Alaska Part IV: Juneau

This was the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. While we were at breakfast, the ship captain spoke and we all observed a moment of silence.

We walked around town (which is tiny) before our tour. It is also an isolated place. You can't drive into Juneau. The airport is in a neighboring town.

We were driven out to the Mendenhall Glacier. It feeds into a lake. It is receeding.

The lake was full of glacier chunks.

Running short on time, I ran down the trail to the waterfall next to the glacier and back. It was impressive. Appearantly, there was a bear nearby, but I didn't see it. Diane, who was in a later group was not able to walk to the waterfall because the bear was in the path.

I had a few minutes to spare, so I walked down this elevated path over the rivers and was able to see some of the spawning salmon. They had turned red, which means that they had made their final run up the river and were near death. The bears won't eat the fish when they turn red because the meat isn't as good.

After, I rode in a speed boat to go look for whales. We embarked at Auke Bay Harbour (above). Our ship captain was very young. He had been in boats all of his life. His father was the captain of one of the big ferry boats in town.

We saw humped back whales (above) and even an Orka, which are more rarely seen.

The whales are hard to spot. They didn't spend much time out of the water. They can hold their breath underwater for 10 minutes. The pictures above have been cropped and cropped, but were really taken from very far away.

The state capital building was quite understated. It had no grounds and was hidden behind a larger commercial building.

Anything in the flat lands is actually the mine tailings at one point, and new buildings are constructed on top such as the buildings in the picture above.

Abandoned dock near the Alaska Coast Guard headquarters in Anchorage.

I went to the Sunday "interfaith" service provided by fun for less. Steve Johnson, who was at our dinner table spoke. His dad spoke on 9/11. Elvis sang How Great Thou Art.