DAY 4--JUNEAU, ALASKA

 BACKGROUND INFO:

        The City and Borough of Juneau is the capital city of Alaska and has a population of nearly 32,000.  Between the months of May and September the population can grow about 6,000 daily from visiting cruise ship passengers, us included.   It is the second largest city in the US by area and is located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of Alaska.  It has been the Alaskan capital since 1906 when it was moved from Sitka.  The area of Juneau is almost as large as Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
        Juneau is named after a gold prospector named Joe Juneau.  Mining began here in the 1880’s.  Juneau grew from the growth of state government once Alaska became a State in 1959.  The biggest growth was due to the construction of the Alaska Pipeline in 1977.  Cruise passengers have increased from 230,000 per year in 1990 to well over 1,000,000 now.  The economy is driven by state government which employs roughly half, followed by tourism, fishing and mining.  Another bit of trivia:  Juneau is the only US capital city that is not connected to the rest of the state, or even North America as far as that is concerned, by roads.  There is ferry service for cars however.

                             

LAST NIGHT:

        We skipped the "block party".  Why you ask?  Well, yesterday afternoon I called reception to complain about our next door neighbors having a HUGE yelling match fight.  Not sure what country they are from but the fight was not in English so not sure what it was about.  They sent security up and so far we have not heard any more fights or loud talking.  So we did not want to have any issues at the block party.  Headed to the Mariner Lounge instead.
        Our jalapeno poppers which we had requested showed up at the bar shortly after we arrived.  We sat next to and had a nice conversation with a couple who had moved from New Jersey to Florida.  This is only their second cruise and first on Regent.     

              Boris, one of the orchestra members, was playing some nice cocktail hour music.

   Prasanjil (he said to just call him "Das") from India was waiting tables in the Mariner Lounge.
        At 7pm we headed in to the Compass Rose restaurant for dinner.  We asked to be seated at Dara's station again.  

We both started with some panko crusted prawns.  This is one of our favorite appetizers and sometimes on previous cruises we order it for our entrees.  We chose a pasta with shrimp as our entrees.

For dessert I had this malva pudding cake with butter pecan ice cream.  One of my favorite desserts.  It is like a bread pudding.

        After dinner Rebecca came back to the room but I went to see if the comedian was any good.  I left after about 5 minutes.  I ran into Linda Gentille in the elevator.  Linda was one of our headliner entertainers on the world cruise earlier this year and we loved her singing.  She will be tonight's entertainer in the theater at 9:30.  Can't wait!!

TODAY:

        I filled out our Canadian customs declaration and took it back down to reception.  They will need it for our arrival in Victoria BC next Wednesday.  Today's "Passages", the ship's daily newsletter/schedule of events, states that the ship's internet may be interfered with while in the Juneau port.  So I plan on making today's post early before our scheduled 11am arrival there.

        We will be heading to the fitness center this morning as usual.  We canceled our whale watching excursion for this afternoon as it is forecast for more rain and temperature in low 50's.  We have done it on previous cruises up here.

If you have Google Photos, here is a link to some whale pics.  Not sure is this will work for you.  Sorry if it doesn't.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EbqEXupETYNiE9XG6

        I may walk into town later this afternoon.  Photos I take later today will be posted tomorrow.  We plan on dining up in Sette Mari, the Italian restaurant, this evening.  I have made a special order for veal parmesan.  Then we'll head to the theater for Linda Gentille's show. 

        I will go ahead and post this now at 10am.  If the internet cooperates I will add photos later today, or if not, tomorrow.