In Icy Strait Point (Monday)

Today we landed at Icy Strait Point. Icy Straight Point is almost due west of Juneau (where we'll be tomorrow). So we'll be backtracking some. Icy Strait Point was created as a stop for cruise ships. It's owned by the Tlingit people in Hoonah, just down the road from Icy Strait Point, so it's the only stop that is owned by Native Alaskan folk. They only allow one cruise ship per day and there's no big cruise ship pier. The ship has to drop anchor out in the bay and then people go ashore by tender boats, which are actually the lifeboats from the ship (see photo). There is no town at Icy Strait Point. The people who work there live in Hoonah, the largest Tlingit village in Alaska. There's only a few restaurants and the museum, some walking trails, and the world's longest zip line.

We got up and did our breakfast as usual. We were moving slowly because we weren't scheduled to drop anchor until 10am and the people who were doing shore excursions got to leave the boat first. So we hung out in our room and tried to use the 3G to post on our blog. But it was extended network access and I couldn't get any of the photos to email to Picasa for inclusion on the blog. So we gave up on that.

About 11 we went down to the Rendezvous Lounge to get a number for when we could get on the tender boat. The attendant said we would be able to get on within the hour. So we sat in the lounge and played pinochle on our iPads until they called our number.

When they called our number about 30 minutes later, we went down to Deck 1 where we went down a ramp and got on one of the tender boats. They really fit a lot of people! We had wondered how we would all fit into the lifeboats they had and now we knew a lot of us would fit into each one. I imagined the lifeboats would be little inflatable rafts, but they are big covered vessels with bench seats. 

The tender boat trip took just a few minutes and then we arrived in Icy Strait Point. After a climb up the pier, we were greeted at the top by a Native American woman who gave us each a wood chip and invited us to put it in the wood chip fire to be part of their traditions (see photo). 

We were ready for lunch first, so we stopped at the Crab Shack and ordered King Crab legs. They were delicious (see photo). 

We've been very lucky with the weather so far. Today I wore shorts because it's supposed to be up to 80 degrees. We decided we better wear sun block for our second day in the sun.

After lunch, we walked through the museum. It had been a cannery, but had been converted into a museum with shops. Apparently, there used to be little canneries all through Alaska before fish could be preserved by ice or freezing on the fishing boats so they could be sent to larger canneries or shipped frozen. The museum had interesting facts about Alaska and also had old machines that had been restored and set up with information about how the salmon were canned. There was an automatic decapitater, gutter, and tail remover, but the salmon had to be cleaned up by hand. The display for for the cleaning station was complete with plastic salmon carcasses and simulated blood spatter (see photo). 

Next, we were ready for a hike. We walked along the beach doing our usual hunt for beach glass. We didn't think we'd find much because the beach was so rocky, but we did find quite a few pieces (see photo). Halfway down the beach was the wood chip fire, so we threw our wood chips in.

Then we watched people coming down the zip line. The zip line is more than a mile long, drops from the top of one of the mountains to the beach, and makes a lot of noise. There are six lines, so six people can go down at once.

The trail went from the beach up into the woods for a short walk. When we first got into the woods, we saw a bald eagle sitting in a tree. It was close enough to see very well. 

After our walk we stopped at a restaurant to try to use the Internet. We bought grapefruit juice and tried to access the wifi, but it wasn't working. So we gave up on posting on the blog for the day. We walked back along the beach looking for more glass, but we finally had to make ourselves quit (hard for us to do) and went back to the ship. We really enjoyed Icy Strait Point. It seemed much less commercialized than the other ports. With only one cruise ship in port, it also felt less crowded and "busy."

We got back to the ship going through our usual security search, donned our swimsuits, and headed for the thelassotherapy pool. It feels so great to sit in the warm bubbly water after walking around all day (see photo). 

At 4:30, the martini bar was having a presentation on "healthy martinis," so we went to that. We each got two mini martini glasses, and the bartender told us about the health properties of the martinis he was making and gave us each a sample of the two he made. The first was a 3G martini (gin, St. Germain's, and ginger liquor). He talked about gin being invented as a health tonic in Europe when the water wasn't safe to drink. (So I think "health" is relative. Gin is "healthy" compared to contaminated water.) We really like that martini. The second one was vodka, pomegranate juice, and simple syrup, but we didn't like it as much even if it was healthy. After the demo was over, we each had a martini (a cosmopolitan for me and a Blue wave for Sandra). 

On our way to dinner, we stopped again and listened to a band playing again. They were a singer, base player, and drummer. We didn't like them as well as the group the night before and Sandra thought the base player looked like he didn't want to be there.

At dinner all six of us were there again. We compared things we had done that day and what we planned to do tomorrow. Sandra had hake, cooked in paper, and I had a ribeye. Sandra got tiramisu for dessert and I had a banana cake with a little chocolate cream.

We went back to our room and played pinochle on our iPads until bedtime.