Juneau

Today was a big day in Juneau.  We are very tired but we saw a lot today.

We started off the day boarding a bus to Mendenhall glacier.  It was a chilly day, which was pleasant.  The glacier visit was nice and relaxing.

Next we were bused to a whale watching boat.  It took us to a lodge on a nearly deserted island.  We were fed, then we reboarded the boat.

It took a while but we encountered a huge group of whales that were bubble net feeding.  Our biologist on board said this was a rare sight.

Ok, here is how it works (as I understood it). The oldest female named Barnacle is the leader.  She decides everything.  They swim in unison the same direction and blow bubbles.  The herring then clump together and swim to the top.  The whales all stop at the same time and swim to the top with their mouth open ready to feast.  She said they eat one ton of fish a day.

Anyway, after they feed and fatten up in the Alaska summer, they swim to Hawaii for the winter.  They don't have anything to eat there so they fast till they return to Alaska.

The whales were everywhere.  I was wishing I had a good camera with me but sadly I only had my phone.  Also, amazingly the biologist knows the whales apart by the marking on their tail.  They even have names.

After a long boat and bus ride back, we had tickets to the tram.  This was the first touristing fail of this trip.  They had only two slow trams and after a long wait, we were crammed in a car like sardines.

On the top of the mountain it was pretty but we saw prettier at Grouse mountain. We certainly had a better tram ride.

Now the tricky part was the ride back.  The line was worse than the longest line at Disney.  We just had to deal with this....a very long wait but we made it.

After a little shopping we made it back to the ship.  A big day for sure.  The whales were our favorite, the tram our least favorite.

Tomorrow we are off to Skagway.  It's one more day of big touristing then cruising for two days.  I think we will need the rest...at least I do:)