Juneau and bad weather canceled our float plane excursion

These cruise ships carry the amount of people the same as the town I grew up in, Collinsville, Oklahoma-give or take 3000 people on the boats.  If it wasn't for these ships, I doubt there would be too many living in AK, it's just too darn cold for many many months out of the year.  But, seeing the northern lights for me, might make it worth one winter.  It sounds like staying a whole winter is a badge of honor, but not often done twice.  

Juneau is the state capital and only accessible by plane.  Float plane.  We had planned our float plane excursion to the Taku Lodge and the weather was bad and it got canceled.  

This guy was showing off, it looked like he was buzzing the boat!

Juneau wasn't all bad.  We saw some of the most beautiful flowers.  The state fair prize for the cabbage was won by a 100 lb. cabbage. It means thousands of dollars for the winner.  I guess the long days means bigger and better plants.  

Walking around town we found a fabulous quilt shop and the best halibut fish and chips I've ever eaten at the Hanger.  Be prepared to pay up for the fabric and fish, Alaska is not a cheap state for tourists or people that live there.  

 There is a fabulous quilt shop in Juneau!

 Our narrow hallways.

 The short growing season makes for some spectacular flowers!

Our rooms were 8616 and mom and dad's was 8622.  We both had balcony rooms.  I highly recommend that for AK get balconies.  

Icy Point Straight and Mom and Dad's Anniversery

When you live your life following a paycheck, it's sad that you don't get to spend much time with your family.  Luckily we were able to have our folks onboard and were also able to catch up with anniversaries.  My folks, Don and Marlene Blanchard, are very humble unassuming people and they really didn't want any kind of notice for their 50th, or 55th wedding anniversary.  So we did the next best thing, a piece of cheesecake with a candle and a song.  My wonderful husband spent so much time taking pictures of the cruise while the rest of us played a lot.  But, the one we missed was the crew surrounding our folks and singing a cornball anniversary song.  It was so nice sharing this with them.  

 The Radiance has everything a bigger boat has, just on a smaller scale.  This is the Centrum.  There were extra restaurants.  Bob and I really enjoyed the Izumi Japanese restaurant.  The Windjammer was the big buffet for breakfast and lunch.  Then for dinner, we had reservations for 7:15 every night.  This turned out to be too late.  My father did the best he could to stay on Tulsa time and that meant he would have been fast asleep at 10:15.  So, we only did the dinner with them twice, then we did our own thing and they went to the Windjammer buffet.

One of our stops was at Icy Point Straight.  Next time we go there we need to take the whale watching cruise, I heard they sighted the bubble net feedings that we got to see on our last Alaska cruise, in 2005.    The other thing the city is famous for is having the world's longest zip line.  I had no takers in my group for that activity.  Plus, it seemed that we had a pretty loaded schedule of excursions, later on.