Juneau and our kayaking adventure

After the scenic cruising Shannon and I went back to the room to take a nap before our big kayaking adventure.

Shan decided to raid our stash of desserts Tiramasu of course – her favorite We were scheduled to arrive in Juneau around 2:15 pm, so after eating some lunch we went up on the deck to take some pictures of our arrival. Pulling into town
Such a beautiful back drop of a city. Here is another ship pulling away to make room for us. There is goes. Looking out to the water Once we docked we had some time before we had to leave for out excursion at 3:30 pm. We knew we would not have a lot of time to go shopping and sight seeing since our excursion took up most of our time in Juneau. From the ship we saw a building on the dock that we hoped was some stores so we decided to check it out. We also knew that JJ was going to be out on the dock and I was hoping to come up with some “legitimate” question to ask him – unfortunately he was talking to someone else when we walked by. The building did not contain any stores, so we went back to the ship to wait for a while.

It was then time to go to our Kayaking adventure. Now if you have not heard this story brace yourself – hilarity ensues.

We got on our shuttle that took us to Auke Bay where we were going to go Kayaking. Our driver told us that it had been cloudy and rainy that morning, but it had burned off and it was a gorgeous, sunny fall day.

Here are a couple pictures of the Mendenhall Glacier
Here is Shannon in front of the Glacier
Here I am – when else in my life I am going to have this opportunity? Then we started piling on the gear – I am going for the Gordon Fisherman look. Here we are with everything including the life jackets And the complete look – I love this picture of us, despite the ridicules attire.
Since we were in the water I took a disposable camera with me – this next group of picture are from that camera.

The Mendenhall Glacier from the water
We saw some seals out there, but with out a zoom, no pictures. Some of the other groups
This was Jesse our guide. He was my age – mentioned he was born in the same year I was. He grew up in Juneau and told us all about the area. One of the things he mentioned was that Juneau only had a few chain store – Home Depot, Walmart, Sears - Shannon made a comment about how the internet must have changed their lives – opening a while new world for them. Jesse responded – I have never been on the internet – he continued by saying that it was so funny, he knew how to type but didn’t have a computer, but his roommate had one, but didn’t know how to type. Shan and I just smiled and nodded to that one, we had to try so hard not to laugh.

Here are some more pictures from the kayak. One of the other kayakers was Kim who was the night hotel manager on the ship. He took some picture of Shannon and I out kayaking and delivered then to our room. He was so nice we decided to nominate him for the crew member who went above and beyond.

Here is a picture of Shannon and I in the kayak.

Now neither Shannon nor I had ever kayaked before and Shannon had never even canoed before. So we were not very good at kayaking and could never really get in sink. Jesse stayed with us and tried to help, but bottom line – we sucked.

Let me set the scene for you – Shannon was in the front of the kayak and it was her job to paddle and set the pace. I was in the back and it was my job to steer and to match her strokes when we were moving. At first when I try to steer I actually slowed us down or even stopped us. Then when I tried to match her strokes I just couldn’t, so we were totally working against each other. We were kayaking in the sea, so there were waves to contend with and a strong current. Due to that we barely ever went straight - we zigzagged our way along the way. We are much better on a tandem bike and should stick to our Olympic time rides around Mackinac Island. We did make it over to area to see the Seals and despite our terribleness; we did make it out quite far. Jesse was so good about checking in on us and keeping us entertained. After being out on the kayak for about 90 minutes Jesse came and told us it was time to head back to the shore – we needed to be back there in 30 minutes in order to get everything packed up and head back to the ship. Shan and I turned toward the shore and started paddling back and we were actually doing okay – well okay for us. Jesse went and conferred with another one of the guides and after a few minutes he came up to us and said they were concerned we were not going to be able to make it back to shore in time. The first thought that went through my mind was why didn’t you send us back earlier and what can we do about it. Jesse then went on to say they were going to have someone tow us in. Now many people would be so embarrassed about this, but Shan and I were like okay – sounds good – and I was a bit relieved we would not have to struggle so much to get back. So out came a motor boat and they tied us to it. Shan and I just started laughing about the whole scene. It was the funniest thing in the world – here we were in a kayak with out paddles up out of the water being towed by a motor boat. I am not sure which one of us coined the phrase Alaskan tubing – but we decided it should totally be a sport – it was so much fun. We literally laughed the entire 20-25 minutes it took to get us back to the shore. Of course me, being me and wanting to capture every moment took pictures….

Here we are being towed.
Look no hands.

Out of the wake This is how you kayak – or the start of Alaskan tubing.

Once we got back to the shore our stomachs hurts so bad from laughing so hard, our abdominal muscles got such a work out! After getting out of kayak I went and took a picture of the don’t feed the wildlife sign. And the port a potty – I took this in honor of Cory the port a potty driver for Sea to Sea. We had to get a picture with Jesse – after our special time together. He was lots of fun!!
We got in the shuttle to head back to the ship, still laughing at the adventure we had just had. We wanted to wander around Juneau a bit, but didn’t have too much, thankfully the shuttle driver mentioned to us he was supposed to take us back to the Star Princess but couldn’t do anything if we got off at the other ship which was much closer to the shopping area. So Shan and I got off.

Here is Shannon at City Hall. We then did some retail therapy and again found great bargains since it was the end of season. We wondered around for a while and even saw JJ across the street on the sidewalk.

It was getting to be time to be back on the ship so we headed that way. The one thing I had hoped to do on this trip was take the tram in Juneau, but we just didn’t have time. Here is a picture of it. Once we got back on the ship we decided we were not up to getting ready for dinner and opted to eat in Horizon’s Court instead. Since it was such as long day there was not as much to do in the evening as usually, there was not a show in the theater, but a illusionist and neither of us had any desire to go see that. We also had decided we wanted to stay away from Skywalkers and the DJ. Shannon actually went to bed pretty early, but I was not ready to go yet, so I wondered around the ship for awhile, lost another $10 on the penny slots and listened to some music.

When I got back to the cabin I jumped into the shower and as I was getting ready for bed, around midnight, I heard the phone ringing, I ran out to answer it, but missed it. Whoever called didn’t leave a message, I suspected it was Tony who was calling and I was not very happy – we had not given him our cabin number but he obviously found it somehow. After that I was off to bed to get some sleep for our biking adventure in Skagway.