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Still wandering down the Inland Passage. Today we stop at Juneau, last here in 2007 with the Submariner cruise.
Our scheduled event was a whale-watching boat trip up the Lynn Canal waters. Onto the buses, and departed at 0730 for Auke Bay, north of town. We boarded a large catamaran with lots of windows and headed out. We had just barely reached Shelter Island when we saw our first humpback. He would blow (exhale) and breathe several times, then dive deep showing the markings on the underside of his flukes. The markings are distinctive, like our fingerprints.
We went farther north and found another whale, doing the same thing. Then we went around the top of Shelter Island into North Pass and came to a pod. Several whales were working close to each other. At one point three separate humpbacks did their deep dive together. I got a picture of two diving simultaeously side by side (right).
While all that was on-going, Glenn had taken the tram to the top of the mountain. While he was there, a thunderstorm came along. The tram shut down for fear of lightning, stranding him at the top. He had a sandwich and beer while waiting. Finally it opened and he came down.
He went into his cabin, turned on the lights, and the lights immediately went back off.
It turned out that the ship was on shore power, and all power in Juneau went down due to a lightning strike. Of course, the power in the ship went down with it. The ship scrambled to bring up power on the ship using ship's generators, but it took some time to reset things. Lights came up quickly but the elevators had to be brought back on-line one by one. Finally the Captain spoke on the loudspeakers to give us the above information.
About 1600 Guest Services requested a couple named Moe call them immediately. Either E310 didn't get back on time, or security missed them coming back aboard. At 1619 the Captain told us that everyone was now back aboard (hopefully embarrassing the late persons) and that we would be underway shortly (about 45 minutes late).
The photo above shows a nice elderly boat, Douglas Island, and the flakey weather we had here.
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Today's stop is in Ketchican AK. We stopped here in 1995 and 2007.
But today we found rain and wind. It had been forecast at 100%, so it was no surprise. Definitely not a nice day.
We loafed and took a late breakfast. Did some computer work.
We went ashore just before noon and found shelter in the entry to a store to minimize exposure. The bus showed up after a while so we scurried aboard. When all the others (Glenn went on a different tour) boarded we wandered north to Ward Cove (went there before) to board the Lighthouse Excursion boat (right). Rain. Wind.
The boat headed west, spotting eagles and their nests, plus noteworthy structures ashore. We tried to get to the Lighthouse that gives the enterprise its name. But Captain Kelsey decided we'd take a beating if we tried and turned away to get in the lee of an island. Good move.
They made a big thing of having us e-mail the firm to get a number of photos of things on the trip. We e-mailed.
They passed out hot chocolate, soft drinks, and cheese-and-cracker snacks, which was nice.
At the end they thanked us profusely. We tied up and went ashore to a different bus which delivered us to the Island Princess. Comments along the way were that the island has one lumber yard, one mall, one restricted-service Walmart, several staircases up the mountain that qualify as city streets and 31 miles of road. No way out but by boat or plane.
A quiet day cruising the Inland Passage en route to Vancouver. This is a rest day that will end in a packing flurry.
Weather is fog. Can't see a thing. Temp is around 60*f.
We loafed, late breakfast, returned to cabin and packed the large bag for pickup in the evening.
Then down to Crooners with Glenn and ran into all the Norms. Bing looked like death warmed over and it was said that Tom C & Peggy had had bouts with colds. Glad we missed that.
Then we went off to dinner and joined two Brits and a couple of NJ ladies. Good food, baked Alaska dessert.
Then back to cabin to shower and get ready for the morning.
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Docked, disembarked, taken to hotel, and dumped. No worse than other cruise lines, but not nice.
Susan checked in and met Glenn. Then we all had lunch and went to Granville Island, Vancouver's eclectic arts & crafts section. We had a good time wandering and looking.
We took the water taxi off Granville Island to the big part of the city, and a very compact cab to the hotel.
Later we convened for a nice dinner in the hotel, very good. Neat flaming dessert.
We had breakfast with Glenn and said our good-byes, then he departed for the airport by taxi.
We finished packing and checked out. The Valet Parking people dug Susan's car out of someplace. We went out of town and onto their version of I-5 (BC-99). Then we arrived at the US border.
They bunch autos into blocks of about 20 to approach the inquisitors. When that block has passed through, another block is advanced. We sat through 2 blocks. At our turn to approach the inquisitor, the inquisitors changed persons and we were halted in place. The new inquisitor banged away at his computer for 15 minutes or so, leading us to believe he had forgotten his password.
A superior came by, looked at his computer and walked on. The inquisitor walked to our car and admitted unspecified "computer problems". He quizzed us and took our passports to the defunct computer, saying we'd go through quickly when the computer was revived.
Finally, a miracle happened and we were allowed formally into the United States of America, some 50 minutes after approaching the place.
We hummed onward to the Hertz place at 14333 Aurora, then picked up a Nissan auto. Later we found that their person gave us another person's rental agreement, but it came out ok when returning it.
We drove to Fran & Duane's. There we went through a certain amount of hassle with the garage gate fob. Changing battery showed the old battery had leaked inside the case and on the contacts. A new battery didn't help. Finally I had management swap it for a new one.
During that period, D became friends with Mr Rogers and Clio, the two pussycats we are tending. We started a laundry run, badly needed, and did cats.