Day 10: Encounters with glaciers, fish, and bears, oh my!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
We docked again early in the morning, this time in Alaska's capital, Juneau. We had afternoon plans to visit Mendenhall Glacier, but our morning was free. We decided to try out the fancy breakfast today. Another perk of staying in a suite!! It was delicious, if a little strange because we were the only people in the restaurant. I quite enjoyed my French toast, Sarah loved her poached egg and hollandaise over roasted potatoes (which she still talks about), and we all sat around waiting for David to finish his waffles. He eats so slowly!

We split up after breakfast - Dad and I went to explore Juneau while everyone else hung out on the ship. Like Ketchikan, it wasn't an overly exciting city and it was just crawling with passengers from 4 different ships all shopping for cheap touristy stuff. Not really my thing... Anyway, it was nice to walk around for awhile (though once again our ship was docked the furthest away). Sadly, because it was once again rainy and overcast, we didn't get to take the Mr. Robert's Tramway. I suppose we still could have ridden it, but it seemed kinda silly when we couldn't expect much of a view.

Sophie explores some stairs on her morning adventures

Juneau shops (they really want people to but tanzanite jewelry...)

Mt. Roberts Tramway

Dad and the Diamond Princess

We returned to the ship and had some lunch before leaving once again to go on our afternoon tour. Once packed onto the bus, we were taken to Mendenhall Glacier in the Tongass National Forest. On the way there, our guide pointed out the Governor's Mansion, pointedly remarking that Sarah Palin was the only governor to refuse to live in it. Before going to view the glacier, we walked on a small trail through part of the woods and kept on the look out for bears. We wouldn't want anything to happen to dad... He deftly avoided our attempts to get a picture of him near the 'bear alert' sign. We did see lots of salmon swimming upstream (some having more success than others) and a couple bald eagles. Sophie enjoyed watching the fish.

Spawning Salmon in the Tongass National Forest

A bald eagle keeps watch over the forest

Eventually, we headed over to the glacier. Somehow, we got separated. Steve, Sophie, and I were apparently the fast-walkers because we turned around and the rest of the family was missing. Oh well, we just kept going. We walked up to the photo point, took some obligatory shots, rescued Sophie's errant sneaker, and headed back. Dad caught up with us and let us know that David had gone around the other way looking for us and Sarah had gone up to the visitor center. Anyway, the glacier was pretty cool looking. The ice was blue-ish in color - it was really just this massive river of ice dumping into the lake, but quite neat nonetheless.

Sophie doesn't seem particularly impressed by the Mendenhall Glacier

The Mendenhall Glacier

After leaving the glacier, we headed over to a Salmon Hatchery. I had initially thought that this would be a boring place to visit but was pleasantly surprised. There was this neat salmon ladder that allowed the spawning salmon to move up to the hatchery and imitate the process of swimming upstream. Sophie was enthralled by the fish. I think Sarah and Steve should build her a fish pond in their backyard. Of course, living in Florida, an alligator might decide to move in or something... We headed inside, where they had a touch tank with all sorts of icky looking strange sea creatures. Steve was the only brave one. Ick.

The Salmon Hatchery - the salmon ladder is on the right

Sophie watching the salmon

Steve and a sea cucumber. I won't make any inappropriate jokes...

There were also some fish tanks that Sophie enjoyed looking in. But then some poor girl in the world's most hideous life-size fish costume came out and we just had to have a picture with her. Dad finally relented and let me take a picture of him with a stuffed bear. Because she loves her fish so much, Sarah and Steve bought her two small salmon stuffed animals. Best. Purchase. Ever!

Scary fish costumed-person

Dad survives his bear encounter

Steve forming an unhealthy attachment to Sophie's new stuffed fish. Stay tuned!

Soon, it was time to head to the salmon bake for dinner. That was just ok. I'm not a seafood fan, so I had some chicken and corn. We listened to some local woman sing some songs she wrote about Alaska. She was overly talkative and a bit annoying. She kept trying to get everyone to visit the town of Healy, because that is of course something we have massive amounts of control over on a cruise. But we do all now know the ice worm wiggle thanks to her. Very strange...

Sophie makes a new friend at the salmon bake

There was a little trail to a small waterfall, so we took that and enjoyed the scenery before heading back to the bus to return to the ship. We passed up the opportunity to pan for gold by the stream.

Family time

Steve is SO STRANGE sometimes

Funniest moment of the day happened that night. Phong, our cabin steward, came to deliver something to us and was talking about his 12 year old daughter. He then said something about how I wasn't much older than her and he asked my age. He was so embarrassed when I said 30 - but it was really funny.

Our Journey, Thus Far (Part 2)