Cruse7123

 It is go-look-at-a-glacier day. The ship manoeuvres as close as it can, and we oooh and ahhh from onboard. Helen is running around like a crazed squirrel.

I'm mostly waiting for breakfast. I must be dead inside.

 ........

Seward is the end of the line. A few, like us, stay on for the reverse trip back to Vancouver, but only a few. The vast majority leave, to be replaced with a new bunch.

It's mind blowing to think that many will be home in Texas, or New York later today, and some back to work tomorrow.

As a result, Seward doesn't experience the same kind of swamping that the other ports do. They get at most one ship per day.

Most of the cruise passengers never go to town. They are picked up or dropped off by busses and trains from Anchorage and never tour the town.

Dare I call it the most realistic Alaskan town we visit, and which is seen by the smallest number of cruise ship passengers. A paradox; it remains real only because few cruisers see it, while most who came here looking for an Alaskan reality miss it altogether.

I would love to toddle into town, but best not. In fact, of our party of five, only Helen and Lola are going ashore. They are going to the quilting store, in the real little downtown.

We docked a little before 5am, and leave tonight at 8:00. It takes a full day to swap out the passengers. It will be fun seeing them wandering about all glittery-eyed. Cruise ships can do that to you.

........

Back to the glacier we go. Not many early folks about at 4:30am. I guess getting to Seward to board is more tiring than sailing out of Vancouver.

Last night's dinner was the same as the one we had last week. We have all developed favourites already.

A very cool thing is that we have reached a new level of comfort here. All five of us are equally content together or apart. After dinner together, we split up and headed in various directions. Lola and Bernie went wandering, Helen had a swim, I went to the show, and who knows what Phyllis got up to?

........

Juneau. There's some mine that Helen wants to go see, and she doesn't want to go alone. We all know what that means.

I'm going to a mine.

...and I'm back. Helen is in town shopping a bit.

We grabbed a taxi on the dock who took us up about 2 miles to the mine/park place. It was lovely, and felt about as if a hundred miles from civilization.

Had to walk a bunch to see things, and then got a cab back driven by an Irish fellow.

Very painless in every way. Now I'm on a lounge chair looking out the windows overlooking the town.