No more superlatives, just amazement.
We were up at 6, and on the dock by 7.30, for our 3 ½ hour trip to Juneau, the State Capital.
What a trip it was.
I can start the wildlife watch early
We saw, in no particular order, hump back whales, both young and mature, the young doing the back flip out of the water, known as breaching, the mature whales doing the blowing water from their blowholes thing, and diving deep so we got to see their tails.
Orcas, better known as killer whales, very close to the boat, a pod of 5 or 6.
A colony of about 100 sealions, all on the rocks sunning themselves, out of danger from bears and orcas.
More harbor seals like wot we saw yesterday.
And more bald eagles than you can shake a stick at. They were everywhere, young and mature, in the trees, on buoys, on the rocks, on roofs, all over the place. We learned that the bald eagle is now off the endangered species list, and we are not surprised, the number we saw today.
We also saw some lovely water fowl called pigeon gullimonts, diving in and out of the water all around the boat.
This area is known as The Inside Passage, and is a favorite place of cruise ships from everywhere. Skagway had four docked this morning, and when we arrived in Juneau there were three docked and a fourth on the way in.
The voyage down here is mindblowing. All those documentaries and films and pix you have seen about this area don’t do it justice. Mountain after mountain, snow on the peaks all year round, both sides of the fjord, interspersed with islands, some of which have their own species of deer, waterfalls tumbling hundreds of feet from the ice fields above, and then the glaciers. There are over 100 around here, and they are something to behold. Blue and grey and white and black, you can see the way they have gouged and carved their way down the mountainsides.
We got into Juneau and had a 30 minute bus ride into the city, and there are float planes all over the place.
We sat and had fish and chips (again!), overlooking the bay, the cruise ships and Douglas Island on the other side of the bay, and watched with amazement as these float planes were taking off between the cruise ships! We wandered around the shops, and found out that there is not a high quality restaurant in the city, so there is a job for you ,Larry, and we also found out that Skagway has no hospital or doctor, so sister Karen, you could set up shop here and make a fortune!!!
I did find out one interesting fact. None of the men’s toilets had doors on the stalls!
I needed number twos, and had to go to city hall to find a toilet with a door!!
And of course, Marlipops was there to photograph the happy camper afterwards.
After lunch we were taken to the Mendenhall Glacier, which is receding by 150 to 200 feet a year, so the visitor center keeps getting further away!
There is a lake in front of the glacier, which because of the nature of glacial water, supports absolutely no fish, except for salmon returning to spawn in surrounding freshwater streams each year. These salmon don’t need food, because their mouths change at a certain point of their lives and they can no longer eat, just go up stream to spawn, then die.
We then went back to the harbor, got on the boat and had another picturesque journey back to Skagway. We were served some delish salmon chowder for supper on the boat, and guess who had two helpings?
No, you are wrong, it was the man sitting next to me!!
A wonderful, instructive, eye opening trip today.
