Juneau

Day 3

Juneau...beautiful! We saw so much and toured this city the entire day. This is (by far) the longest post I've ever done. If you know me at all, you know I like to take photos and I love to write. So....brace yourself. Here we go!

On our drive to take a helicopter ride.

Shane with all his gear on. Not sure why we had to wear life vests? We had glacier boots too.

I just have to mention that ever since we've come back from this trip Shane has been drooling at helicopters for sale on e-bay. All I can tell him...its great to dream, baby!Here we go
Check out our cruise ship

Thankfully, I was in the front (co-pilot) with another woman so I snapped an entire memory card of photos. It was really hard to narrow them down to share with you! Shane rode in the back and by some strange chance one of the couples with us were from Canton, OH! There were 7 of us total in this little thing.
Once we got past the city we took off over the mountains and it opened up...

This is the glacier we're about to land on. See if you can find the 3 helicopters in the photo below. There were 6 in our group.I circled the helicopters here...
Seriously, the water is THAT blue.

It even shines blue between the rocks.

Back up in the air.

I wish I had a size compairson for you on this picture below. It was huge...so beautiful.
See the cracks...here they are closer.

This opening in the ice is on the photo underneath it too. Check out how enormous. No words can explain how vast and gorgeous the area is.

Heading back to the landing.

This damn supplies most of the water for the city.

We're headed for the red barn.

After our ride we took the bus back to the ship and had lunch. Our friends, Dennis & Lyndi, joined us and invited us to ride with them in their rental car for the rest of the day. I'm so thankful for their generosity because we were able to see so many awesome sites!

We started at this little church that you walk out to an island to see. There was a wedding going on after we left. We were thankful we stopped here first or we may have missed our opportunity to see it!
This tree stump was in the woods on the walk to the church. Doesn't it look like a horse or dragon?

Shane & Dennis...the binocular boys
Next stop...Eagle Beach

Shane wanted me to take the photo above because there was a spot in the stream where the salmon swam in (they were running) and the tide went out. So they were flopping everywhere. I thought it was sad. He thought it was beautiful...nature and the untouched cycle of life. (You can see it in the little area under the bird)

The boys skipping rocks.clear, clear, clean waterOn our way to Mendelen Glacier. There was an area you could watch the salmon run in the stream. We stopped their first.

We saw these icebergs floating on our walk over to the waterfall.Mendelen Glacier

On the photo below. See if you can spot the boat in the water just in front of the glacier (in between the iceberg and the glacier). The boat actually looks like its on the iceberg.

Here is a photo of the waterfall we're headed to. See the tiny people at the bottom?Dennis catching the mist.Another waterfall just right of the glacier.My husband has super powers.They are so cute! I know its not appropriate to share ages...but I have to say one thing. Their daughter is 3 years younger than me. I pray I look this good when my kids are my age!

LOVE the blue.I had no idea that Shane and I were matchy-mathcy until I edited these photos. Hilarious...

Blue, blue glacier and green, green moutainsides.

The natives were telling us that they only had 7 days all of last year that were this nice. We hit one of their best days...it was awesome!!!And apparently the locals were thrilled about the weather because they were swimming in glacier water!!!This was our bear siting. Honestly, I was perfectly fine with it. :) I think I would die if I saw a real one.

Next stop was the salmon hatchery. Check out the fish in the water.
There are 5 types of salmon. They were carefully searching (with nets) for Kings.

The hatchery bins were not only packed, but the fish went deep too. They had a window in one bin so you could see.Check out the fish jumping.

I didn't know anything about salmon hatcheries. In case you don't either, here is the deal. Salmon always come back to where they were born. So they all return to the hatchery when they run. They are caught, killed and the sperm/eggs are harvested, embryos are formed and they release the babies back into the water. Its acutally a good thing...just sad and overwhelming to see. (for me anyways). Here are some embryos...

After the visit we drove back to the ship and saw these eagles.

Sarah was here two more days after this photo. Governor's House.

What a fun day!