A new day and a new port. This time, Juneau. Our shore excursion for this stop started just after we docked. So off to find our motorcoach that will take us to the jet-powered catamaran for the "Mendenhall Glacier and Wildlife Quest" adventure.
It didn't take us long to find what we were looking for . . . WHALES! It was supposed to be perfect weather for whale watching; cool, overcast and a little rainy. That it was. We had our rain jackets and hoods on the whole time, but it was so worth it. By law, boats can't get any closer to the whales than 100 yards. They are so big, it still feels pretty close.
We slowed down by this island to see an eagle and as we rounded the corner we found these harbor seals hanging out in the little bay.
Here's a view of Mendenhall Glacier from the sea.
Right about here I looked back to where we had just left and saw a whale (or whales?) being pretty active, slapping the water with their fluke (finally a fluke!) and making big splashes as they came up for air. The pictures are pretty far away, but worth seeing, I think.
And then we found this guy, or he found us.
I got a little trigger happy here on this last one. Shoulda waited one more second.
Another really close one. I was a little excited and forgot to focus and hold the camera straight. It's really hard to take a good picture from a boat.
We saw quite a few more whales than these that I posted, but again, I'll spare you from having to scroll through all of them. It was such an awesome experience!
Another light house. Did I mention that I love light houses?
The "Wildlife Quest" did not disappoint.
Before heading back to shore we got one more view of the Mendenhall Glacier with a smaller Glacier peaking out from the top right.
Now back to the motorcoach for a close up look at Mendenhall Glacier.
Check out these massive water falls.
Wouldn't canoeing here be awesome?! (just to the top left of the iceberg)
Back to the Star for a cruise up Endicott Arm to see another Glacier (This one was a little on the scary side. Anybody ever heard of the Titanic?).
1 comment:
Completely awesome. I love whales. Every time you do a new post about your trip I become more determined to take an Alaskan cruise!
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