Day 31 – Moored in Juneau

Made a fatal mistake this morning, got up thinking it was 5AM, which is a typical morning for me since it gets light at 3:30AM, but realized about a half hour later that I really got up at 4AM Alaska time. My iPhone (which serves as my bedside clock) is set to Seattle time -- will be tired today! As mentioned we are moored by the cruise ship docks. There are so many eagles surrounding us I’ve lost count. Apparently when the cruise ships come in and use their thrusters and reverse the engines it stirs up the herring, so the eagles just perch all around the harbor waiting for the next ship to arrive or depart. The eagles have been dive bombing our boat all morning and one actually landed on our bow railing right in front of where I sit now. So on this trip I have been concentrating my reading on books set in Alaska and the one I just finished is called “A Wolf Called Romeo” by Nick Jans, and for anyone that is a dog lover, animal lover or just wants a feel good story, you need to read this book. It’s a true story of a giant black wolf that roamed the area around the Mendenhall Glacier here in Juneau for about 6 years starting around 2003, and over time made friends with the dogs that were walked there by their humans. It is a heartwarming story of inter‑species relations, trust, and full of fascinating information about wolves. We visited the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center this morning where “Romeo” is on permanent display. He was magnificent in every way. I got motivated this afternoon to do some cooking and have made strawberry freezer jam (because we are out of jam), ginger simple syrup for cocktails, and at this moment have a beef brisket in the crockpot which we can only do when hooked up to shore power. Today is also John’s 59^th birthday and although he scoffs at any sort of celebration, we are going out to dinner tonight at “Salt” (heck if I’m going to cook when there are restaurants nearby!). The brisket is for another day. Heading up to the library now to use their wi-fi and post these blog updates because starting tomorrow we will be off the grid again most likely until June 23^rd. Unless of course Glacier Bay has cell service for some reason, who knows? So until next time…hope everyone is having a wonderful summer so far.