Alaska Cruise Day 6

Oh my, 5:30 am came early even though it was daylight and the sun was up. Our tour in Juneau began at 7:15 am, so we had to be on the pier by 7 am. Way to early, but our day is short in Juneau, so everything started early including breakfast.

We boarded our tour bus and headed for Mendenhall Glacier. The drive there was about 20 minutes and took us through downtown the capital of Alaska. Our driver was very good in pointing out buildings of interest including the state capital building. She said it was voted the second ugliest in the U.S. with the one in Tallahassee, FL taking first place as the ugliest.

As we approached the parking lot at Mendenhall Glacier, we were greeted by a brown bear cub. Naturally, my camera was in the tote - another missed picture. All of us were excited by the bear and the bus driver was surprised as well. She said it's the first she ever heard of a bear in that area. Being cautious, the driver wouldn't let us off the bus until the cub left the area, as she was sure the mother was nearby and she didn't want any of us to have a confrontation with her. Good decision on her part although there were groans on the bus.

Mendenhall glacier was a lot different from Hubbard Glacier in that it was much dirtier. Lucky for us though, it had calved the night before and since it was so overcast (and drizzly at time) the blue color really came through. Much of the ice flow also had a beautiful blue hue to it. This glacier is receding at the rate of up to 200 feet a year and some time in the future will probably disappear unless we enter another ice age.

After watching a 15 minute movie on the history of Mendenhall Glacier at the Visitors Center and spending about one hour glacier looking, we boarded the bus for the whale watching cruise portion of our tour.

By the time we reached the boat dock in was raining, but not hard, just annoying. The boat for our whale watching cruise was two story mostly enclosed and about 80 feet in length. We lucked out and got inside seats on the upper deck which also had access to a outside deck area.

The cruise started out slowly, but after about 15 minutes the first whale was sighted. For the next two hours, we spotted many humpback whales, some dolphin, some sea lions and bald eagles. I was disappointed that we didn't see any orca whales, but was told by our guide that even thought there were "resident" orcas in the area, they travel in a 250 mile radium so seeing them is rare.

This tour was enjoyable in spite of the continuing rain and gave us even more, the desire to return to Alaska by RV in the future.

On the return trip to our ship, we passed a marsh area and there were about 15 bald eagles sitting on mounds of dirt. A really neat sight.

We sailed from Juneau at 3 pm and spend the rest of the afternoon resting then getting ready for the second formal night in the dining room.

We went to the show in the theater, stopped by the casino and had a drink at the atrium bar. Jose, the bartender there, I found out several days ago, makes the best BBC's! Had to have another one before turning in for the night.