Friday, August 27, 2004
We spend part of the morning at the Maritime Museum at the waterfront, just across from our hotel.  A big Celebrity Cruise ship, the Neptune, has docked at the pier next to the museum … blocking the view of the harbor.  Lunch is the half sandwich we've saved from yesterday's excursion through the Pike Market.  UPS finally finds us with an "overnight" shipment that was supposed to have reached us in Southold on Tuesday.  It is a spare battery for the video camera.  UPS misaddressed the shipment twice, and then their substitute driver couldn't find our Southold address.  By time they sorted it out, we were on the plane to Seattle.  At my request, they re-routed it to the Marriott and it finally caught up with us this morning at 11 am.  In the afternoon we take in the IMAX production of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.  The film notes that its ash was seen as far away as 700 miles to the east.  I have news: we collected a cupful of Mt. St. Helens ash from the hoods of our automobiles parked in Southold, some 2400 miles to the east!   I should have saved it; the local tourist shops are selling vials of "genuine Mt. St. Helens ash."  We then strolled through the adjacent Seattle Aquarium.  Rosie was particularly impressed with a "leafy dragon fish," native to Australia, which looks for all the world like a plant.

Saturday, August 28, 2004
After breakfast we catch a limo to SeaTac and are glad that we've left ourselves plenty of time as the lines to security snaked around the airport's lobby area.  As usual, because of her bionic hip (and assorted safety pins) Rosemarie was taken

aside for wanding.  The Lindblad meet and greet lady was on hand at the Alaska Air gate, checking everyone in.  Our ship, it appears, will be pretty full.  With a capacity of 70 passengers, she'll have 73 aboard.  (Children will be doubling up with their parents.)  The 2.5-hour flight to Juneau was uneventful.  In first class we got a sandwich for lunch.  Back in the cabin they got a bag of peanuts.  David Stephens, a Lindblad naturalist is aboard our flight and we recognized each other.  He was aboard the Belize trip last year and interpreted the Mayan glyphs for us at several ruins.  This, it turns out will be his only Lindblad trip this year as he and his wife are building a house in Oregon.  He left her to deal with the pouring of the foundation.  Good planning!

In Juneau, it is drizzling.  We are ushered aboard a couple of big buses and driven out to the Mendenhall Glacier where we spend an hour photographing the glacier face, a waterfall and viewing a movie on how much it is retreating.  About 2.5 miles since the American Revolution … global warming is not a modern phenomena.  Later we are bussed to the Juneau museum with a nice collection of Eskimo art and tools as well as the receipt to Russia for Seward's purchase of his "folly," Alaska!  At about 5:30 we pass several huge cruise ships tied up at the waterfront to reach our ship.  It is so small, it looks like it could be a lifeboat for those floating cities. In the drizzle we surrender our passports to the purser and board.  Our luggage is already in our cabin, #300.  After the obligatory complimentary champagne reception, we had an orientation lecture, and the lifeboat drill followed by supper.