Juneau

June 19:  Juneau

As we left Hubbard Glacier last night we saw these "floating mountains" on the horizon - pretty cool, eh?  We sailed all evening and through the night arriving in Juneau, the capital of Alaska around 8:30 am.  We've visited here several times on our four previous trips to Alaska, and our most memorable experience came three years ago when we went whale watching with our good pals Sue & Dan Reynolds.  A MOST amazing day to say the least and we KNEW it couldn't be that good, could it?  The whale watching was to be followed with a visit to Mendenhall Glacier which we visited on our first trip to Alaska in 2004, and then we flew up in a helicopter to hike on that glacier in 2009.

Whale Watching

We set out on our bus to the dock and boarded our viewing ship.  As we boarded I greeted the captain and asked if we'd see whales.  His reply was "I've not been out yet today, I hope so!"  Not the most encouraging of signs.  But by the time we'd been out about 20 minutes we began to see the whales.  Not quite as phenomenal as three years ago, but in terms of what you "usually" or can "expect to see" - far, FAR beyond those expectations.  MULTIPLE times the whales would leap out of the water.  Lots of tail fins, lots of surfacing and then submerging.  The photos don't do the experience justice.....I highly encourage you to watch the video when I get it loaded later.  Most of the whale photos are screen shots from those video clips.  Just amazing.....

Day 3 Video Highlights

Mendenhall Glacier

Our second stop of the day was the Mendenhall Glacier.  When we went to the naturalist's talk yesterday he talked briefly about this glacier and mentioned just how much it has receded, unlike the Hubbard Glacier.  Here is the first amazing fact about that.....check out the photo below.  It is taken from the gift shop and observation center.  Well, in 1935 if you stood where this structure is today you could have reached down and touched the glacier!  Look how far it's retreated in just 75 years!

Here's the next interesting fact......the two photos below of the Mendenhall Glacier.  The top photo I took in 2004 when we first visited Alaska; the following photo is from today's visit.  You can see much less ice today than just 12 years ago!

We had a great visit to the glacier, but to be honest, it was far less impressive than the first time we visited in 2004.  The main reason is because on that day it was the first time we were ever that close to a glacier.  But since then we've helicoptered and walked on a glacier - twice; landed on a snow-covered glacier in Denali National Park; and paddled a canoe right up to the edge of a glacier.  So to "just see" the glacier was far less impressive in comparison.  Have to say though, this glacier holds special memories because it was on this very glacier in 2009 that we went for our first glacier hike with Kim's twin sister Karrie and her husband Randy.

"Specialty Restaurant:  The Tuscan Grille"