Juneau
More Whales!
Today was an early rising day. Our whale watch excusion meet-up time was 7:30 AM so we bundled up as the forcast was for a chilly day especially on the water. We grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to the bus for the 30 minute ride to the boat launch.
This boat had large windows inside but there was a lot of room outside and we didn’t need to stay indoors when the boat was moving unlike with the smaller boat in Icy Strait. The scenery was spectacular and the whale viewing was off the charts. We saw one group of humpback whales bubble feeding which they do in large groups. We lost track of the number of times we saw whales dive. One of the adult females we saw had a young calf swimming next to her. Just when we thought we’d seen everying possible that we could ever hope to see we saw 2 whales breach. It was an amazing experience.
We returned to the port area a little after noon and stopped at the Red Dog Saloon for a little lunch before walking down the main street near the ship where Chalie found an ice cream shop.
Our original intent was to spend the afternoon at the Mendenhall Glacer but we were not sure Charlie could make it that long so we decided to take the tram to the top of the mountain overlooking Juneau. Charlie was a little cool at the thought of taking the cable car up that high but we ultimately decided we woudl do it and Charlie was all for it despite his dad backing out.
It must have just been a brave face because halfway up the mountain Charlie had a panic attack when he saw the cable car in the other direction pass us and he thought it was going too fast. He was inconsolable. At the top he said he couldn’t take the tram down. Given the walk was 2.5 miles over rocks there was only one choice and it wasn’t the path. We decided to wait a while and visit the gift shop and walk around before heading back. The gift shop had many made in Alaska items which were interesting. We purchased a few souvenirs at this shop. There was a craftsman carving a 2 figure totem for the tram company and he talked to Charlie for quite a while and offered to have Charlie help in making the totem, This made his day.
Before heading back down in the tram we took the hiking tralil which took us past a number of totems the craftsman had completed. Ruth and Charlie ended up taking the trail a lot farther than David and I. The views from the path and from the visitor center were stunning.
The tram ride down was pretty uneventful but Charlie did say he woudl never do it again.
We headed back to the ship and relaex a little before dinner at the Sushi restaurant.
Tomorrow’s excursion in Skagway on the train up into the mountains was changed to an hour later so we have a little extra time to sleep.
