My brother lives in Juneau and so I was looking forward to our visit. I have not seen him for 7 or 8 years, and had asked him to take us out to Mendenhall Glacier, our traditional thing we do when my husband and I visit. It is very sad to see how much that glacier has receded compared to the first time I saw it. Our cloudy day had changed to  steady rain so we put on our rain gear and headed off the ship (we arrived at 2 pm). I called Steve and he wasn’t feeling well so didn’t want to get together. I was extremely disappointed.

For lack of anything better to do, Clayton and I walked around Juneau. We stopped in a few shops. I parted with a few bucks, purchasing a Christmas ornament (I buy one everywhere we travel to) and a new potholder. Juneau had the same selection of shops as Ketchikan but the merchandise seemed a little nicer in some of them (and a little pricier). We stopped in the Red Dog Saloon to take a couple of pictures. As usual, it was packed. There was only one other ship in port so it wasn’t as crowded as Ketchikan. I felt bad for those that had prepaid flightseeing or whale watching excursions because the weather was horrible. Many of the tourists walking around town were not prepared for the weather. Most people were wearing down jackets which probably kept them warm, but certainly didn’t keep them dry! People were buying cheap, clear ponchos to protect themselves from the weather. We headed back to the ship for a quiet afternoon.