Alaska's capital city and you can only get here by boat or plane. No roads or trains.
We arrived by boat, obviously, hoping for a slip in Harris Harbor where we could obtain power. Such was not the case. We were assigned to Aurora Harbor where they have upgraded their electrical system. Connection requires an isolation transformer, a device we have yet to add to our electrical inventory. This was a disappointment meaning we would have to run our generator to charge batteries, heat water and the like. Such is the way it is.

Our dock neighbor turned out to be a fellow we met in Taku Harbor. He owns a beautiful Selene 53 and was in Juneau to change crews. Scott, the owner, was gracious, offering his knowledge of anchorages and places to visit as well as driving us to local stores for provisioning and boat supplies.

We had a few boat projects to attend to while allocating time for doing the touristy type things. Unlike Ketchikan where we traveled by free bus service, not the case here. We walked in the rain. Round trip to downtown and the cruise ships was 4 miles. Good exercise for these two old fogies.

We visited the Alaska State Museum, and we were pleasantly surprised by the incredible exhibits detailing the evolution of Russian history, First Nation history, Alaska statehood, mining, canning; all presented with a sense of professionalism we greatly appreciated. I'm typically not enthusiastic about walking around looking at displays of artifacts, clothing, and the like, yet this museum changed my attitude. I wanted to stay and learn the history and the story of the canneries. Well worth our time.

Alice was keen on visiting the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church. My sense was she envisioned a classic, very large cathedral type building. Oops, not so much. This church, octagonal in shape was a very old wooden structure, very small containing iconic paintings dating back to 1883. This place touched me. I sat in this small space imagining the religious services of so many years. I thanked God for my Alice, our New World, and my family. Getting to the church required hiking up 140 steps, for just like Ketchikan, Juneau is built on the side of a mountain.


One of our priorities was watching two Glacier Bay videos as part of the permit process. We left the church, passed the state capital building, the famous Bear and Seward's statues en route to the library for WIFI. We haven't had much luck with high-speed internet, depending primarily on our cell phones hot spots. BTW, we just ordered Starlink to solve our internet access problems. The library was a bust, no internet in the bars or restaurants so back to New World to watch the videos.

We spent three nights in Juneau. We didn't see all Juneau had to offer for many of the buildings were closed over the weekend. This was our second visit and probably our last. Now we head north and west to harbors along the way to Glacier Bay our final destination and northern most stop on our journey.

As I write this entry three porpoises swam buy, and yesterday on our way across Lynn Canal we stopped to watch a large group of Orcas passing by. They seemed to be playing. Alice and I wondered if this was a family. They were with us or should I say we were with them for 5-10 minutes, just drifting.

And finally at bit of trivia. When we reach our destination our Latitude of 59 3.292N will be comparable to our sitting in the middle of Hudson Bay. The warm waters flowing from Japan toward Alaska contribute to moderating the climate as opposed to where the Polar Bears hide out.