White Water Rafting in Juneau

Tuesday 9th July
We arrived in Juneau in the morning and set off to explore the town. The day was overcast compared to the brighter days we have had so far; apparently Juneau has a very high annual rainfall. It is the state capital and you could tell there was more to it than little Ketchikan; there was an attractive white-painted, colonnaded Governor's House where Sarah Palin used to live. There was also an excellent museum which explained a lot about Alaska's history. It has close links to Russia, who owned Alaska until they sold it to the Americans in 1863. They were willing to do this because they felt that friendly (and inevitable) American expansion was preferable to the less friendly (because of the Crimean War) British expansion via Canada. So there is a lot of shared history with Russia and there were some Russian shops in the main street. James bought himself an Aeroflot t-shirt! He also got me a really gorgeous bear charm for my bracelet in one of the many jewellery shops.
At lunch time we set off by bus for our rafting trip at the Mendenhall Glacier, starting at the lake and travelling down the river; it was absolutely spectacular. We were efficiently kitted up with waterproofs, welly boots and life jackets and allocated to our inflatable boats. We were with a very loud American family who shouted the whole time and asked the guide very personal questions. We paddled round the lake first with great views of the glacier, and we were able to go right up to an iceberg and touch it, it was an amazing translucent blue colour deep down. Then we made our way over to the mouth of the river and did a bit of white water rafting which was great fun and the danger of which was hugely exaggerated by our young guide, who shouted instructions in a hoarse voice and steered us into the bumpy bits to make it more exciting. The American family screamed with excitement, however I was more concerned with how cold my feet got as the raft filled with freezing water! At the jetty downstream we saw the horrible sight of the corpulent family matriarch being carrying from the raft by her loyal middle-aged children. When we got back to town we had another walk around then went back to the comfort of the ship. I like Juneau; it's a bustling town and it's hard to believe that it is only accessible by sea or plane.
In the evening Davie took us to his favourite bar where he knows all the staff - "Another diet coke Mr Anderson?" He won't admit it but I think that he is loving this cruise.