ALASKA! -- Day 4 - Stephen's Passage - Juneau

 

So we had a pretty lazy morning [breakfast in the room] 

and watching whales from our balcony

as we sailed into Juneau --

I wore lounge wear [pjs - ha] to lunch before changing into layers for our excursion.

 

We were pleasantly surprised the rain stopped and 

we were never extremely cold or wet -

We disembarked quickly and had a bit of shopping time 

before our glacier and whale tour...

 

The totems along the boardwalk were so cool!!

[Never dreamed we would meet the artist in just a few days!]

There were eagles flying all around downtown -

Pretty cool since the ones we see most often 

are NOT around a lot of people...

 

Our tour bus was small - 20 people - and it took us to Auk Bay to get on a boat with giant windows that opened for great views - We took a quick stop at a little park where we could view the Mendenhall Glacier just past the trees. 

SO BEAUTIFUL AND HUGE.

 

Annie - our captain / guide was wonderful. Saw a sea lion families on the buoys - 

and it's amazing to see them lift their HUGE bodies up on this tiny space!

THE WHALES WERE WONDERFUL!!

 

And we saw them all around us.. . 

These photos are from the super zoom camera - 

 

One was a show-off and plunged and rolled close to us... 

This is under his mouth / neck area - can you see how it folds out to get a his catch?

 

We saw the tails multiple times...

We were told they each have distinct markings and can be identified by their tails... Not sure WHO we saw, but it was magnificent!

 

Sorry for the photo overload -  

It was just so cool to see them so close to our little boat!

The WATER WAS ROUGH and I was still a little achey the next day - but worth it.
 

Next we hiked / walked to see Mendenhall Glacier -

It was a easy walk on a well-maintained path... 

 

I knew we had about a mile there, but had completely overlooked the fact that  we were in a rainforest. BEAUTIFUL. And we had the best guide [Brooke] who shared so much about how it all regenerates the earth!

 

And we rounded a corner and saw the giant chunks of

 blue ice in the lake, a waterfall to our right, 

 

and the Glacier flowing directly in front of us. 

[Of course it flows so slow that those chunks of ice were 200 years old...]

 

They had to keep us on a schedule so I was sad that we had zero time in the visitor's center,but we did enjoy dinner at Tracy's Crab House - y'all know I don't like to work for my food, so the crab chowder was wonderful - ha

We said goodbye to Juneau around 10 pm.

#hardwickadventures

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