Sunsets last an awfully long time in Alaska during the summer, because the track of the sun slants sideways to the horizon instead of straight down. Add some distant mountains to the picture and there’s a glow in the sky long after the sun itself is no longer visible. After we made yesterday’s post, we lingered on the bow to watch the changing colors. We passed a working lighthouse (the only building we’ve seen since leaving Juneau), and paused to watch a pair of whales who were surfacing in front of us. The atmosphere was magical, made bittersweet by the knowledge that we would be disembarking the next morning. We have had such a wonderful time on this cruise. The crew have been so friendly, and really go the extra mile to make things special.

All things do eventually end, and our arrival back in Juneau was announced early the next morning by the bow thrusters of our ship sending reverberations through the hull. As we were eating a final breakfast on board, the founder and owner of the company came to speak with us and hear about our UnCruise experience. It seemed perhaps to surprise him when the passengers gave him a spontaneous ovation in appreciation for our fantastic trip. Because the itineraries are flexible and set by the captain and expedition leader in response to conditions, he was curious to hear about what we had seen and done. We knew our week had been special and he confirmed that we had been really fortunate in the places we had been able to visit. The last time one of the cruises made it to Baird Glacier was seven years ago!

As we stepped off the ship and made our way along the pier, the crew lined the upper decks to wave goodbye. We were incredibly touched when a group of them struck up a spontaneous rendition of Happy Birthday for Linda, in whose honor our vacation had been organized. We can’t really imagine that happening with any other cruise line.

The first part of the day was devoted to exploring Juneau and its many shops. With several large ships in port, the tourist area was busy but not overly so. Besides shopping for souvenirs, we made sure to stop at Jellyfish Donuts, which sells local favorites such as the salmon donut (think cream cheese and lox on a very soft bagel), or the spruce tip donut shown here. We had learned during one of the bushwhacks on our cruise that spruce tips are edible, and even tried a few. Here they have been put to use in creating a citrusy, piney delicacy. Susannah had an especially fun time at the Changing Tides quilt shop, which is reputedly one of the best fabric stores in the state and boasts a rich assortment of Alaskan-themed patterns.

In the afternoon we hiked out to the Last Chance Mining Museum, which is a few miles out of town up Gold Creek. The museum is small, housing some of the old equipment used by the Alaska Juneau Mining Company, including a giant electric air compressor that powered mining activities. Outside, the rusting remains of electric mine trains stood exposed to the elements. Their tracks were still in place, even suspended in midair above a rushing stream like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie, where the wooden trestles that once supported them had apparently rotted and been swept away. We declined to attempt the crossing.

The mountains here are riddled with tunnels from decades of mining, and one display showed a 3D map of the entire mine on a stack of transparent plates, with every shaft and tunnel marked by the miners as they worked. Interestingly, there is still gold in the mountain: operations stopped due to a lack of manpower when World War II began, and have not restarted due to stricter environmental controls in the modern era.

After dinner at a restaurant that served Alaskan-inspired Italian cuisine, we returned to our rooms in the Juneau Hotel to rest up for our flight to Sitka in the morning. Along the way, we saw a bald eagle sitting on a street light and caught the breaching whale sculpture in full fountain mode. (One of the skiffs on our cruise actually saw a whale breach in person; sadly, we weren’t with that particular group.)