So, after what seemed like only fifteen minutes, it was time to head off the glacier. The guides kept telling us how great the weather was and how incredible it was that there was no rain. They seemed really excited and mentioned two or three times that this was a day for play. Despite that, they were gracious hosts and I would recommended walking on a glacier if you ever get the chance.
Once off the helicopters, it was a bus ride back to the ship and then lunch. We had decided that we would venture out for food after talking to the one guy so far from Royal Caribbean that was worth anything. We had tired of the boat food and wanted something different. As far as I was concerned, it could have been McDonalds, I just wanted something that didn't taste like it came from the same place we'd eaten for the past six meals.
To the right is one of our most favorite pictures as a couple. To have been together for over 14 years and to be able to say that is a real credit to how much we generally hate pictures of ourselves. The ice is so clear that you can see what seems like ten feet below you. In reality, it's more like 100.
Even though there's a flag in the picture, when you're up there, you don't feel as patriotic as you do insignificant. The sad thing is that we as humans probably have the single worse affect on nature than any other force
Remember that place where I said I couldn't remember the name, but that we ate a Halibut Taco and drank ABC beer? Well, if it helps, this is a picture of the docks from the back of those gray buildings.
This is probably a good time to tell you about our other expectation that was definitely not met. The food. I was expecting 5 star dinners every night, wonderful breakfasts and a midnight buffet every night Well, no, that's not what you get. We'll start with dinner. Sure, there's a nice entre- filet and lobster tail one night, goofy deserts, the waiter and his assistant (who you'll also be tipping at the end of the cruise) remember what you drank the first night and serve you the same thing every night without you asking. But, what if one night you're in the mood for a soda, some tea instead of water? They don't ask after the first night and they run around so quickly you almost feel like your asking would cause someone else a delay.
So, we'd just drank a ton of beer and eaten some really great food, and it was time for our next item on the list. The capitol building. There all these little maps available at newspaper type things on a lot of street corners. They show you the six or so streets that make up downtown Juneau. On them, you're shown that most streets end on the main road that leads to the docks. What you're not shown is that you may have to climb stairs like these to get from one to another.
And so, we climbed and climbed and rested (notice, the stairs have benches along the way) and climbed to get to the street the capitol is on. To the right is the reason we climbed. I guess we started looking for capitol buildings after we toured Austin's capitol. This one is not nearly as cool.
Dinner is not a relaxing time at all. You're there with a variable number of other people you've never met and they all want to talk and get to know you and find out your life story, but the waiter keeps pushing you through eating so that there is enough time to get the next sitting in to dinner. You find yourselves smiling and nodding to someone who has salad coming from his teeth while you're choking down your own greens. Maybe I'm not the socialite cruising demands, but if I'm dressed to the nines in my tux and with my wife who's also looking great, I want to take time and dine with her.
Whether you want to eat the early or late sitting is your choice. We and the couple we went on the cruise with both liked the idea of an early sitting. After the Juneau stop was our first formal dinner. We had no idea that the picture would turn out this cheesy, nor did we know exactly how cheesy the stairs really were. Sometimes a picture is worth only one word- Cheesy.
Oh, you can dine alone if you wish. The option for one of the two other dining rooms is there for you and your guest to share an intimate dinner one on one. If you want to pay $20 each. $40 for the privilege of a quiet dinner. OK, this may sound cheap, but what the hell did I pay for in the first place? I paid for a five star dining experience. What we got was, in my estimation, just short of the all-you-can-eat-on-a-schedule at Shoney's.