Ted and I were both surprised to learn that Alaska is not on Pacific time like BC, Washington, Oregon, and California. We had to set our watches and iPhones back an hour last night, gleaning us an extra hour’s sleep once both our stomachs and heads settled.

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My empty stomach was growling this morning, so breakfast was definitely in order. We decided to try the Lido Market buffet. The buffet is laid out in multiple well-spaced stations, many with live cooking (omelettes, crepes, waffles), but somewhat confusingly oriented. For example, rye bread can only be found at the Homestead station, not in the Breadboard, but grapefruit juice is only available at Breadboard. Speaking of grapefruit juice, boy did I miss Evidence and my daily fresh-squeezed pink grapefruit juice – the canned juice served this morning was an option I won’t choose again. Ted enjoyed his fresh-squeezed orange juice, for which I had to go to the Quench Bar. Canned OJ is included with breakfast, but fresh is part of our drink package. There’s absolutely no table service in the buffet beyond clearing plates, so Ted went to the “Perk” station and got our coffees.

A really nice surprise, for me, was that there was pickled herring available for breakfast (hence the search for rye bread). I got to help myself to as much herring as I wanted; the buffet glass guards are quite large, but passengers can still serve themselves many things. Ted enjoyed his nice hot French toast with maple syrup, but they’d run out of bacon (or were between trays). All good – he had a bacon appetizer last night, after all!

Mid-morning our Cruise Director Stephanie hosted an EXC.Talk entitled Ancestral Memory, all about the indigenous peoples of Alaska. The talk focussed mostly on the Tlingit (pronounced “klinkit”), who we know from DNA evidence have inhabited Alaska for over 10,000 years.

The documentary film used as the basis for the talk did not shy away from detailing the problems created when larger political powers took over Alaska, like the horrors of the residential school system and its lingering traumas. Ironically, after trying to wipe out the use of the Tlingit language, in WWII the language – and that of the Navaho – were used by the US to create an unbreakable military code. Today, Alaska and Hawaii are the only 2 states which recognize their indigenous languages as co-official languages; Alaska has 22 official languages, only 1 of which is English.

The documentary also shared that 3 Alaskan villages have the dubious distinction of being the only American towns ever bombed by American artillery (during the transfer of “ownership” from Russia to the USA). It was not until 1971 that the Alaskan people were paid for some of their land.

Out of the ashes of trauma, the Tlingit and other Alaskan indigenous people now hold huge annual celebrations to commemorate their survival, and the survival and revitalization of their culture and languages.

While Ted rested in our cabin, I went to the Ocean bar for a cold drink (tonic on ice), and ended up – to no one’s surprise – chatting with other passengers. Melissa, a veterinarian from Texas, and her hubby James were interested in Ted’s and my retirement model. We may try to get together over dinner later this week to talk some more.

In recognition of early afternoon excursions for most passengers, the Main Dining Room was offering “express fish & chips” with open table seating. We opted instead for quick lunches NY Pizza& Deli, and the Dive-In pool grill. By the time I got my burger and fries, Ted was already half-way through his pizza slice, depriving me of a food picture. Sheesh.

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We arrived in Juneau, Alaska’s capital city, around 12:30 p.m., ready for our first shore excursion of this cruise. The Royal Princess and Holland America’s Eurodam were both already here, and the Celebrity Solstice not far behind us, but looking into town nothing seemed crowded. Maybe everyone heads out whale and glacier watching first and the town will be inundated later in the afternoon.

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Our excursion time was 2:30 p.m., meeting ashore at 2:15, which gave us some time to wander around both before our tour. A friend of a friend had suggested we walk to OverStreet Park to see Tahku, the life-scale bronze whale sculpture of a breaching humpback rising amidst waterworks from a black granite infinity pool located on the waterfront. It was commissioned by the city to celebrate Alaska’s 50th anniversary of statehood, in 2009.

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En route to Tahku, I needed to check out every one of the beautiful totem poles along the waterfront.

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Our 3 hour HAL excursion in Juneau was called “Mendenhall Glacier Explorer”, and began with a short bus ride through part of Tongas National Forest, the largest national forest in the USA. The forest is about the size of the state of West Virginia, and is home to approximately 70,000 people living in 32 communities, including Juneau.

By the time we reached the glacier, the morning’s drizzle had turned into rain, but we nonetheless hiked the 2 mile round-trip Nugget Falls Trail – to the falls, obviously – and the shorter Steep Creek Trail to see Sockeye salmon spawning. That second trail had the possibility of seeing bears feeding, but as Ranger Schneider explained to us, the bears are almost sated at this point, and have become very picky. They want fish that are still “fresh”, and only females with intact eggs sacs; by this time of year the bears simply throw males back into the water.

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We didn’t see any bald eagles, but we did see a porcupine sleeping in a tree! We’d have missed him if not for the park ranger who pointed him out.

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Normally bald eagles would scavenge the dead salmon, but this area is too densely forested to make that practical. The eagles obviously have enough other food, as evidenced by a population in Juneau of about 30,000 bald eagles to 32,000 human residents.

But back to the glacier! This was a viewing experience completely different from taking a small ship into a fjord. We viewed the glacier from a platform on the opposite side of its lake. It was certainly impressive, but – perhaps because of the overcast day – the ice looked almost grey, as opposed to the stunning clear aquamarine of the Brüggen and Pio IX glaciers we saw in Chile. We’re hoping to see some of that colour in Glacier Bay.

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Mendenhall is receding, whereas the Chilean glaciers are growing. Ranger Schneider explained that a growing glacier may still be forming from the melting and refreezing of snowfalls that happened as much as 50 years ago, but receding ones are often because the balance of new snowfall to melt is too small. In recent years, there has been less snow and more rain in this region.

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Just 8 days ago there was a catastrophic event here, when Suicide Basin in the glacier overflowed and broke through the natural ice dam formed by an arm of the glacier. The sudden rush of billions of gallons (Ranger Schneider smilingly changed that to trillions of litres for us Canadians) of water into the lake and river, destroying homes located as much as 400 feet from the riverbank. Here’s a local science news article explaining what happened: Zmescience

We got back to the ship, after almost 3 hours in the rain, ready for a change of clothes and a snack. Ted opted for coffee and cookies; I went for Prosecco and bitterballen (Dutch croquettes).

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Because our cruise fare included a $125 per person non-refundable shipboard credit from Expedia, we chose tonight to book a second specialty dining experience. (I’d already spent $40 to upgrade my wifi package so that I could upload photos and publish our blog).

Native Voices, a talk about indigenous history through artwork and ship building, was being presented on the World Stage at 8 p.m., and we were interested, so our dinner seating at Tamarind, HAL’s Pan-Asian restaurant, was a late one: 9 p.m.

This was hands-down the loveliest restaurant ambience and the best food we’ve eaten on the cruise so far. The quality, flavours, and presentation were as good as the best dinners we’ve enjoyed on our beloved Viking ships, and our server, Yela, was a delight.

We started with drinks: a Shiso Sour for me (bourbon, sauvignon blanc, sour mix, fresh mango, shiso leaves and angostura bitters, with a thin slice of lime), and Momokaea Silver sake for Ted. With our drinks came lobster crackers (for me) and rice cracker (non-shellfish!) for Ted, with a trio of relishes (shrimp and chili, minced jalapeño, and spicy chili) plus soy sauce.

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As appetizers, I had Tom Kha Kai, a sweet coconut and chili oil broth poured over shredded coconut chicken, sliced mushrooms, and slivered green onion; Ted enjoyed Chinese five spice baby back ribs with masago, pineapple, red chili, and scallions.

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Honestly, I would love to have tried every one of the 10 appetizer options, but we were looking forward to our main courses. I chose the Thai basil Szechuan shrimp with straw mushrooms, sweet bell peppers, scallions, and a very spicy chili sauce, served with a side of steamed jasmine rice. I’ve never seen such huge shrimp, and the cook on them was perfect. Ted decided to give getting medium rate beef one more chance and ordered the wasabi & soy crusted beef tenderloin with tempura onion rings, tonkatsu sauce, and sake-braised oyster and shiitake mushrooms. His verdict on the beef was that Tamarind’s chef should give lessons to all the others on how to turn out a perfect medium-rare cut.

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The fabulous food continued into dessert: a trio of house-made sorbets in lychee, lemon-basil, and yuzu, and a yuzu cheesecake served in a white chocolate shell, over black cherry crumble, and topped with honey and black sesame tulle. It truly could not have been better.

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All in all, a terrific day.