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Port Call: Juneau!
We caught up with the ladies  at Little Switzerland on Franklin Street, as they were attacking this poor stuffed bear, who was just trying to do a little shopping. Stuffed animals get all the cutest chicks.☺
This picture is a good one for general orientation purposes.  The sign has a large E inside of a circle at the top to identify itself, and then on the map it is displaying you will see another smaller E inside of a circle that shows where the sign is located in Downtown Juneau, near the piers. Our entire day's travels in Juneau are contained on this map, from our ship tied up at the pier, to the hills where St. Nicolas Church is located.
We have crossed Marine Drive and are in Marine Park now, almost back where we started from. Now we have moved farther towards the water, and the sign  we were looking at in the last picture is looking quite distant now, standing beside Marine Way. To the left of the sign is an old and very beat up Model-T Ford that we will be visiting later.
As has been the case all day long, the ground was wet, but we were not getting rained on. In fact the sky was brightening some, with the sun threatening to break through at times. Turning to the west by northwest, the water in Gastineau  Channel is very smooth, and the upper regions of Douglas Island are still well hidden in the clouds. The Juneau-Douglas Bridge is just out of view behind the waterfront buildings. In less than 5 hours we would be pulling out into that waterway, and leaving Juneau behind, before we even really got to know her.
Here are three of the nicest people I know! Dotti brings  out the closeness in any group she is in, and Jim and Tammy are our closest friends. This is a family picture from where I sit. And I love each one of them!
The forklift behind them appears to be just waiting and rusting until the next ship related task comes along, and the ever-present clouds continue to hang low on the hills surrounding Juneau. I don't bring out the hug-reflex in people like Dotti does,  but I still feel great when I am with our dear friends Jim and Tammy. We never dreamed that we would be able to visit a place like Alaska for a whole week with our best friends, but here we are, and it is a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life!
To the left, in the water, you will see a smaller boat taking off, probably showing off the local whales to its load of passengers. Here's another picture of the Juneau library.  ☺ I wish I would have had the time to go inside. If they have tables with a view out a window, it would be a great place to read a book. The scenery here is exquisite!
Dotti took this picture of me standing with the ms Westerdam in the immediate background, and Douglas Island off in the distance. I am leaning on a bollard, where ships secure themselves to avoid moving  about when tied to the pier. I don't think my leaning on it will cause any sort of strain on such a sturdy
device.
The basketball court, where only two days before Jim and I had been shooting baskets, looks like a small model, with a tiny white rectangle for a backboard smaller than a postage stamp. Things like that give you a real perspective of how big that ship really is. The deck that peeks through the large openings in the uppermost area of the black strip across the back is the Promenade Deck. Jim and I had our pictures taken there, by a nice passing passenger. Our dining area was at the bottom of the black painted strip. The small windows that they provided helped remind us of our exotic location whenever we had our meals. In fact dinner was not too far off even when we were taking this picture. Just barely visible crossing in front of the green building off in the distance, just to the left of the ship, the gangway is filled with people returning to the ship from their day of shopping. 
Jim has spotted his happy place: Harley Davidson Motorcycles. I think he might be able to find a thing or two in there that he might like to own. ☺
Nice doggie! Jim is making sure that it is safe to be around this statue. It was scary but he finally got the dog to settle down and accept having us around. ☺
I couldn't help but notice that the library does have some really nice windows on this side of the building. (Dotti says I always have books on my mind, but I don't know what she is talking about.) 
Okay Tammy, it's your turn to pet the dog. Patsy Ann won't bite. Really she won't. It's perfectly safe. Tammy. Tammy? ☺ 
Okay, we'll give Tammy a break. Dotti, you pet the dog. Patsy Ann was born two years before my mother, and two years after my father. She won't bite at this age. It is perfectly safe. I can see you don't believe me.
Here, let's read the sign that tells her story. (See side bar for text.) See, she was a friendly dog when she was alive, and she really liked ships. A couple of Navy wives like you would be perfectly safe with Patsy Ann. ☺
It's too early to go back onboard the ship, and so  we are looking around the park to see if there is anything else of interest here. I was looking for the Fishermen's Memorial that my cousin had mentioned to me on the phone before we left the ship. He said it was on the pier close to where the ship tied up. But where exactly? I had my eyes peeled.
Next we found the tribute to the "Hard Rock Miners."  They of course have no connection with the "Hard Rock Cafe." ☺ These were hard working men, who went down into the mine and broke up the hard rock surrounding, and containing the vein of gold, and hauled out the ore. It was backbreaking labor and dangerous work, but it paid lousy, so that made up for it. (Huh?) This was definitely not work for wimps.
The guys were looking like they might be getting a  bit tired so I decided to see if I could give them a hand. A little extra pressure on the pneumatic drill just might cut through the rock a little quicker.
Jim thought that he would throw in with the miners too, and decided to help as well. With all that gold, it wouldn't be long and we would be rich! Then Dotti and Tammy reminded us that this is just a statue, and it would be a long wait before we saw any gold from this activity. And it seemed like such a good idea too. ☺
This is a plaque with a description of the job that the  Hard Rock Miners had to do, and the results of their work. (See side bar for the text on the plaque.) It was quite profitable for the ones who owned the mines. However, it is good to remember that even Joe Juneau and Richard Harris who got here first, ended up broke. It is often the way of life. The rich get richer...
Wow, this looks familiar. We are still in the  Marine Park, near the Hard Rock Miner sculpture, and not terribly far from the other sign that looked so much like this one. Juneau thrives on the tourist trade, and so they go all out to make things easy for tourists to find their way around town, and to locate all the important historical landmarks. As it turned out, what few of the landmarks I did see, I saw mostly by accident, just walking around town.
Juneau turned out to be a good break in day, where we got a lot of the shopping out of the way, so when we stopped at the other towns, we were able to get in more sight seeing. Across Marine Drive we spotted this Model T Ford. It is  the car that changed America. Henry Ford produced the Model T in numbers that no other car manufacturer could match and he made it affordable. At one point, over half of all the cars on the road were Model-T's. For 19 years the Model T was produced with little change in its design. The designers of the Volkswagen Beetle were influenced by Henry Ford's Model T, and it is the only car that was produced for longer than the Model T. (The Model A came along later as an upgraded model.) I admire Henry Ford a great deal.
This particular car is in very bad shape. However, with my beautiful Dotti standing in front of it, with that lovely smile, who cares? Unfortunately, Jim and I can't do as much for brightening  up the view of the car as Dotti did, but we did our best.
The backpack I was wearing helped a bit with carrying the merchandise that Dotti picked up along the way, but the runs to the ship to take our packages back helped more. 
Jim is a great mechanic, but I think this patient is dead. Even cranking the handle, the old Ford just wouldn't come alive. But, you can see that Jim had fun trying.
Right around the corner from the Model T Ford was a store where I took more pictures inside than in any other store that day. I will let most of them speak for themselves, because the sparkle and glitter are enough to stand on their own. The one thing that really hit me though—and this was true for many stores in all of our Alaska stops—was that there were many kinds of Christmas merchandise available. Santa and trees decorations were everywhere we looked. The Russian influence is still strong in Alaska, with many "Russian shops," and they weren't embarrassed at all to show their love for Christmas. That is the attitude I love to see!
At 278 South Franklin, is the Miner's Square Building, with the Red Dog Saloon. We had stuck our heads inside earlier in the day, but there wasn't anything there to see that we were really excited about. However, I have to mention it, because it is in all of the tourists materials as a "must see." I guess my days of Calico Ghost Town and Knotts Berry Farm cured me of getting excited over old-time saloons and brothels. I hope you won't be too disappointed by the fact that a long distance view or two of the Red Dog Saloon you saw earlier on, were the only pictures we took of that tourist attraction. This plaque is mounted on the building  that houses the Red Dog Saloon, and I would like to second the sentiment expressed by it. If it were not for the crazy and, well face it, greedy, men who dropped everything and ran after gold, my home state of California might still be part of Mexico, and Juneau wouldn't even exist today as a modern city. Here's to the prospectors, and gold fever infected guys who made the west happen for America! They beat the scoundrels who became rich by fleecing them of their gold with outrageous prices for the basic necessities, by being dogged. The miner came, set up permanent residence, and created towns, and even states. His children are here today, even though he himself was poor, and often remained poor. What really matters in the end is who you leave to carry on after you are gone, and what sort of place you leave to them.
After the Northern Lights, we were all shopped out. We started making our way back to the ship's gangway. However, I still wanted to find that Fishermen's Memorial. So, I stopped at an information booth and the lady there gave me general, and a touch ambiguous directions to the memorial. When I had described it as a place with interesting acoustical properties, she just said, "Well, that may be. I don't know." The directions led past the gangway, so we temporarily said goodbye to Tammy and Jim as they joined the line to board, because they were ready to go back onboard ASAP. Dotti and I continued on down the pier heading south. As it turned out, we didn't have to go very far at all!  In fact we didn't even clear the bow of the ship before we came upon this plaque for the Fisherman's Memorial. If you look above the plaque and the wall it is mounted on, you will see the forward lines from our ship running to the bollard beyond this memorial. (If you would like to read the text of the plaque please see the side bar.)
The other side of the wall had the names carved into it is face of commercial fishermen who have lost their lives at sea. With a town like Juneau, isolated from the world except by boat, until the airplane was invented, the sea is a big part of everyone's life. Fishing in the waters of Alaska is a challenge that is not for the faint of heart to tackle. Sometimes the sea stakes its claim on a vessel and all hands onboard. A ramped walkway to the right of the plaque led down into the pit behind the wall, where we could see the names. Cousin Wilbur had said that if one stood on the brass plaque in the center of the semicircle created by the concrete wall, and then spoke, it would sound like he was speaking through a microphone and speakers. So, Dotti, shopping bag in hand is standing on the brass plaque and trying to figure out what to do next. In the background is the green building that had made  the gangway stand out in the earlier picture where I was posed at the other end of the 935-foot long ship. Three football fields and change will make a big difference in how large something will appear.
One other thing about the background; you can once again see the forwardmost lines of the ship extending to the bollard on the pier. One of the things that I remember clearly being told in Navy boot camp was that "a parted line can cut a man in half." You don't want to be anywhere around one of those ropes if someone got careless and let it get too tight, tight enough to break. When a line parts, it releases a lot of energy and the pieces can move very fast, and with a lot of force. This is why it is a continuing task of the ship's watch to monitor the ship's lines for tightness. As Goldilocks would have said, "Not too tight, and not too loose, but just right!" Dotti tried saying something and you can see the reaction on her face.  My cousin was right, it did sound just like talking through a PA system. The wall is shaped such that every sound that is made at the brass plaque will travel to the wall and bounce directly back to the plaque.
The wall has a lot of names on it, but they have left room for more. While I didn't know any of the people listed there, I think that it is great they created a memorial for them. Thoughtless tourists pass through, without contemplating the fact that each name represents a human life that was lost, but for those who know some of the people, it has to be a very special place. Now, if you ever wondered where Twisted Sister eats at, just read the sign on the restaurant over the top of the wall. This plaque, which obviously gets stepped on a lot, is worn  down to the point where you can hardly read it, and the picture on it is pretty much gone. We are viewing it from its left side. Around the outer ring it says, "Alaska Commercial Fishermen's Memorial In Juneau." In the middle, there was a line drawing of a fishing boat in semi-profile heading out to sea, leaving a wake, and a reflection in the water.
The sea is huge. If our planet were a smooth ball, the sea would cover everything to a depth of over 1.5 miles. As it is, over 70% of our planet's surface is covered by ocean. Only the fact that the continental plates extend upwards much higher than the ocean floor keeps us dry at all. That means that most of our planet is off limits to us in our daily lives. It is a sad fact, highlighted by this memorial, that for those who challenge the sea, and move into the ocean's 70%, some will not return. Turning around 180° from the Memorial, we could see that we were  right near the bow of the ship. At the waterline, we were there, but the decks above that, up to the Promenade Deck, extended out well beyond our position to the left (southeast).
Three sets of lines can be seen here extending to the pier. The forward lines hold the ship from drifting aft from it position, the next set extend directly towards us, and keep the ship tight against the pier pillows, called "camels," so ms Westerdam didn't move away from us towards the Channel. The final set of lines crosses over and applies a force holding the ship from moving forward. This set of lines assists the lines tied at the stern, which have the primary purpose of keeping the ship from moving forward. The black of the hull shows up the fact that it was beginning to rain about as hard as it had all day long, and it was time for Dotti and I to follow Jim and Tammy back to the ship, where it was dry. Looking down the ship, while still standing at the Memorial,  we can see in the background that the clouds are beginning to descend in earnest upon Juneau. Along the side of the ship the lifeboats and the in port launches paint an orange stripe. There is a blue colored covered walkway near the center of the picture and that is the path we will be taking to get back onboard. It is time.
I am still standing in the "pit" of the Fishermen's Memorial and Dotti is on the ramp leading back up to normal ground level. This picture shows our day in a nutshell. 
Across the street, visible on the right side of the picture is Caribou Crossings, the first place we shopped in Juneau, and where we got that very good cup of coffee, 7 hours earlier. (Was it only 7 hours? The busy day made it seem much longer than that, but it had passed by in a flash too. Perception of time is so subjective, and it tends to vary greatly.) Climbing into the sky over Dotti's head is the Mount Roberts Tramway, symbolic of the many, many things that we just didn't have time to do. Hiding behind a bush at center picture, is another of the Historic Downtown Juneau signs, with map and sites to see. (When we first walked off the ship, I missed that entirely, and it could have been quite helpful on our wanderings.) The Juneau hills, where Jim and I walked, are just visible behind the buildings and through the fog. Even the Juneau Library is sticking its head, like Kilroy, over the top of the aluminum walkway. The only thing that is missing, besides our traveling companions, is the ship, invisible, even though we could throw a rock and easily hit it. That seems odd only because we spent hours of walking through stores before we reached a point where we couldn't see ms Westerdam. Soon, we would be seeing her from the inside once more, as shipboard life would become our norm, and dry land would be the memory, at least for a few hours. Have you ever wondered what Santa does when it's not Christmas? ☺ 
We are standing under the aforementioned blue covering on the walkway that led to the pier where our gangway was situated, off to the right and not visible in this picture. The people lining the side of the walkway all had matching jackets that had patches that said "Juneau, Alaska" on them, so they were port employees I assume. They were friendly and greeted us as we passed by. It was finally starting to rain a little harder and we were thankful for the covering. In fact, we were content to wait under it here until the line going up the gangway had shortened, so we could scoot up the ramp and get out of the weather quickly. Looking out from the safely covered walkway, we could see that  technically we had already left "dry land." The pier was built out into the water, with posts driven into the ground under the water providing support for the structure we would be crossing to get to the gangway.
We saw umbrellas being opened, and there  was a bit of a backup at the ramp. We were willing to wait a bit before braving the pier, because we didn't have an umbrella, and there was no rush really.
It became clear to us that the line was moving along pretty  well, and so we headed over to the gangway. It was raining, but it was not that bad, despite all of the visible umbrellas.
Off in the distance, the Juneau Library has the feel of a building that has been raised up from the ground and then had a concrete parking garage shoved in underneath. There are some large windows on the seaward end of the building, and if I ever make it back to Juneau I am going to take the time to check that library out. To the left we can see the launches that are going to be a big part of our lives during the following two days. We didn't know it yet, but the next time we were going to tie up to a pier would be in Canada. But I am getting ahead of myself. The people in front of us moved along even quicker than we had expected. They got to the top of the gangway where security screened people coming onboard. When we got to the top of the ramp, we presented our room cards, and they were scanned, just like a price bar in a grocery store. The computer found our photos and showed them on the screen. The security guy checked the photos against our smiling faces, and sure enough we were Dotti and Al from cabin 5021, and we were passed on to the next stage of security. We found another little line waiting for the x-ray machine. I took my backpack off, to make it easier to send it through the machine (I just couldn't see doing it any other way ☺). Dotti and I threw our cell phones and cameras into the backpack, and sent that through. Having had many confrontations with airport metal detectors, I just put my belt buckle into a plastic bucket so it could pass through the x-ray machine without incident. Dotti had tripped the first metal detector we had gone through to get on the ship. Her Z-coil shoes have large metal springs on them, and you know metal detectors; they are very fond of large pieces of metal like that, and always start shouting their greeting to make you feel right at home. So, we warned the security people and we walked through without a problem. The security people were very efficient in moving people through quickly, and could be even pushy if you didn't keep going fast enough. But the way they got the people through in a hurry made it quite forgivable. We were quite surprised when we came out from the security station to find Jim and Tammy waiting near the elevators. We had spent a little time at the Fishermen's Memorial and expect them to already be in their stateroom. They had found something else to capture their attention for the same amount of time and so we were able to continue on as if we had all come up the gangway together. Sometimes things just work out right. At this point shipboard life took over once more. Dotti and Tammy jumped into their swimsuits and headed for the Hydropool, Jim and I went to our respective staterooms. I had a lot of pictures to transfer off my camera to free up the space, and I needed to make some notes about what we had done during the day. It was not too long before dinner would be served. |
