Day Two- Juneau you are in Alaska when it’s raining and freezing in July!

We woke up in the morning on Sunday pulling into the inside passage.  Rich went upstairs to see if it was clear and see what the weather was like while I got ready for the day.  He came back and reported that it was a little chilly but beautiful views on both sides.  Five minutes later up we went….to find dense fog on both sides!  What a disappointment!  We had some breakfast in the café and then proceeded to the nightclub where we had spent the day before.  We had gotten up very early so we were the fist ones there and got to choose our favorite seats.  As we settled in, the fog cleared and we could see the mountains again.  Pulling in the fog came and went but we could see something at all times.  In addition to the beautiful views, we saw a few whales (spouting only) and these other animals that we thought were seals at first but that we actually think might be porpoises.  They travel in groups and move quickly and seem to have small dorsal fins.  We sat near a couple from Ohio (judging by the man’s matching Ohio State jacket and hat) who were very excited to go on their first whale watch ever. 

We missed pulling into port because we decided to take a quick nap (riding around on this boat is tiring…or something!).  When we woke up an hour later, we were docked.  Now, knowing that Juneau is the capital of Alaska, we were both expecting a small city.  Well, it’s small…  Not much city though!  All the buildings were small and we learned later that there are 750, 000 people living in Alaska, 500,000 of them live in Anchorage and 30,000 in Juneau.  In Skagway, where we would be the next day, there are only 900 residents!  We learned all of this on our four and a half minute tram ride to the top of Mount Roberts.  This is the steepest tram in the world.  I somehow ended up next to a window but was able to trade with a lady in the middle who was straining to see.  I mentioned that I was not looking and she happily switched places with me!  We had already seen at least twenty bald eagles either wading at the side of the water from the boat or soaring beside the mountain as we walked into town.  However, we were still very excited to see one perched in a tree next to the tram station at the top.  I took his picture while Rich used some binoculars to scour the neighboring mountain for mountain goats.  No luck, though. 

Juneau from the top of Mt. Roberts.

Our cruise ship is on the left and the cables are the tram lines.

Rich on the trail at Mt. Roberts.

We took a nice walk on a trail and saw the views.  I noticed right away that people were not kidding about the state bird being the mosquito, since they were all over me and the size of horses!  We didn’t stay up there too long because we wanted to get to the glacier.  The ride down was no easier than the ride up although I’m sure it afforded lovely views to those who chose to look!  And we did spot another eagle in a tree!  After the tram we caught a bright blue bus to the Medenhall Glacier.  I thought it would take us right up to the glacier and we would be walking out onto it.  That was not the case, sadly, but we did have a great view!  I think you have to spend $300 per person and take a helicopter tour in order to actually walk on the glacier.  Since we chose the $8 shuttle bus…no such luck! J  It was fun to see all the floating ice chunks in the lake and we hiked around to see the Nugget Falls.  It was nice to feel the spray of the falls on us and we joined the other tourists climbing around on the rocks and shooting many pictures.  When we got back to the bus stop, an older woman was already waiting there and she told us she had been to a talk about the glacier and that two days before we got there, the three huge chunks of ice had come off the glacier and moved out into the lake.  The force of this caused huge waves, which was why there were ice chunks washed up on the beach (that Rich and I had quite enjoyed climbing and posing on!).  We all thought it would have been exciting to see that but I was glad she shared that information because I hadn’t thought twice about why ice was on the beach instead of just bobbing around in the lake.  I also wasn’t about to set foot into the crowded visitors center!

There's a glacier behind our heads...I swear!

There it is.  How cold is this water?  I'll put my hand in, let's see!

I love these rock stacks.  This is my shot. Rich took the one farther down.

The glacier.

Us in front of gold nugget falls.

There's his.

There he is taking it.  It's hard to see the perspective but he climbed up high on a pretty steep hill of loose rocks to be taking that shot.  

Look, I'm standing on a piece of glacier.

Me too, no big deal!

Mom, maybe you want to work here...

The main street.  

 

Once we got back to town, we thought we’d better find some food.  We headed out along the main street and quickly realized that all we could get there was jewelry or souvenirs.  Now, I like a souvenir as much as the next guy and maybe even more but we were looking for food!  Luckily we found a grill and had some delicious clam chowder and some hot artichoke and crab dip.  Once we were sufficiently full, we walked back to the cruise ship and went back to our rooms to change into our hoodies! 

We spent the time as we pulled away from port using our binoculars and hunting the hills for mountain goats.  I spotted the first two!  It was very exciting and I shared the knowledge with another man standing at a window near us with his much better looking binoculars.  I know he could see the details of the goats and we could only see the smudge of whitish gray that I knew was one.  It prompted a discussion of whether or not to spend some big bucks and get some better binocs!  We also watched a bald eagle land on and fight with a salmon and saw several salmon leaping out of the water in various places.  Later, while playing a mean round of Phase 10, we also saw an orca whale hunting.  We saw his mouth come out of the water numerous times and saw his fin as well.  He wasn’t too far off the boat and that was the most active whale we have seen so far!  Finally, even though it was still light outside at 11:00PM, we headed down to our room because we didn’t want to be exhausted for Skagway on Monday!