16 May 2006: Day 4 - The Glaciers and Wildlife of Juneau.

I was severely sleep-deprived today. I had to wake up at 8 am so tt we could make it for an early breakfast and a quick trip into the town of Juneau, where our ship had docked for today, before our afternoon tour.

We had buffet breakfast with the usual French toast, pancakes, corned beef hash, poached eggs and omelette, sautéed mushrooms and the like. Then it was off the ship a little past 10 to explore the quaint town of Juneau.



This is the view of the ship from the dock.



And tt is me with Mt. Roberts (with tram car to the top!) in the back.



Now, me again in front of the clock tower at the beginning of downtown.

And quaint historic downtown itself, which has been so well-preserved tt most of the buildings built before 1914 are still standing. You can see the mountains in the background.



Me with quaint historic downtown.



The downtown parking garage and public library, with native art on the side.



The town square.



No puffin??? ;)



Anyway we did the downtown circuit in about 2 hours, then we came back in time to take the tour bus out at 12.30pm.

The highway from Juneau to Auke Bay where we were to take our 3-hour “Wildlife Quest” cruise from was scenic.



The 3 of us on said boat, after boarding it.



And me and my mom now.



Basically, we map a route from Auke Bay through the Saginaw Channel through to the North Pass. And the whole objective of this cruise is precisely tt – to spot wildlife.

And while we’re traveling through the water in between the islands, this is what you can see:







The scenery is unique to this part of the world. You can have islands of snow-capped mountains, and the like.



Me again.

Anyway what did we see?

Well, for one, we saw a number of humpback whales; we saw them coming up for air, their dorsal fin and their flukes, and although I’d been hoping to see Orcas, seeing those 30 ton mammals was amazing enough. And it wasn’t just one or two, we saw groups of them at different parts of the channel. But apparently, this is coz Southeastern Alaskan waters, where we are in, has the largest concentration of humpback whales in the summer, when they swim up here to feed, especially on the abundant schools of salmon tt run here.

We also saw a couple of bald eagles.



Like here, if you look for this white spot on the top of one of the trees, you will realize tt tt is the head of a bald eagle tt is nesting on the top of the trees. I’ve seen more bald eagles in the past 2 days in Alaska alone than I have in my entire life. Apparently coz they have a population of 15 000 in Southeastern Alaska alone. And these creatures truly are beautiful.

Digression: more beautiful scenery. This is the mountain range of the Chilkat Peninsula.





And this is me on the upper deck of the boat. Yes, it is terribly windy, not to mention terribly cold.



And me and my dad. Excuse the totally unglam hairstyles. It’s really not our fault.

Okay, in addition to whales and eagles, we also saw the stellar sea lions.



A LOT of stellar sea lions.



This is a scene of a whole group of them beaching up on the rocks of Shelter Island as we sail through the North Pass. Yes, these are ALL sea lions.

As a group they might look like of gross, like maggots, but when you see individuals popping up and moving around onshore on their flippers with their heads all bobbing, omg but they are SHO CUTE.



And me with the sea lions in the background.

We also saw harbour seals in the sea, popping their little heads up from beneath the waves. Really sweet creatures too.

And this is the Herbert Glacier, one of the many glaciers formed by the Juneau Icefield.

After the 3-hour cruise, we were taken to see Juneau’s famous Mendenhall Glacier.

This is the Mendenhall Glacier.



And again.



And again.



Icebergs on the water!



Me with the glacier. With hood on (it was raining). I look like an Eskimo.



And me again. Minus the Eskimo get-up.



A bit more glacier...



And me and my dad.



Now, other miscellaneous mountain scenery.



After this, it was back to the ship in time for dinner.

My appetizer: baked eggplant in parmagiana sauce and cheese. The soup: minestrone. And my main: swordfish.



Yum.

Dessert: we shared a tiramisu, a cassata (Italian ice-cream cake of 3 flavours), and a a creamy puff pastry dessert.

After dinner we went to catch the live performance at 10.15pm: Greg Bonham from Las Vegas. He was a supposed to be a jazz singer, and he sung mainly songs from the 60s or 70s era with a jazzy feel.

Unfortunately, my parents didn’t really appreciate the music, but I liked his rendition of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’, although a reason could be tt I already like tt song. And you never really go wrong with The Phantom Of The Opera. But for the most part, I was really really tired, so I turned in as early as I could.