Our weather-luck returned, and it was another beautiful day; as one of the locals put it, "we only get 30 days of sunshine per year in Juneau, and you're here on one of them".
The cruise ship was docked right by the Mount Roberts Tramway, so it was convenient to make a ride to the top of the mountain was our first activity.
The tram ride is incredibly steep, ascending 1800 feet in about 5 minutes.
The views from the upper station were stunning.
While at the top, we also visited the Juneau Raptor Center, where they have a rescued eagle (that is unable to fly).
They also have a representative sample of an eagle's nest, to show how large it is.
We had neither time nor interest for the hiking trails at the top of the mountain, as we were scheduled on the 11:45 AM trolley tour, so after perusing the gift shop and taking in the views, we boarded the tram to go back to sea level.
The trolley tour took us through the bustling metropolis (population 32,000ish), across the bridge to the west side, where we disembarked at the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery.
There were about seven people who had gotten off the trolley there, so we got a small group tour from a nervous high school (I'm guessing) student.
The hatchery is run by a non-profit organization whose goal is to sustain the wild salmon population for commercial fishing. As such, they don't actually raise the fish to maturity; they release them into the ocean inlet once they are old enough to survive on their own.
They estimate that between 90% and 99% of the salmon don't make it back to spawn, because they're eaten by eagles, bears, other fish, etc.
The hatchery also had a small education exhibit and aquarium, including "touch pools".
After leaving the hatchery, we wandered around outside while waiting for the trolley to pick us up.
Everyone I talked to who had been on this cruise, or a similar trip, in the past talked about how awful the weather was in Alaska. I think I got a sunburn while we were in Juneau.
(I think this was a cabinet full of life jackets?)
Eventually, the trolley returned to pick us up, and we resumed the tour. Our next stop was at the new whale statue/park, near downtown.
As the tour concluded, we opted to step off downtown, instead of returning to the cruise ship docks, to get some lunch.
It was after 1:30 PM by the time we sat down for a peaceful meal, right next to the floatplane docks.
After lunch, we walked back to the ship, as we had to be back on board by 3:30 PM.
(Anyone for crab-and-reindeer pizza?)
We spent some time watching floatplanes land, as the ship prepared fore departure and slowly pulled away from the dock.
It was the second "formal night", which we were opting out of, so we did some laundry and hit the hot tub to take in some scenery as we sailed south, away from Juneau.
After dinner, we sat by a window and watched groups of (what we think were) Dall's porpoise swimming next to the ship.
Around 9:30 PM, we returned to the upper level to watch the sunset (which never really finished).
Overnight, we'll make it most of the way to Ketchiakan; we're scheduled to dock around 9:30 AM.
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