Alaska Cruise Day 4: Juneau

We woke up to an overcast day as we cruised into Juneau. We walked around the promenade deck while sailing into port.

Matthew and Wren carrying David.

Walking towards our whale watch meeting location.

Group shot:
Allison, Greg, Emily, Justin with David on shoulders, Sandy, Accalia, Suzi, Sebastian, Wren, Megan, Bean, U, Me, Rowan, Tanis, Matthew, Christian, Jen, David, Charly, Seth, Ana

Beautiful scenery on our way to whale watching. We saw lots of eagles! This photo shows a location there are often bears although we did not see any when we passed by.

Bean, Matthew and Rowan on the whale watching boat. We really enjoyed the whale watching. The guides joked that we were missing a bunch of trips through the buffet so they had snacks for us. (Christian, Tanis and Rowan actually would often eat two dinners--one with the family and one later in the evening!)

View of Mendenhall Glacier.

We went by Admiralty Island, which has the highest density of black bears and bald eagles in the world.

One of the guides told us that humpbacks are generally solitary, with the exception of mothers with their calves. However, that was not the case at the first location we stopped as there were four humpbacks together (probably 2 moms with 2 calves).

A couple of humpbacks.

Three humpbacks!

We saw this buoy with 4 Steller sea lions as we went to another viewing location. Initially, 2 sea lions were on it and then the third one jumped up on it from the water. The fourth one stayed in the water.

The second location we saw a mom/calf duo that came up synced together (mom was Moon Cheese and she is 60 feet long--the biggest humpback they know of in the area). We also saw Flame, who had calves 4 years in a row, then had an off year and now has another calf with her. She is a local celebrity of sorts. We also saw another humpback. We saw some eagles soaring around as well as some fish jumping out of the water.

Here are some of the best shots we got of the whales in this area.

Flame's fluke

When we got back by the cruise ship, we went to get pelmeni. They are Russian dumplings. We had one order of meat and one order of potato pelmeni. They were both good although we preferred the potato.

Megan and Me with some totems.

U having a playful moment with Matthew.

U and the bear

We toured the Alaska State Capitol building. It's pretty small. We went into some of the chambers.

The Speaker's Chambers

The House Chambers

Matthew, Me and Megan in another of the rooms.

Nice picture!

Me and Megan in front of the Capitol.

Surprise! The security guard enjoys popping into people's pictures.

Pretty flowers!

U in front of the Alaska State Museum.

View of the hillside with an American and Alaskan state flag.

Me with eagles.

Megan with mammoth tusks. 

Carved and decorated ivory

Tribal masks

Coat/poncho made out of otter skin. It is reversible.

Different war uniforms from people who served from Alaska.

Red octopus made out of material that has been pulled from the ocean.

Traditional style wraps made by a modern Alaskan tribal artist.

Man carving pieces for a boat.

Megan looking at a totem on our way back to the boat.

Greg, U, Me, Matthew, Megan, Sebastian and Suzi on our way to dinner. It was a small group!

Our fancy food.

Megan was excited about this piece of ice that looked like a whale.

Yummy dessert!

After dinner, we went to the presentation by Libby Riddles, the first female Iditarod winner. We learned a lot about the dogs and racing and her. She got her GED and moved up to Alaska at age 16. She loved working outdoors. She says huskies love to run long and hard!