Juneau & Boat Tour on Fjord Express, Saturday, June 20, 2009

After a day of "rest" and doing laundry, etc., we drove back across the US boarder to Skagway via Route 2 and boarded the Fjord Express, a large catamaran. Although I often get seasick, I felt good about this boat since it was a catamaran. It was fine. It was captained & maned by women!

This waterfall was immense in height, coming down to empty into the sea!

These are harbor seals in the foreground really working hard! Ha, Ha!

This is a view of the seaport of Haines, Alaska as seen from our boat as we came in to pick up more passengers. We had borded at Skagway at 9am, Alaska time - one hour earlier from Whitehorse time, (Pacific) where we left our motorhome parked.

These are Stellar Sea Lions in a "rookery", a community. They are on the endangered species list but boat captains really wonder if they are endangered. They seem to be everywhere and eat a lot of fish!

This is one of the glaciers that can be seen from the sea around the harbor of Haines.

Here is a Humpback Whale as he flukes! (You will see better photos of Humpbacks in my blog from Valdez! ) It was our first encounter on this trip and we were very excited!

Here are two Humpback Whales as they swim along near the surface. It is when they dive deep for food that you see their tail in the fluke position.

Our boat trip was a combo which included a tour of Juneau as well as a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier. Here is a photo of the Mendenhall Glacier in Juno from the road approaching it. The light blue above the trees is the ice of the foot of the glacier.

Here is Lynda at the terminus or foot or toe of the glacier where it leaves off chunks or icebergs into the lake. The real white objects in the lake are icebergs and are really very large. You can't get an idea of perspective or scale here with a photo.

This is where Sarah lives in Juneau! Actually it is the Governor's Mansion. Juneau, as you know, is the capital of Alaska and accessible only by boat or airplane. She is only here when the legislature is in session, about 5 months a year. The back yard had a trampoline set up in it, which we chuckled about!

This is a totem pole on the side of the Governor's Mansion. In Anchorage we will learn more about the various tribes of natives and I hope to learn more about the totem poles.

This is one view of the city of Juneau, where you can see they are "backed up" to huge mountains.

Here is another street scene in Juneau. As the bus driver said, "There's a T-shirt shop next to a Jewelry store next to a T-shirt shop next to a Jewelry store, etc." Many shops are owned by the cruise ship lines. This means it is a tourist trap! I did get some fudge here as well as some kettle corn, sold by a native man. (Not an original recipe I don't suppose! Ha,Ha)

This is Juneau's waterfront. We had lunch in the Hanger Restaurant where we could watch float planes land and take off. It is in the blue building to the right. This dock is where the float planes tie-up. That was neat to see the float planes.

Here is a photo of a float plane landing in the waterfront area.

On the boat ride back to Skagway from Juneau, we saw the only lighthouse I have seen on this whole trip so far so I will bore you with several photos of it. Isn't it gorgeous!

This is a closeup of the lighthouse, of which I do not know the name. I will have to search the internet when I get a chance. It sure had a unique shape. I do not think it is a functioning lighthouse.

This is a distant view showing the mountains in the background.

This is a Blue Heron, by the dock in Skagway. It is not a very pretty heron, but the only one I have seen. There are not many birds here except smaller ones.

And how do you like this photo??? He or she was in the ditch near the White Pass summit as we drove home to Whitehorse, at about 9:30 at night. It does not ever get dark here so no problem. I was thrilled to finally see a bear and so close to the car, about 8 feet away! I rolled down the window and shot & shot!

I think she liked me less than I liked her so she walked away. Note the wildflowers!

Just one last look at her! Isn't she wild & beautiful!

This is the Canadian Customs stop in Fraser, as I mentioned in the train ride blog. Since we were driving, we had to stop here. We then crossed into British Columbia for a while and then the Yukon. The whole trip to Skagway, one way, was 110 miles. We drove just the Jeep there. On the way back to Whitehorse there was a old cabin which had been part of the Chinkoot Trail for the miners in the gold rush. We stopped here but the cabin was gone.

We arrived back in Whitehorse about 11:30 PM, Pacific Time and were able to see the "almost" sunset on the way. It is "almost" because it never really "sets". I have included several photos to show that it seemed to just move across the sky!

This is the last one I took. After this is starts back up. It never really got dark!