Juneau, Seattle and Home

Got into Juneau early morning. Have breakfast on the ship than off on a tour until our plane .leaves. Visit the Mendenhall glacier--the glacier is about a mile away. Closest point is the Forest Service Visitor Center It is kind of anti-climatic.

My theory is that they get us relatively close to 8 glaciers with the hope that we'll be able to see at least a couple of them without fog. We saw all eight. Three of them within 1/4 mile (as close as it is "safe" to get).We visit a great (small) Alaska historic museum. End up going to their store downtown (a short walk away) and buying a great Aleut mask.

We walk over to the Alaska state capital. No dome (which is great) but it kind of looks like a 1940s bank building. Nothing special. This seems to fit the nature of Alaskans.

We fly out of Juneau and get to Seattle about 7 PM. We spend the night in Seattle at a great downtown hotel--Hotel Max. It is a 1930s hotel that was "modernized sometime in the 50s or 60s (destroyed all the historic character on the inside). The remodeled it two years ago to ultra hip modern (photographs covering all the room doors, a lobby in black and red.....).

Next morning we do some quick site seeing--Pike Place Market and the new downtown library. Pike Place Market is one of those few "festive marketing" developments that has worked economically. Probably because it grew organically from the historic farmers' market instead of being started from scratch by a city or developer. The library deserves a separate blog.

Get home Monday night at midnight and crash. Get up at 7 to get to a dentist appointment.