Juneau

The day after our stop at Ketchikan, we stopped for the morning at Juneau.

 It was windy and raining but we pushed on regardless; getting a shuttle bus into the town centre.

 Ours was not the only cruise ship in port...just like the day before, we 'shared' the town with lots of other cruisers.

 Dh hates heights and had no intention of riding the Mt Roberts Tramway but insisted that the 3 of us girls did.

 He even 'shouted us' the tickets!

 The rain hampered our view a bit and near the top, the car blew around in the wind...we were so glad DH had not come up with us!

 Nearly at the top now...

 I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the buildings/facilities were at the top of the aerial tramway. But I was very surprised to see 'bears' up there...

 Hadn't they read the sign? lol! Obviously these bears had not ridden in the aerial tramway.

 There were shops, cafes, a theatrette and a wildlife education (Nature Centre)  centre in this complex on Mt Roberts. We watched a very informative movie, browsed through the souvenir shops and  bought a few things.
There was a lot of indigenous art works for sale and there was even a totem pole carver working area although the young man wasn't carving until just as we were rushing off to catch the next tram down.

 The main part of the totem being carved was covered during our visit

I loved this letter from a little girl; Emily obviously had pocketed some of the coloured rocks which are for sale and possibly her parents got her to write the apology and return the rocks. So refreshing to see a child being guided to do the right thing. The owners of the shop were obviously impressed also and had laminated the beautifully written letter.

Then we braved the wind and rain outside to visit a section of the Nature Centre that was close to the main building.

That's the Alaskan state flag flying there...
Our destination was the Raptor centre.We didn't have proper wet weather gear on so we waited until this first lot of people moved out of the way so we could go up on the walkway and not be standing in the rain.

That didn't take long and soon we were admiring the lovely Lady Baltimore, a bald eagle who was rescued after being shot in the head. She survived her injuries but is blind in one eye so does not have depth perception. This means she cannot hunt and is a permanent resident at the centre.

You can read more about her here.
Then it was time that we headed back down to meet up with DH who had been left to shop to his heart's content at ground level. :-)

 Fabric????

 That had to be checked out didn't it?

DH had asked me to help him find some fabric for DsD1, who is the only one of our girls who is a patchworker. In this lovely store it was easy to find something for her. This bundle is a line of fabrics which represent the colours of Alaska, especially the Northern Lights.

But I also bought fabrics for me! 

And another fabric for my fruit and veggie fabrics collection!

It was very misty and we were fascinated by the waterfalls we could see on the hills behind the town.

 A local suggested that a good view of those hills and waterfalls could be seen from the the top floor of the library building, so DH set off to check that out...

 It was a good view but the misty rain and low cloud does mask a lot of the view...

 Soon it was time to head back to the ship as this had only been a short stay in port. Our ship would sail just after 12.30pm.

A bit misty and bleak...

 On the way out of Juneau we saw this house clinging to the side of a hill...

 And also this huge house in a clearing, complete with a very tall waterfall behind it.

So we said goodbye to another Alaskan town.