July 21, 2016: Juneau, Alaska

As we cycle back home we are once again visiting the state capital of Alaska, Juneau. While checking to weather and temperature we were pleasantly surprised to see our Amsterdam in port right along side of us. A couple of texts later and we were able to have a brief visit with a wonderful crew member and friend on the pier, always great to see you again Brooke. Our day was set to visit the Mendenhall Glacier using a local shuttle service. We have visited this Glacier twice in the past with HAL tours, although great tours we wanted to spend a bit more time with just the Glacier and the many hiking trails in the National Park. 

Great shuttle with great commentary along the entire route, our driver pointed out the govenors mansion where I just had to ask the question as to how it was possible to see Russia from the front porch, there were a few chuckles on bus. For anyone interested, $30 pp round trip leaves every half hour on the top and bottom of the hour - Glacier Express.

Going to have to go back and check my pics from 10 years ago as it looks like this Glacier is in a quick retreat, still very impressive but seemed much closer to the falls back then. Our hike was to the Nugget Falls, a 45 minute round trip from the information centre. Easy walk and well worth it. The Mendenhall Glacier  is one of the arms off of the Juneau Ice Field which extends from here all the way to Ketchikan, it is massive. We did this hike followed up to visit to the information centre and capped it off with watching the salmon run on the Steep Creek Trail. A nice day followed with a fun lunch at the Red Dog Saloon and a stroll through town as we watched the Amsterdam makes it turn and departed. Some retail therapy along with some free wifi closed our visit to Juneau.

Well not so fast, tender lucky number 13 is causing us a problem and a big problem it is. They had to call a barge in to help remove it. The barge was scheduled to arrive at 7:30, at 9:15 it came along side our ship. A few adjustments to the equipment and I guess it was time for a break so here we sit and sit and sit, oh it's 10:30 I think I see some movement. Long story short we are here for a while and it is possible that we could miss out on Ketchikan tomorrow. This is when booking a tour on your own could be a problem, I have sent two emails and made a complimentary phone call to the tour company (thanks HAL), so we will see how our tour will be dealt with. Can't really give them too much information as nobody really knows what our timing is. We may be out of here by midnight but at the speed these guys are working at, good luck. The Captain is hoping for midnight and has indicated a 2:30 arrival in Ketchikan but as this cannot be confirmed we do not have an adjusted departure or all aboard time. Oh the joys of travel.

Here are some pics of the day, hope you enjoy... Look forward to letting you know about tomorrow, one thing I know for sure is our arrival in Vancouver, this for some reason is a guarantee, lol.