Juneau whales and glaciers

For our stop in Juneau we decided to organise for an onshore excursion from the ship prior to disembarking - like the day before. That's the first time; normally we try winging it. But this time I wanted to make sure we got to see what we wanted for our stop in Juneau and not miss out. It was totally worth it.

We got up really early (as the afternoon tour was sold out so we had to get on the 8:30am session). Short bus ride to the catamaran that took us out to the channel where the whales play, and then away we went. The catamaran was fast, and manouverable.









For two hours we looked for whales, and when we came across one, the captain would slow down and quietly glide up close so we could watch the creature.









We then zoomed over to see some sea lions lazing around in the sun.





It's so beautiful out here. We were fortunate to have had spectacular weather. It was definitely crisp and cold, but it didn't matter. We were dressed warmly and the sun was out.









Back on land the bus took us to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. We went for the 2.5km walk to the waterfall to get a closer view of the glacier.













Then it was back to the township for a quick walk around before it was time for all aboard. Such a pretty little town. What an adventure we had.

Yakutat and the Hubbard Glacier

Everyone was in such anticipation when we cruised through the icy waters in Yakutat heading toward the Hubbard Glacier. This was to be my first glacier experience ever, so I was pretty excited about what I was going to see. Cruising through big chunks of ice was so exciting too. The ship turned on its ice crunching propellers to break through the big stuff.







We kept going in and out of the ship into the cold to see how close we were getting. It was freezing out there.









The Hubbard Glacier is a truly spectacular thing to see. It is so big and the different layers so beautiful in colour!







We went to our cabin when the ship turned. Huge chunks of the glacier were breaking off and plummeted into the sea, making a huge sound resembling thunder. When it was quiet you can hear the glacier crackling.













So amazing. This day was one of the highlights for me.

Sitka - an Alaskan town that doesn't stop raining

For the land area, Sitka is the largest city in the US, but is inhabited by less than 9000 in population.





We caught a transfer bus from the dock into town, and our bus driver gave us a nice rundown of her hometown of 20+ years. She told us that today is a typical summer day in Sitka. It has been classified as a rainforest, and it is never too hot or too cold here. About 1/3 of Sitka's population earns at least a portion of their income from fishing and seafood harvesting and processing.















Thankfully the rain eased and we went for a walk to the science centre, where we were able to fondle the wildlife.







After that we went to the National Historical Park to check out the totem poles.







Kien managed to hang around with some wildlife of Alaska.





Sitka is a beautiful little town to visit, but there's no way I can live somewhere that is so grey and wet almost all of the time. This is the middle of summer here!