While we were on the 5 hour tour, we met a couple from Pittsburgh who had stopped by a river just outside of town earlier in the day to watch salmon jumping upstream to lay their eggs. G was intrigued and wanted to see this for himself. Luckily they offered us a ride to the river after our cruise (luckily, because after our morning walk and 5 hours in the water, we were starting to drag a bit). They then left to get through the 6pm tunnel opening (going toward Anchorage, the tunnel opens on the hour) and we walked the two miles or so back to town.
It was still surprisingly warm; the air temp was probably only in the high 50s by then, but the sun was still strong and hot. We happened on one of the pedestrian tunnels that run through this funny little town...when you get 15 feet of rain and (last year) 44 feet of snow, have a railroad run right through the middle of town and all live in one building, pedestrian tunnels make quite a bit of sense.
We returned to the ship about 6:45pm. One final train bringing additional passengers arrived shortly afterwards, so, while things were quiet in the terminal, they were still prepared to check people in for the cruise. We didn't even change, but went straight to the dining room dressed as we were. Muster drill was at 8pm for those people required to go (those people boarding today), but dinner service continued for in transit passengers, which was nice. Right after muster, hoards of people came for dinner, but luckily we were just finishing up and returned to our cabin to watch sailaway from our balcony. By 9:30pm we were asleep. It had been a full turnaround day.
Photo 6: the tall building in the background is where everyone lives; the Princess cruise terminal is the hanger-shaped building in the foreground.