Downtown Juneau

We've gone downtown several times to see the cruise ships, walk around the streets, and attend the Juneau Maritime Festival. When there are cruises at dock, downtown is bustling and full of life... when there's not, its a ghost town. Its kind of frustrating as well as freaky looking to see the empty shops. One day we were there about an hour before the cruise docked and got to watch everyone running around like mad trying to get the shops ready just in time for people to start walking off the boat. The shops right next to the cruise terminal don't even have stuff in their windows when they close. We were shocked to learn that these stores don't even have regular hours. They just are open when a cruise is in town, which at this point in the season is practically every day from about 8-4. Juneau can hold up to 5 cruise ships at once, one has to be smaller one though. I think the most we've seen yet is 3. Apparently when there are more than that, they have boats to bring people to the docks from out in the channel. The moral of the story is, downtown Juneau is a lot of fun. But if you're into shopping, trendy restaurants, and all that... make sure there will be a cruise in town when you come, otherwise you might be disappointed. BTW, I have to mention Sydney's favorite part of downtown is running up and down the cruise terminal dock and watching the seaplanes take on and off. She loves it, and they are really close. At the Maritime Festival, the Coast Guard came to do a water rescue demonstration and were really close off the dock. We were being sprayed with water they were so close. Sydney loved watching them drop a dummy and then go in and get it. It was cool to see the demonstration so close :). I'm sure there will be more posts abt downtown later. Goodnight!