Juneau, Alaska

Our first Alaskan Ferry ride!

Our ferry to Juneau from Skagway arrived two hours late but it was a gorgeous ride once we got on. For this leg of our journey we were on one of the older, larger ferrys equipped with a full cafeteria and hot showers. We didn't get to use the showers but the grilled cheese was a nice snack. Besides the scenery outside the windows we ended up sorting our numerous photos and Bill played some his computer games.We also watched some tv shows on our laptop.

Amazing scenery from the ferry

Glaciers and mountains intermittently appeared through billowing fog. There were waterfalls and a few quick dolphin sightings but we were too slow to get them on camera. 

Tiny island with a church

We arrived quite later than expected and a lot of the campgrounds had already closed for the night. We were able to find a site near Mendenhall Glacier.

Mendenhall Glacier

First thing in the morning we got up to walk around the glacier lake before the tour groups from the cruise ships got in. 

We walked a short trail to Nugget Creek Falls.

Nugget Creek Falls

Glacier lookout point

Juneau is known as the "San Francisco of the North" which we laughed at at first, but after exploring the narrow downtown streets with steep hills, we could kinda see what they were talking about.

Making Friends

Like Skagway, Juneau is a major cruise ship hub. The cruise ship docks are right in the down town and the area floods with tour buses and tourists when the ships are in. If you can get a few blocks up hill from the endless tourists, gift shops and diamond stores, Juneau does have an identity of it's own. We enjoyed a number of small used book stores and Alaska Robotics Gallery.

Enjoying a savory crepe downtown Juneau

There were also some delicious looking food trucks. We had lunch at the Crepe Escape. Bill bought one that had curry beef and siracha sauce in it. Mine was a ham and cheese crepe.

Delicious lunch from Crepe Escape 

Downtown Juneau

Just outside the main drag is a fish hatchery. They have a large salmon ladder outside and you can see the massive salmon jumping over the divides to get back to their breading grounds.

Salmon hatcheries 

Salmon ladder 

Jumping salmon

It's spawning season and tons of salmon are waiting out in the bay to spawn back up the ladder to where they were artificially fertilized and raised. With so many splashing around in shallow water, it's easy pickings for fishermen and other predators. At a marsh just a few blocks down from the hatchery, we saw five or six eagles waiting to grab some salmon from the buffet as well as a number of other larger birds of prey that we couldn't identify.

Anyone know what kind of bird this is?

Eagle waiting to catch the spawning salmon

Off to the Alaska Brewing Company next where for $5 Bill got a guided tasting of six beers. Most unique was a Raspberry Wheat Ale. A smoked porter was his favourite of the samples

Beer tasting at Alaska Brewing Co.

Hungry for dinner we sought out a picnic shelter to get out of the rain and cook up some food. The pavilions were pretty busy with local families, but we were able to squeeze in with one group of local Alaskans. We chatted with them all evening, and they shared some fresh salmon with us as well as, cake, wine, beer and smores!

New friends at a picnic shelter

Making smores!

By the time the festivities died down it was 10 pm. We had to be at the ferry dock and registered by 4:30 am the next day. To save time, we decided to just sleep in the parking lot at the ferry terminal and then take a nap on board the ferry in the morning.