AuburnChick's Adventures

Day 3 of our Great Adventure was, coincidentally, Independence Day.

I woke up to find that the ship was no longer rocking.

Yay!

The view outside my window was gorgeous!!

First, I enjoyed a breakfast that consisted of delicious fruit.

Then, I headed to the Crow’s Nest for Team Trivia.  We could see ice-bergs outside the windows…

The boys soundly beat the girls.  Pooey.

Next, it was time for the day’s dance lesson:  the Jive!

Super Sis and I paired up once again, only this time, it was my turn to be the guy.  We had great fun, let me tell you!

Unfortunately, I won’t burn your eyes from the pictures.  Watching Dancing With the Stars would never be the same after seeing us masterfully perform those steps.

:::AuburnChick rolls her eyes sarcastically:::

Hours fly by quickly when you’re on a cruise, and soon it was time for lunch on the Lido Deck, where I took advantage of the beautiful view of the water…

The ship was closing in on civilization, and watching the approach was fun indeed…

We were surrounded by mountains…

Houses were tucked away into the landscape…

I spied waterfalls hidden in the mountains’ crevices…

Back in the room, I began getting ready to depart the ship, putting on my Bex socks, which had accompanied me on the last cruise I went on…

Then, I went back out on the deck to take more pictures.  The next one might look familiar (it’s the new one at the top of my blog)…

My newest knitting project wanted to take in the scenery as well…

The city started coming into focus…

Apparently, there are a lot of boats around here, as evidenced by the small harbor I saw…

Here’s more of the local scenery…

One sight I never tired of throughout the trip was that of sea planes coming in for landings…

Finally, we pulled into port…

A quick story about the above picture.

When we returned to the ship later in the day, we went out on our balcony (made larger because we got the stewards to unlock the connecting partitions that separated all three rooms).

We watched as a woman and her dog played on the rocky shore.  The woman took a ball and put it into a long ball throwing contraption.  Her dog, a golden retriever, eagerly ran down to a large, flat stone, looked back at her, and sat, wagging his tail in anticipation.

The woman threw the ball over halfway across our view of the water…a long way…and the dog happily retrieved it.

Please keep in mind that the temperature was in the low 50’s, and that water had to be frigid.

Yet, the dog retrieved the ball, ran back up the hill, rolled around a bit to dry off, did his business behind the bushes, and then gave the woman the ball, running back down to the flat stone to begin the process again.

We watched this go on four or five times.  It was apparent that the dog was having the time of his/her life.

Now, where was I?

Oh yes…I remember.

As we departed the ship, I took this picture.

If you look closely, you’ll see that the sign on the green building in front of the ship has the name of the city we were visiting…

Juneau!

Yes, my friends, we were on an Alaskan cruise!!

Look at all of the shops that awaited our arrival…

A peek back at the ship…

Some people braved a sky cab, which took them to the top of the mountain…

I don’t know why, but this steep set of stairs caught my attention…

This display in front of a fur store caught everyone’s attention…

I don’t know that I could see myself wearing that at the beach.  LOL

We had a lot of fun trying on things inside…until we got in trouble for taking pictures of ourselves.  We got busted by a store employee who pointed to a sign that said “No photography allowed.”  Oops.

Not too far down the street, we saw the famous Red Dog Saloon…

You had to be 18 to enter, and since I’m just a year shy of that, I stayed on the street.  heehee

No matter where we shopped, we had an amazing view of the mountains…

We headed downtown, where I found this large map, posted at the harbor, helpful…

We decided to visit the museum, however it was closed because of the holiday…

So, we headed back for more shopping.  I wanted to visit the shops I’d seen down at the harbor; however, Super Sis had a surprise for me.  She had run into something near and dear to my heart…

Look closer at the sign…

Oh yeah…a yarn store…in Juneau!!!!

Of course, I had to go in.  Super Sis stayed with me while everyone else headed to other stores.  They just don’t understand the yarn obsession that all knitters suffer from.

I was pleased when I found the following…

See the label?  It’s hand dyed right there in Juneau.

Talk about a souvenir!!  Woo Hoo!

I also fell in love with this mug…

Super Sis and I headed out to find our family, but I had to potty.  Look at what I found right beside the bathroom…

Yep!  Another yarn store!  This one had every nook and cranny filled with yarn…

I’ve gotta tell you that by this time, I was on sensory overload, and I DID NOT BUY yarn here.

The store owner saw my bag from the other store and was disappointed, but when she heard that I had purchased the locally dyed yarn, she was more forgiving.

One last stop that I made was to a gift shop by the harbor.  Throughout my trip, I found myself looking for less touristy things…items that had relevance to the local areas that we were visiting.

I found these, which I took out to admire after I got back on the ship…

I am kicking myself for not buying the necklace that went with these items.  These were designed by a local artist, and I never found them at any other stop we made.

I purchased the next pair of earrings at one of the tourist traps.  I would later see these at every port, but I loved the color and the style…

Of course, I had to pull out my yarn and admire it again, with the local scenery in the background…

We boarded the ship tired but happy.  Juneau was amazing and worth the walking we did.

We were all hungry and headed to dinner.  This patriotic cake greeted us as we entered the dining room…

I headed up to the Crow’s Nest after dinner and treated myself to a holiday-themed Pina Colada…

As you can see from the window in the background, the weather turned rainy.  Thank goodness it had held off while we were out and about.

While in the Crow’s Nest, I had the honor of watching two bald eagles soar across the sky.

What a treat and not a sight I’m used to in Florida.

I noticed that the American flag was flying from the bow of the ship…

When I returned to the cabin at the end of the day, I found this…

Meanwhile, the ship headed back out to open water…headed toward its next destination…

Filed under: Vacation | Tagged: Alaska, Holland America, Juneau, travel, Vacation | 2 Comments »