Our Trip To Alaska Part 6 - August 2012

Today was a wonderful day. When we got up we had no idea that we were in Juneau as it was so foggy that you could not see five feet in front of you. But by breakfast time the fog was lifting and the sight was spectacular. 

 Juneau is nestled in the middle of 7 mountains so that wherever you look there is a mountain above you. In between those mountains runs the Inner Passage of the Alaska waterways. The mountains are so packed in together such that there is no roadway that leads out of he area to connect to other parts of the USA or Canadian mainland. 


And beside the view being great, the sun was out strong. The locals were thrilled as there are only 50 days or so of sunshine a year here and this year has been particularly dismal. The temperature hit the mid 70s today and there was not a cloud in the sky.

We had planned on walking thru the town in the morning, taking tramway to the top of Mount Roberts at noon and then visit the glacier in the late afternoon. Our plans changed when a booth on the docks in front of the ship offered us an amazing deal on a whale tour and visit to the Mendenhall Glacier. We grabbed the deal and we were off to the glacier. 

The glacier is the closest glacier to a city in North America. About 8 miles and 20 minutes driving dropped us off at the glacier. There as a short nature trail to walk where you could see salmon swimming upstream to lay their eggs of a shallow river. 

We then saw a mom bear and two cubs in the nearby forest, and then we watched a movie about the history of the glacier. 

We then took a short bus ride to the docks and boarded our boat for whale watching. We went quite a ways into the bay and soon saw both Orcas and Humpback whales. The weather was ideal and it was the perfect day for whale watching.

On our return, we went on the tramway to the top of mount Roberts ...the view up there was awesome.

Back in town we dropped into an Internet cafe and downloaded emails and then finally returned o the ship. 

Supper tonight was the regular salmon in Saran ...absolutely delicious....we also had mango sorbet and Mango  ice cream

After dinner we went to the theatre and watched a comedian/impressionist and he was very good.

It is now 11:15 and we are off to sleep.

Tomorrow we are in Skagway and we drive north into the Yukon 
Hope the weather holds for us

All the best

Fran and David