the visitors' center. Joe was undaunted by the rain, and headed off to explore and even to walk on the glacier.

We both took pictures.

A less-than-terrific view of the glacier, photographed through the window at the visitors' center.

Another beautiful part of Mendenhall.

The visitors' center kept me occupied for quite some time. Who could resist this invitation?

200-year-old ice.

There was quite the emphasis on ecology and living responsibly; this area invited people to say what they were going to do differently after learning about climate change.

And then we were off to Juneau. A town somewhat bigger than we were used to in Alaska, Juneau had several streets thick with retail opportunities.

Joe was having some trouble with his camera in Juneau; we spent some time looking for a camera shop to seek advice. This didn't yield anything, so it was kind of up to me to be the photographer for a short time using my iPhone. Once we got back to the ship and a drier atmosphere, Joe's camera recovered, so we attributed the problem to all of the moisture at Mendenhall.

We were hungry and decided to give the Red Dog Saloon a try. I must confess that I absolutely loved it!

There was sawdust all over the floor, the place was packed,  and big game antlers and all manner of artifacts covered the walls.

The honky-tonk piano player was terrific; he had several different tip jars atop his piano. I chose to make a deposit into his Viagra Fund.

Our somewhat scantily-clad waitress was good-natured and efficient. She seemed to take a shine to Joe, who enjoyed a reindeer sausage sandwich while I partook of a rockfish sandwich. Both were just delicious!

When we finished lunch the rain had pretty well cleared, so we visited some of the shops, but didn't make any purchases. We'd been without internet for a few days and learned that the Juneau Public Library had computers that we could use without charge for thirty minutes each. So we caught up on our email and read the news. Soon it was time to go look for our bus.