dfilpus

My wife collects ornaments. We found some at Grizzly’s on 5th Ave in Skagway. We also got some at the Christmas store on the dock in Ketchikan and Grizzly’s on 4th Ave in Anchorage.

In addition to the stops along the North Highway, we took the bridge over to Douglas Island. There is a nice view of Mendenhall from the North Douglas highway. The town is different, not as touristy. The beach with remnants of mining activity is interesting.

Avis Alaska has not reopened that office since the pandemic.

The Inside Passage has a shallow tight passage. There are cruise ships that are too big to make that passage, so they have to go outside of Vancouver Island.

We rented from Avis from their office on Mill Street near the AJ Dock. According to other posters, Avis is not going to have that office open this year.

The Steep Creek trail is a short boardwalk that overlooks the creek for salmon viewing during runs. It is just off the parking lot. If the salmon are not running, it is just a walk from the parking lot to the glacier views.

We rented a car for the day in Juneau. We went to Mendenhall before the tour buses got there, the shrine of Sainte Therese, Eagle Beach, Douglas Island etc.

We learned about the Sandbar on CC before our 2019 cruise. We parked around back where there is an entrance to the dining area. There was a group of locals having lunch and talking local town issues. There was a commercial fisherman who got a phone call and left saying that this was his last warm meal for a month on his way to the boat. It really was a taste of local Juneau and the fish and chips were great.

Two local tour companies run shuttle buses from the cruise docks to the Mendenhall Visitor Center. One company has blue buses and the other has white buses. At the Visitor Center, there are distant views of the glacier, with accessible trails to lookouts for slightly different views. The trail to Nugget Falls gets you close to the falls and closer to the glacier. It is paved part way, but becomes a little rocky as you approach the falls. It is about a mile each way from the Visitor Center. There is also an accessible boardwalk above a salmon stream near the Visitor Center. If your timing is right, there may be salmon running. Bears have been seen in the area. After you are done, you catch the next shuttle of the appropriate color back to the cruise docks.

We took the pedestrian bridge out to Yakatunia Point in 2019. It’s a nice short walk.

In Seward, look at Kenai Fjords National Park tours. There are multiple vendors that offer boat tours. Get the longest duration tour into the park to see the most glaciers and wildlife. Vendors include Kenai Fjords Tours and Major Marine.

Norwegian is removing Saint Petersburg from its Baltic cruises in 2023. They’ve replaced it with Visby Sweden and Kotka Finland on our cruise in August 2023.