July 31, 2009 Juneau and Juneau to Ketchikan

Woke this morning already docked in Juneau. We had barely stepped out on to our deck when this dude flew by!


Then, we turned to the left and nearly all of Juneau was spread out before us. It may be the capitol of Alaska and the third largest city in Alaska, but is still pretty much a small town:


Believe it or not, we elected to take a tour to see yet another glacier! The Mendenhall Glacier is among the largest of the 38 glaciers fed by the Juneau ice field, which covers an area of about 1500 square miles. Mendenhall is the only one which can be approached by car.

As our tour bus dropped us in the parking lot and we started up the trail to the visitors center, we immediately got our money's worth. Here are a couple pictures of a Mama Black Bear and one of her two cubs. Mom's sent the cubs up a tree why she takes a break on the ground:

First, the best I could do with Mama in the undergrowth. She's looking straight at us:


Here's junior taking a nap on a branch high up in a tree:


Too cute not to do twice!


Here's what Mama was looking for. Not a koi! One of the millions of Salmon that are making their annual breeding "run":


Finally, the glacier:


We even got to touch some actual glacial ice from the glacier:


Educational stuff, but interesting:


Then it was on to the Salmon Hatchery. This is a non-profit, non-commercial operation that puts about 125,000,000 8-inch salmon into these waters every year. Since the Salmon always return to the place of their birth to breed (and then die), it's no wonder there's a long waiting line at the fish ladder that leads to the hatchery:

The way they are stacked up in the lower left, it looks like you could walk across them!

The Salmon work their way up the ladder to the hatchery, are relieved of their eggs and milt, and then about 20% are turned into dog and cat food (remember that they are going to die anyway) and the balance returned to the Salmon waters to provide whatever they would have provided in the wild.

We spent the afternoon shopping, then returned to the ship which promptly left port so we could be in Ketchikan tomorrow. On our way out of the bay, this whale waved goodbye top us!

We were really wishing we had brought MMG's big camera and lens. The whales were thick here!


And we had another great sunset!



The End!

More tomorrow from Ketchikan!

OH! The real high point of the day was the announcement that Hanna Ilyssa Nesbitt joined the world this afternoon! 19.5 inches, 7lbs. 11oz. Mama Sara and Proud Papa Peter and baby all doing fine!


Love to you all!

MMG and DDG