We cruised into Juneau early in the day. We headed, by city bus, to the Mendenhall Glacier. It was a beautiful 85 degrees, no humidity and cool breeze from the glacier. It was a record setting day there. We walked the trails and they led to a beautiful water fall. We had to wade in glacial waters to get to it, our feet were numb. It was worth it though, so beautiful.
We saw bear tracks on the beach, but no sightings. They said the weather was too hot for the bears to be out and in 2 weeks the salmon would be running and they would be out in full force then. There were signs up on the paths that prohibited any kind of food to be out on the trails though. All of the rangers that are walking around had "bear mace" clipped to their belts. It was the size of a small fire extinguisher!
Our friend Heath took his clothes off and swam in the waters. We have pictures of him sitting on an ice chunk! There were groups of school kids swimming too! Some of the glacial lakes were a little warmer than the inlet the glacier is on.
All in all it was quite fascinating. Joe and I love to read everything and learn all about where we are. We are geeks like that.
As we were waiting for the bus to take us back some friends from the company drove up in the car they rented. They asked if we wanted to ride with them instead of taking the bus. We said "sure" and the four of us hopped into the back seat. Heaths wife Andrea is 5 months pregnant. I got to sit on Joe's lap for the trip. Andrea was hungry and cranky and wanted food. We ate at McDonalds-gag.
We then headed for a supposed whale watching spot called "the shrine of St. Therese".
We saw no whales but the shrine was beautiful. They had sculptures of "the way of the cross". The spot seems little known spot, all overgrown and such. The views were breathtaking, but no whales. I loved it though.
We headed back to the town(still on Joe's lap) and walked around, sat at a coffee shop and called home. We got some souvenirs there too.
I almost forgot, there are float planes everywhere. Juneau is the only state capital you cannot get to by car! The bald eagles there were very prevalent.
As we docked there was a large group of them near the pier. It was like gulls at the beach, they were flying around getting fish and then would head up to the trees. Very cool, we watched them from our balcony.
