On Wednesday we arrived early to Juneau.
It was foggy and rainy when we docked.
I had a shore excursion planned for the
afternoon, so Sandra and I planned to explore the town that morning.
As soon as you hit the dock, there are all
kinds of people offering various shore excursions.
We decided to take a van tour that was
scheduled to have us back in time for me to catch my afternoon shore
excursion.
We had less than half an hour
to kill before getting on the van, so we window shopped.
There were 4 others on the tour with us. We had a very nice guide who shared a wealth
of knowledge with us. As we left Juneau,
we drove by a field where there were bald eagles out the wazoo. Our guide told us bald eagles in Alaska were
like pigeons elsewhere. It was amazing
to see so many in one place.
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| Mendenhall Glacier seen from across the lake |
We visited one side of a lake where we could see Mendenhall
Glacier across the lake. It was very
peaceful without many people there. We
drove across a bridge to Douglas Island and went to a nice viewing spot to see
Juneau across the channel.
But the
highlight of the tour was visiting the Shrine of St. Therese. There is a short causeway you walk across to
reach a small, beautiful chapel. From
the shore, we saw several killer whales, something that I think was a seal
(!?), and we met the neighborhood cat.
There is a lodge and several cabins on the property that can be
rented. It’s a perfect retreat to get
away from it all and just enjoy nature.
We saw a bald eagle and several other types of birds. I would have enjoyed staying longer and
exploring the island where the chapel was a bit more.
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| Orcas - appears to be a family! |
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| Chapel |
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| Seal |
But all too soon it was time to head back, and I had a
whale-watching tour scheduled for the afternoon!
Back at the dock, I boarded a bus with the
others that had signed up for the tour.
We met our guide, Jenny, and traveled to a nearby marina, where we
boarded a boat to head out on the water.
The boat was really cool.
It was
fully enclosed, but the windows on the sides could be raised up so you could
get an unobstructed view.
Soon we were
off to look for whales!
As we were
leaving the marina, we saw a harbor seal checking us out.
Almost as soon as we got away from the
marina, we saw our first whales, several killer whales (or orcas), like I’d
seen earlier from the shore.
But this
time we were much closer.
Regulations
say you boats have to stay at least 100 yards away from any whales they
spot.
But if the boat is stopped and the
whale approaches you……!
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| Mom appears to be giving baby a lift! |
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| My first whale tail! |
We watched the orcas for a while.
Soon another boat arrived, so we headed off
to look for humpback whales.
And we soon
found some!
Not only humpbacks, but
seals were all over the place too!
It
was awesome!
I could have stayed on the
water all afternoon looking for marine critters and trying to get that elusive
whale tail picture, but alas, we had a ship to catch before it set sail without
us.
As we were starting to head back to
shore, one enthusiastic harbor seal was leaping out of the water in our wake. I
tried to get a good picture, but this is the best I could get!
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| My first humpback whale sighting! |
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| Barely caught the side of the leaping seal |
Once we got back to shore, we headed off to Mendenhall Glacier. We parked in a parking lot where there was this huge pile of snow. Jenny told us that's where the snow that's collected from the streets is dumped. Every year the residents bet on the date when the snow will be melted by. She said the previous year, the pile never melted all the way!
We then walked about a mile through the rain forest and learned how it was formed as glaciers receded in the past. Then we arrived at the opposite side of the lake where Sandra and I had been in the morning, where there was an even better view of Mendenhall Glacier!
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| See how the ice looks blue! |
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| Nugget Falls at Mendenhall Glacier |
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