Alaska Day 2: Juneau

The channel into Juneau was much calmer than the open ocean.

Juneau was all about whale watching. When we woke up, the skies were still dim, gray dawn, but we noticed that the water around us had changed from the choppy rolling motion of the open sea, to the smooth green of the channel. We also started to notice whales.
 
Most of the whales that we saw before breakfast were just water spouts hundreds of yards from the ship. We spotted about a dozen, but we didn’t see a lot of whales, just tiny dots with sprays of water erupting like volcanoes. It wasn’t until we got inside to breakfast that a we spotted one within a hundred yards. Then we ran from our omelets and bacon to the window as it scooted past. We spent the rest of the morning watching whales as the channel walls got closer and closer. Mark estimated that he saw about 30 in all. As the tree-covered islands drew nearer, we started spotting bald eagles as well. By the end of the day, we’d seen dozens.

Mark loves watching for wildlife on the ship.

Lots of the kids played games in between whale sightings.

We saw these whales from quite a distance. But we love seeing the tail!

Another tail flip.

This is the whale's back. You see this a lot!

We saw a glacier!

Lots of our whale sighting were puffs of spouts like this!

Finally some whales came closer!

Two whales together!

The landscape was so pretty and there is an eagle on that point out there.

 
Finally, right after lunch, we disembarked in Juneau. We took a short walk up to the capital building, which was pretty small. We walked the downtown a little more while we waited for our whale-watching tour. Eventually, we caught a bus that took us up to the inlet. From there our captain and crew of two took us out on the water. It didn’t take long to start spotting whales, and these were much closer. We were always within a hundred yards of these, and we watched as they spouted several times and then dove deep, flipping their tales as they did so. Then we’d move on to the next whale. We saw around 10 whales, though we may have actually circled back around to a few of them.

Juneau was a pretty capitol city!

Mark loved sitting by the windows to watch for whales. 

We walked all through the downtown area.

We watched a few sea places take off.

Proof that Mom went to Juneau, too!

There were some neat totem poles.

The scenery is beautiful in Juneau.

Seth liked this bear statue by the Alaska state capitol.

The capitol building looked like an office, but we were glad we visited.

Seth liked these pictures of two of his favorite animals: polar bears and huskies.

Heading out on our whale watching adventure.

The weather was perfect!

These eagles watched us as we left the dock.

Mom is ready to see whales!

These whales were much closer.

We could see more of their bodies and spouts.

Whales are so cool.

The tail flips are very popular.

Whale spout!

This is Mendenhall Glacier from far away.

First family picture attempt.

Second family picture attempt.

Third times a charm although Randy had to lean out of the sun!

Mel and her kids were on this whale watching adventure with us.

 
After we got off the water, we shuttled back to the ship. Then we took rental cars out to Mendenhall Glacier. There was a hike we wanted to do to a waterfall called Nugget Falls. It was a mile each way, and we were quickly running out of daylight, but we rushed over to the base of the falls. Nugget Falls was really rushing and big, but we only spent a few minutes before hurrying back to the Visitor Center.
 
We took some nice pictures of the glacier. Since it was dusk, the lighting was perfect. Then we hustled up to the Visitor Center for the Junior Ranger. We needed to finish by 7 o’clock and head back to the boat. The boys worked fast and quickly picked up their patches. Then Mom returned the kids to the ship. Dad, Jonny, and Mel returned the rental cars and made it back in plenty of time for food.
 
We made an attempt at the Northern Lights as the entire day had been clear, but we weren’t lucky enough to see them above the lights of the city as the ship pulled out of port.

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls were lovely.

It was the perfect time to visit.

The hike was paved, flat, and easy.

The waterfall was definitely worth the walk.

Nugget Falls is beautiful.

We threw a few rocks...of course.

Mom and Dad are loving this Alaska trip.

Best hikers!

Mendenhall Glacier to the left and Nugget Falls to the right.

The view from the Visitor Center.

There were some ice floes from the glacier. They were super cool.

We loved this stop.

Perfect evening.

Back on the ship, the kids played in the teen room. 

Mark let Ben win and he LOVED it!