Today we woke up at 5:30am so we could view the Tracey Arm Fjords. It was well worth it and we had a wonderful time scenic cruising. Since we didn't have a balcony, we went up to the top deck to watch the scenery go by and take lots of pictures. For a while we could also hear the naturalist narrating the tour. Once we got further into the Fjords they had to stop broadcasting on the outside decks as to not disturb the wildlife in the area. It was absolutely freezing but it was so beautiful, we stayed outside for several hours. At one point we went inside to warm up and then hurried back outside so we could see the Sawyer Glacier- the highlight of the trip through the Fjords.
You can probably tell it was pretty cold by taking a look at this photo :-)
The amazing scenery
This is the Sawyer Glacier. It was pretty interesting to see how the captain maneuvered the ship through the Fjords. When we had the glacier in view, he turned the ship sideways and then flipped it around the other way so both sides of the ship could get a good view. There were a lot of people who had balconies in their rooms and were viewing everything from there.
This shows you what our view from our room was like. We were actually quite happy with it because when we booked the room we got a discount for booking a "fully obstructed view". I was picturing not being able to see daylight at all, so the fact that we could see this much was nice. That orange thing is life boat.
We sailed through the Fjords until about 10:00am and then went back to our room to warm up and get some more sleep. The ship was now headed to Juneau and we had several hours before we would get there. After napping we got up and went to go get some lunch. Today we chose to get pizza because it was quick and easy. The buffet lines were really long because everyone had the same idea and went to eat before we arrived in Juneau.
Once we arrived in Juneau we took the shuttle to town for $3. We went shopping and walked around the town for about an hour before we had to catch the shuttle back to the ship to meet our shore excursion bus. We boarded the bus and went on a tour of the city, lead by a man who has lived in Juneau for 35 years. It was really informative and we learned that there is no property tax or income tax in Juneau. The government makes all their money from oil. The residents even get dividends each year based on how much money is made. Pretty cool, huh?
The bus took us next to the Mendenhall Glacier where we went on a hike and then went to view the glacier. We were warned that there may be black bears in the area but we only saw a porcupine in a tree. It was funny though because a lot of people thought it was a bear and starting yelling, "bear! bear!".
The Beautiful Mendenhall Glacier
Chad and the Glacier
A huge waterfall next to the glacier. If you look closely you can see people at the bottom which gives a perspective on how large the waterfall is.
Kayakers in front of the glacier
Some neat ice bergs
After our tour we got off the bus in town and did some more shopping and walking around. We found a very tasty fudge shop and treated ourselves to some chocolate mint fudge. yum! When it was nearing time for the ship to leave, we took the shuttle back to the ship and went back to the room.
Dinner that night was French themed and Chad was very adventurous and had frog legs. eeek! He liked them a lot. :-) After dinner we went to the internet cafe to try to check our e-mail but the ship was having satellite connection issues so it was closed. Because we had gotten up so early in the morning, we were pretty tired. So we went back to the room to go to bed.
Tomorrow we arrive in Skagway and get to take a 7 hour tour into the Yukon territory!
