Alaska - Part 3 - Juneau & Mendenhall Glacier

Our 3rd port of call was Juneau. It was raining here. We learned that's normal - in fact they get more rain on average than Washington does. The SE coast of Alaska is considered a temperate rain forest so cloudy and wet wasn't unusual. This is a real cannery that had a boat come in while we were standing there and unload it's salmon which you see going up the conveyer belt.

This is the town of Juneau from across the bay. This is the state capital so 40% of the people work for the government. No wonder they get upset when talk of moving the capital to Anchorage starts up.

This is part of the main street.

We took a tour out to Mendenhall Glacier. This is from one of the viewing areas. You can walk all the way over to that waterfall. In fact our guide was telling us that in winter you can snowski right up to the face of the glacier. I stood on the little wall for this picture and pretty soon we saw others doing the same.

The blue color comes from generations of compaction to the point that there are no air bubbles or crystals inside. It is so dense that it absorbs all colors and reflects back blue. Apparently cloudy days provide the best color!

We walked out to the edge of the waterfall. It was huge and quite thunderous. The waterfall itself use to flow under the glacier which use to reach all the way to the visitor center at one time.

The icebergs weren't moving as much as I thought they would be but I guess the water wasn't moving that much either. Though it was cloudy you can still see a tiny speck above and to the left of the glacier. That's a helicopter. They were going back and forth a good many times while we were there. You could pay for a flyover or a glacier landing that included a sled dog ride.

Inside the visitor center they had brought up a chunk of 250 year old ice for you to touch. It melts but not as fast as a regular ice cube. That's our friend Dave doing his share of touching.

You can see how far the glacier has receded from the visitor center from where this shot was taken.

While we were there a fresh chunk fell off. It's very blue when this fresh.

We walked around town for a while but the rain started coming down hard. We were lucky to have a friend (that is native Tlingit) that lives here. She came and picked us up to take us around. We went to Safeway for goodies and then she drove us from one end of the road to the other - literally. Juneau can only be accessed by boat or plane.

In this park where we turned around some fishermen were doing their thing on the beach. Literally they would throw out their line and very shortly come up with these salmon. Dave had to get out of the car and go check it out. I know he's already planning on how to get back here!

This is Nancy holding what is called Alaska Cotton. She asked her husband get out and pick her some. It's very soft.

Then our friend, Esther, drove us to the far side of Mendenhall Lake and this is what we could see through a thin layer of clouds. There was a shelter for ice skaters here and even a couple of icebergs floating around.

Then it was time to reboard our ship. We had a great time in spite of the rain and thanks to Esther we were able to stay out of the worst of it. (Esther is married to a member of our ward and they divide their time between the 2 places.)