Tracy Arm Cove to Juneau

I woke up at 9am, of course right after my Aunt just saw and took pics of some Dall porpoises in the bow wake. Oh well. However, I did get to see a couple more whales blowing and swimming by in the distance. Just more sitting on the bow in the cold watching the water, jumping salmon, waves, cruise ships, and the many fishing boats that speckle the coast. We are still 2 hours out from Juneau, passing Taku Glacier (FAR into the distance) and listening to Phantom of the Opera. There are spots of blue sky here and there, so hopefully the weather is mild when we get into town late this afternoon/evening. My Aunt and I are going to treat my parents to dinner tonight and tomorrow night as a thank you for hosting us this week. So we arrived back to Juneau simple enough, around 2pm. We just kind of freshened up and went into town. We headed straight for the cruise ship doc to check out city/glacier tour info. But think we are jut going to take the shuttle back and forth to Mendenhall in the morning. So we just went shopping instead. When in this one large superstore of a souvenir shop (was kind of like the Hilo Hattie’s of Juneau, for those familiar with Hilo Hattie’s). They had several TVs on in the store playing various things. But one as on a news station playing Palin footage with the headlines “The Countdown” and “The Goodbye Girl”. I was fully aware that she was officially leaving office as of yesterday, but being out at sea for the last 6 days, it slipped my mind. So I thought it interesting that firstly, I was in Juneau at the time she left office (even if she was technically in Fairbanks). From talking to some people up here from cabbies to store employees to seeing some funny mockery of her on a store display (I have pics), I get the jist that she wasn’t well supported up here. Our can driver this morning even said that every house surrounding the Governor’s Mansion had Obama signed displayed. And secondly, I wasn’t aware until I got up here that this is the 50th Anniversary of Alaska’s statehood. Kind of some interesting memories for the trip. But anyway, we picked out a hole in the wall Mexican place called ‘El Sombrero’ for dinner, since the touristy saloon we wanted to eat at was a mad house. It was decent. Then stopped off at the restaurant we want to eat at tomorrow night (seafood place, on the water, overlooking the sea-plane dock) to make 7pm reservations. Then next door I bought a neat watercolor of Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm we just saw the other day. This artist does the watercolors of a place, overlaying a map of that location. I’ll have to take a picture of it to post. Outside that store was a newspaper stand, with the Juneau Empire (I think it’s called) with a pic of Palin and the headline “It’s Official”. I collect newspapers from when momentous things happen, so thought it would be cool to have the Juneau paper on the subject. And I accidentally pulled 3 newspapers out of the machine and not just one. They are thin, I didn’t notice. Ooops. We then walked back to the boat, after a quick detour to the local grocery store for some ice cream to bring back for dessert. But it’s now 11:30pm and I must crash so we can have one last full day tomorrow before I have to go home on Wed.