Alaska Cruise: Juneau (8/1/2019)

Thursday, August 1, 2019
Breakfast in Tsar's Palace Restaurant.

Tsar's Palace Restaurant view of misty waters behind the ship

Pete, Dylan, and Erich arrive at Tsar's Palace

Erich was explaining why we had three knives and two forks, naming the butter knife, salad knife, and dinner knife, etc. Pete picked up his spoon and said, "This is a spoon." Grandpa S thought that was too obvious and pointed to his nose saying, "This is my nose." That brought hoots of laughter, and from then on, it was an inside joke to say: "This is a spoon. And this is my nose!"

View of Mt Roberts Tramway gondola to R of middle in photo

Arrived in Juneau at 11:00 and were ready to disembark immediately. Took a shuttle bus the mile towards the city. The drop off was at the Mount Roberts Tramway lower station. No line to board the gondola at this time of day.

Heading up Mt Roberts into the clouds

View down on the port of Juneau

Visited the Mt Roberts Nature Center:

Yikes! Kent's hand in a brown bear paw print

Important information!

Pete has the wingspan of a Red-tailed Hawk

Dylan has nearly the wingspan of a Canada Goose

Kent has nearly the wingspan of a Canada Goose

Erich has a wingspan greater than a Canada Goose
and nearly that of a Bald Eagle

Sambucus racemona/Red Elderberry
is toxic unless cooked (Ehs)

As one guide said: "All berries are edible, some only once."

Totem pole carving

A gondola heading into the cloud covering Juneau below

Below the cloud, a view of the city of Juneau

Whale tail sculpture (2017) 

Sculpture (1992, by Anna Burke Harris) of Patsy Ann,
a Bull Terrier and "Official Greeter of Juneau," who
from her arrival in Juneau in 1929 until her death
in 1942 somehow sensed the coming of ships
and trotted to the correct dock to meet them

Mural (1986, by Dan DeRoux) of turn-of-the-century passengers
on the Steamship Ancon

Memorial (1997) to the only Medal of Honor recipient
from Alaska, Archie van Winkle

We returned to the ship by shuttle bus, where the driver asked questions about Alaska, and thus we learned:
State Flower: Forget-Me-Not
State Mammal: Moose
State Fish: King Salmon aka Chinook Salmon
State Insect: Dragonfly
State Tree: Sitka Spruce
State Nickname: The Last Frontier
State Motto: North to the Future
Also, the State Bird is the Ptarmigan and the Capital is Juneau!
Next: Whale Quest and Mendenhall Glacier.