Thursday we called on Juneau, Alaska's capital. Sailing in, we passed through a fairly narrow channel and there are great views of waterfalls coming down the mountainsides. Leon rose early by himself (I didn't even know that he had gotten up, which is quite something considering how small our cabin is) to try to catch the sights. Unfortunately, he was about 5 minutes too late. He let me sleep in until 8:30, then we went for breakfast in the Lido. By the time we got there, most other folks had gone ashore, so it was nice and quiet. Unbeknownst to me, I dropped my earbuds. I realized it later when we were sitting on the pool deck, but I couldn't locate them after retracing my steps. We checked with Guests Services (on deck 1; we were hanging out of deck 9) just about an hour later - and they had them! I couldn't believe that I was able to get them back so easily. This is one small example of how efficient and attentive the service is on HAL ships.
After breakfast, Leon did a spa cycle and I enjoyed quiet time on the Lido pool deck. Around 11:30 we got off the ship to get the King crab that I had been anticipating. Since I was a kid, crab legs have been one of my most favorite special things to eat. Then I developed a crustacean allergy and thought I would never be able to have crab again. I am so grateful that I heeded the advice of family and friends to get re-tested to see if the allergy had gone away! I ordered 1 pound of crab legs, and thankfully it came with a bib! They were absolutely delicious!!!
Leon enjoyed some crab cakes while I hollowed out every last bit of the crab from this cluster. Then we toured around the waterfront before reboarding the ship.
By this time, it was about 1pm, so we did a spa cycle (I really just relaxed on the heated tile loungers since I didn't want to get wet).
The rest of the afternoon we enjoyed the ship, spending time in a few lounges.
As we pulled away from Juneau around 5:00 we made sure to catch the fantastic waterfalls just a few miles from town. They were majestic as always, falling over 1,000 feet down the steep sides of the mountains near the shore. We considered an earlier dinner in the Lido but that didn't look good. We were pleased that they were able to seat us in the early seating in dining room in the same section as our normal waiter. We pursued the early seating so we could be on wildlife watch around 7:30 when we were supposed go through whale-filled waters.
Dinner was very good with Leon getting the tenderloin and I had an Indonesian dish that was really delicious. The highlight for me was the Lindt Chocolate Tulip for dessert (basically chocolate ganache in the form of a simple tulip), making this a hall of fame eating day with the king crab legs and tulip dessert.
After dinner we headed to the Lido pool deck, our current favorite place to watch for wildlife. However, we didn't see any whales that this time. The seas were pretty choppy making it difficult to see much. We headed to the Crow's Nest for a game of battleship. Leon won, but then we realized I had only 4 ships to sink and Leon had all 5 - so not a fair battle.
We continued our wildlife watching from there and soon after saw a fantastic sight. A humpback whale very close to ship clearly as happy to see us as we were to see him. He turned on his side and slapped his flippers over and over again, in a clear effort to get our attention and be seen. The officer of the watch even announced his presence.
After this, we continued to see whales, but farther away. We saw what appeared to be a juvenile humpback breaching but only getting half his body out of the water. He did this a few times.
Leon retired early because he is once again getting sick (and he refuses to acknowledge the strong correlation with his frequent use of the steam room). I stayed up to research Vancouver things to do. We couldn't get to sleep early because the band was playing late right under our room. The seas have been exceptionally calm, so we didn't feel any movement over the last few days. We had a good night's sleep.
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