DAY 4---JUNEAU, ALASKA

 BACKGROUND INFO

JUNEAU

        The City and Borough of Juneau is the capital city of Alaska and has a population of nearly 32,000.  Between the months of May and September the population can grow about 6,000 daily from visiting cruise ship passengers, us included.   It is the second largest city in the US by area and is located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of Alaska.  It has been the Alaskan capital since 1906 when it was moved from Sitka.  The area of Juneau is almost as large as Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

        Juneau is named after a gold prospector named Joe Juneau.  Mining began here in the 1880’s.  Juneau grew from the growth of state government once Alaska became a State in 1959.  The biggest growth was due to the construction of the Alaska Pipeline in 1977.  Cruise passengers have increased from 230,000 per year in 1990 to well over 1,000,000 now.  The economy is driven by state government which employs roughly half, followed by tourism, fishing and mining.  Another bit of trivia:  Juneau is the only US capital city that is not connected to the rest of the state, or even North America as far as that is concerned, by roads.  There is ferry service for cars however.

LAST EVENING

                                                                Grey Goose martini

                 Hendra was our waiter in Compass Rose.  We have known him for a long time.

        Jessica, head sommelier, suggested this carmenere red wine to compliment our dinner.  Here Elvin, our sommelier this evening, is opening it.

                                             We all started with the vegetable spring roll.

               The we all had this Szechuan beef stir fry with Jasmine rice.  Always very good.

        After dinner we headed to the theater for the 9:30 show.  Rebecca and I were the only ones on the front row.  Arianne led the show off with some 60's & 70's rock n roll songs.  Her performance was great.

                      Next was Marsha with a very high energy show featuring soul songs.

     Both singers were very good and we gave them a standing ovation at the end of their show.

TODAY

          Up and attem at 6am.  Very foggy and 50 degrees when I opened the curtains.  At 6:30 I went down to get our Americanos as usual.  

        Rebecca has room service breakfast every morning.  Had been ordered for 7:30 but moved the time up to 7:00 today.  At exactly 7:00 this was delivered.  Scrambled eggs, sausage, and salsa.  Jeff and I went up to La Veranda at 7:30 for our breakfast.

                                            Jeff and I both had the special of the day.

                                                A few potatoes, mushrooms, and a sausage.

        Rebecca and I were originally booked on a helicopter tour that was to land on two glaciers and let us walk around on them.  We did this on a previous cruise and was my first ride in a helicopter.  Well, Rebecca did not want to go so I had hers transferred to Jeff.  Before we arrived in Juneau this morning we got a call saying it was cancelled due to the weather.  The tour price was $499 but with our Diamond discount it was to only cost us $199 each.  That was refunded.  

        So now Jeff and I have no tours booked here.  With this damp, light rainy day I did not go down and try to book something else.  After lunch I think Jeff and I may walk into town which is just off our pier.

                           There is a Princess ship, Carnival ship, and another one already here.

                                              We will be docking between these two ships.

                     About to dock.  Luckily we have the city view from our balcony today. 

                                                         The city is just off our pier.

                                                                Fishery icehouse.

        Lunch with Jeff again up in La Veranda.  Forgot my phone so no food photos.  I had an empanada and pasta.  After lunch we asked Jeff to come to our suite so we could divulge our estate plan with him.  This to give him his first idea of what he may be inheriting.

        After that he was going to walk into town.  I decided not to go as it was cold and too wet.  Actually this is typical Alaska weather.  We're been here on several other cruises so nothing I need here.  Rebecca called her good friend, Kaye Hill, since we have cell coverage here.

                                                   Closer view of the downtown area.

        There is a pre-dinner show at 5:45 this evening.  It is featuring Chris Lash a singer.  We have not seen his shows before.  We plan to go and listen to the first 15 minutes of his show before heading for our cocktail hour.  

        Here is tonight's Compass Rose menu.  We did not care for it so last night Mihai, the Food & Beverage Director and John, Executive Chef, came to our table to say hello.  I asked Chef John if we could have veal osso bucco in a red wine sauce served of creamy polenta.  But I also asked for a double order of black mussels in a white wine sauce as my appetizer.

        The show at 9:30 is featuring the singers in the production show cast doing "Broadway in Concert".  We plan to see this show.  We've seen this on several other ships but not this cast doing it.

        We are sailing again at 9:00 tonight.  It's only 91nm up to Skagway where we will be docked by 7am tomorrow.