A day in #Juneau and visit to the #RedDogSaloon

After a day at sea it was nice to have a chance to visit our first town Juneau.

Although the main part of the town is not too big there were a few interesting places away from the usual souvenir shops, although our daughter does expect a few gifts as surprises.
The first place we visited was the cultural centre where we found out about the early settlers, which proved to be very interesting.

Walking around town we came across the Red Dog saloon; a restored bar that had also been a brothel in the past. This was mentioned in the guide book, so it would be a shame to miss it out. As we strolled across the sawdust covered floor we were lucky enough to find a table. We ordered a drink off a hostess, dressed in a period costume and listened to the singer, whilst I got a chance to capture the scene. An authentic period bar with a great atmosphere and a lively place to stop for a while. 

We also managed to find a few art galleries and had a chance to see a range of local art work. There was also a drop in centre for families to engage in artistic activities which looked interesting. 

​It was a nice start to the cruise although the weather was more like home after the warmth of Canada.

Second day in #Skagway

After an interesting day in Juneau, Skagway proved to be a disappointment. 

The sail in was impressive with the low clouds on the mountains but this was also the problem when we arrived with intermittent rain.

We left the boat in the morning and an interesting old fashioned train greeted us before we proceeded up the main street. The road proved to be the centre of the town and mainly had souvenir shops. There were bars but these were crowded with people sheltering from the rain and were not as impressive as the one yesterday. I did manage to get a quick image of the street  and I thought that there were some interesting shop fronts.

We returned to the boat for lunch and decided to go out again but eventually turned back as the weather had worsened.

Maybe I'm being a little unfair on the town because of the weather but it does seem more of a place to use as a base for excursions. These were varied from whale watching, to helicopter rides to a glacier. We had done both of these in earlier holidays and with the low cloud and inclement weather were not sure if these would be enjoyable. Also they were quite costly ranging up to nearly $500 each.