North to Alaska-Wednesday

Our destination on Wednesday was to Juneau.  But before we arrived in Juneau, some of us got off the ship onto a 'fast-moving catamaran' (that was how they described it in the program).  We 'walked the plank' from the big ship to the little boat. My excursion for this area was the Tracy Arm Fjord & Glaciers.  This was my favorite of all.  I took over 500 pictures, don't panic, I'm not including all of them.


In 1880 a one hundred mile belt of gold was discovered in Juneau.  This was the first major Alaska gold discovery, but it would not be the last.  Juneau became the capital of Alaska in 1900 when the government of the then-Alaska Territory was moved from Sitka.  Mining remained a mainstay of Juneau's economy until 1944 when increased operating costs and manpower shortages associated with WWII forced the AJ Mine to close.  By 1958, when Alaska became the 49th state, government had filled much of the economic void left by the end of the mining era.  Okay, got that out of the way; now on to the pictures.


The first one is my 'first' iceberg.  I did not expect them to be so blue.  

 What a better welcoming than an eagle on an iceberg?  We did see other eagles sitting on icebergs, so guess it is what they do.

 One of the first waterfalls in this area that we passed.  Actually, we saw so many waterfalls on this whole cruise once we got into the inside passage.  The color of the water is amazing too.

 We are pulling away from the ship to go into the Tracy Arm Fjord.

 My little buddy Dawn, was really good at getting a front seat....

 Bye, bye.

 Standing outside at the back of the boat.

 Don't they look like they have a blue light under them.....I was totally in love with the icebergs.  A disclaimer here, a lot of the pictures were taken from inside the catamaran; some from outside on the top.  I did have to delete a lot of the pictures, but I am happy with what I did get.

 First glimpse of Sawyer Glacier.  There are two, they were one huge icefield/glacier many, many years ago.  

 I caught this calving; we saw 4, which we were told, is unusual to see that many.

 We saw a lot of these fat critters.  There were a few babies too.

 We all got to hold a bergie bit.  It was heavy; but I had to do it.

 We got close enough to touch the waterfall.  Well, some got to touch the waterfall.  Me and my short arms did not get to touch it, I tried but did not want to fall in.

 Again, the water is so beautiful.  There were wild flowers growing on the side of the rocks, so pretty. 

 Beautiful double waterfall.  We are getting up close and very personal.

 See the young man standing outside on the left?  He is a new guide and about to get the tradition joke played on him.  He is to stand there and tell the captain when the boat is getting too close to the rock.  He was smiling the whole time.  Even when the captain drove the front of the boat completely under the waterfall, he was even still smiling after.  

 We even got to see a bear!!!!

 We are coming into Juneau and are following our ship into the port.

 The main street in Juneau.  It actually was very warm on this day.

 The following pictures are of us leaving Juneau.  The pictures are fuzzy because we were pretty far away and the light wasn't the best.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  We did not stay docked at Juneau through the night.  We were on our way to the next stop while we slept.

The next stop is at Skagway.  It was probably my favorite town.  But, that is for the next post.  This was the most fun day and was hard to call the day done.  Especially when it was still light out all night.  We left our drapes open just for fun and that was a mistake.  You don't sleep when it is still light.  But, it was beautiful!!!  Thanks for reading.