Sunday, July 13- This was our only "at sea" day; we sailed all the way up to the farthest point on our itinerary, before working our way back south port-by-port.
We breakfasted at the Lido buffet at 8am...
...then went to church at 9 at the 'World Stage'.
David's Jeremiah's 1st message - The Promise Of Heaven
Jesus gave us 4 anchors of hope for eternity in John 14- a person, a place, a promise and a plan.
When that service was over, we went to Rolling Stone Lounge for a cooking show on Holland America's schedule of events at 11. (Our cruise director Valerie is American, which is a little unusual for a cruise ship.) She taught us how to remember the 5 kinds of salmon using one's hand- chum rhymes with thumb, sockeye because your pointer can 'sock'/poke an eye, king because it's biggest, silver [coho] for your ring finger, and pink for your pinky.
The executive chef Darren came on stage and prepared a BBQ salmon bowl. Richard really identified with his struggle with reading glasses. 😄 And his English accent was delightful.
The finished product! (He handed out the recipe so it will be on the menu at home soon.)
Meanwhile, Marions took a class on shore excursions, so we joined them at noon for a Holland America presentation on Whales. The best whale sightings we had on the trip. 😂
Richard & I put jackets on and went out on deck 3 where we could walk laps. (No jogging track on this ship.) The sign on the wall said 3 laps = a mile, so we did 3.5 laps. I really liked how uncrowded it was out there so we could keep up a good pace. If you know me, you know I'm not a casual stroll-er.
Besides tea, we sampled mini shrimp, salmon, egg salad and curried chicken sandwiches... scones, cream puffs, stroopwafel, and apple tart. 👍
We attempted to sit on our balcony, but even with coats and the [complimentary] blankets, we didn't last very long. We skipped the David Jeremiah concert; not a huge fan of their piano player or saxophonist.
Some random things about the Eurodam...
there were gorgeous fresh flowers & live plants everywhere
Instead of paper towels in the public restrooms, there were rolled washcloths for drying one's hands.
There was a well stocked library on Deck 3
A well stocked Game Room with games & puzzles on Deck 11.
Not pictured- there was an Art Room for classes in knitting and watercolor, etc.
It was a formal night so we dressed up for gala dinner in the main dining room at 7:30. 
Richard had creamed artichoke & carrot soup for his starter
I always have escargot bourguignon at least once on a cruise
My dried cherry & thyme coated salmon... Richard's herb roasted chicken
Finished off with caramel lava cake & crème brulee.
We've had/made better crème brulee- that was a disappointment.
(While the food & service was good, we would say it was just a tick below what we're used to on Royal Caribbean.)
We went to the World Stage for Holland America's illusionist show, but we were late/missed 2/3 of it. It was packed/standing room only, very warm and all the oxygen was sucked out of the room till we got there, plus being in the front of the ship where we could really feel the rocking on the ocean... I started to feel queasy. We got out of there before I got truly seasick. Lots of cruisers commented on it being rough that day "people are going to think we've been drinking, the way we're staggering!" one genteel older couple stated as we passed them in the hall. One of the waiters in the dining room said he had been on board for 9 months and that day was the first time he took a [motion sickness] pill.
Turndown service came with towel art that day
Monday, July 14- Overnight the clocks turned back another hour, so we were now 4 hours behind home. Before we even opened our balcony drapes, we could feel we were off the ocean and into calmer waters. We woke up to beautiful snowcapped mountain ranges!
Again, it was too chilly to stay on our balcony very long. We went to breakfast buffet at 7:30 but ate lite so we'd be hungry for the lunch excursion we had booked. Then we went out on deck 11 for a whale watch with the nature guide Russ, but it was too foggy to see anything. Marion sent Richard a message at 8:30 that we're sailing through a pod but we didn't see the message in time. (HAL's app works better than RC's app but it didn't ping to let you know you received a message, so we usually didn't notice messages till too late.) The whale sightings were always so brief that it was impossible to get photos.
The moon was still very visible at 5am
Within minutes, the fog rolled in so we were glad we woke early. 
Good morning, Alaska!!
We went to David Jeremiah's 2nd message "Won't Heaven Be Boring?" at 9am.
Heaven won't be a bunch of white-robed people sitting on clouds strumming harps for eternity. Heaven will not be boring because God is not boring, Jesus is not boring, you will not be boring, your friends will not be boring, and your work will not be boring.
When the service was over at 10:30, it had cleared up outside. Yay! So we bundled up in coats and went out on the bow of the ship, which the crew had opened up for cruisers to watch while we sailed into Juneau.
It gets approx. a million visitors per season; we were 1 of 4 cruise ships that day. Some compare it to a Swiss resort town and we certainly saw the resemblance in the lush green mountains and waterfalls.
Float planes were taking off & landing frequently
Float planes were taking off & landing frequently
We found our tour group [roughly 10 couples, complete strangers] and were shuttled 4 miles across town to the Gold Creek Salmon Bake. The most challenging part was getting out of the parking lot because there were tour buses "out the wazoo" all trying to get out of "Dodge". Our bus driver was quick to tell us that we should appreciate the sunshine because it had rained literally every day since April; we hit the first nice day in months!
First station at the salmon bake was clam chowder. Richard is allergic but I enjoyed a cup.
They can accommodate large crowds, rain or shine, but it was nearly empty when we were there.
We filled our plates at the buffet...
...then we picked up all-you-can-eat wood fired salmon with optional glaze, fresh off the fire.
salmon, ribs, cheesy potatoes, rice pilaf, baked beans, Caesar salad, cornbread, and blueberry cake (not pictured).
We could have toasted marshmallows over a campfire yet, but we were too full! I tried my hand at panning for gold -without success, naturally. And we "hiked" to a waterfalls on the property.
Salmon are spawning in this creek, downstream from the falls.
They are hard to spot in photos but they were plentiful.
Any guesses why the eagles were perched in the trees above?
We also tasted salmonberries fresh off the bushes, after the staff encouraged us to pick some. Never heard of 'em before. The yellow or orange ones are tart, the red ones are a bit sweeter. Interesting.
Top priority was purchasing some fudge & truffles...
This is a statue of William Seward. In 1867 he negotiated with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. This statue was erected in 2017 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of that Treaty of Cession.
I was going to skip the entrée but alas, Danny brought me crab cakes.
I had read online about a tour of a Salmon Hatchery across the road, but our shuttle driver seemed to think it's not open to the public, so I scratched that off my list. It was 4pm till we shuttled back to Juneau.
...we browsed the touristy shops a little but I wanted to see the "real" Juneau so a local resident pointed us in the right direction, away from the pier. It had warmed up to 68° so we hit the weather jackpot.
We walked until we found the Capital building and other government offices. The Capital houses Alaska's House of Representative, Senate, and Governor's Office.
Nearby is this statue titled Windfall Fisherman.
The inscription- Celebrating the first 25 years of Alaska Statehood,
1959 - 1984
Summer is the bountiful time of easy living for brown bears in
Southeast Alaska, and they have arranged their lives to advantage,
stuffing themselves on greens, berries, roots and salmon while the
season affords and retiring to sleep the winter in fat comfort.
Back on the pier was another statue- Patsy Ann
Patsy Ann, an English Bull Terrier, was born in Portland, Oregon on October 12, 1929 and came to Juneau as a pup. Patsy Ann was stone deaf (from birth), but she somehow “heard” the whistles of approaching ships -long before they came into sight- and headed at a fast trot for the wharf. She was never wrong. In fact, on one memorable occasion, a crowd was given erroneous information and gathered at the wrong dock. Patsy Ann gazed at the crowd for a long moment, then turned and trotted to the correct dock. Because of her unerring sense of the imminent arrival of each ship that visited Juneau and her faithful welcome at wharfside, Juneau Mayor Goldstein dubbed Patsy Ann “Official Greeter of Juneau, Alaska” in 1934. She died in Juneau on March 30, 1942. Fifty years after her death, her statue was commissioned and installed on the wharf she knew so well. Each year, hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Juneau from cruise ships and are welcomed on the dock by Patsy Ann, as they would have been in the 1930’s.
We got back on board at 6pm. Meanwhile, Marions had been riding the Mt Roberts Tram and hiking at Mendenhall glacier. Mendenhall is probably one of the most popular things to do in Juneau but because we had already seen glaciers in Switzerland and would be cruising Glacier Bay on this trip, we opted out of that. Divide and conquer, right?
We were still full from our salmon bake and considered skipping dinner, but Richard had already ordered his meal the evening before so we felt obligated. We both ordered Gold Rush [yellow tomato & fennel] soup for an appetizer. Because we said we were not hungry, Danny poured just this teeny amount into our bowl and told us to go ahead and eat it. He almost had us fooled, before he finished pouring the full serving. 😄
Richard's Parmesan coated veal loin
I was going to skip the entrée but alas, Danny brought me crab cakes.
S'mores sundae & strawberry crisp
After dinner we walked laps on Deck 3 to burn calories. We got in 13,000 steps that day.
After dinner we walked laps on Deck 3 to burn calories. We got in 13,000 steps that day.
The sunset was stunning; pictures don't do justice.
-to be continued-
