Alaska- Day 4- Juneau

Our next port, Juneau, was my favorite day.  Since we had all day to explore Juneau, we chose a much longer excursion that included a salmon bake, whale watching, and a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier. 

 

We weren't sure what to expect at the salmon bake, but we were pleasantly surprised.  It was an outdoor restaurant that had a great buffet of yummy food, including fresh salmon that had been grilled on a huge outdoor open grill. 

A short, two minute walk from the eating area was a beautiful little waterfall that we enjoyed seeing.

After the salmon bake, it was time for our whale watching trip.  I had been looking forward to this part of our trip since we saw whales in Hawaii ten years ago.  I think whales are some of the most amazing creatures that God ever made and it just gives me chills to be in their presence.  It is very hit or miss whether or not you will see very many whales when you go on a whale watching tour, so you have to go into it with low expectations and then be excited if you get lucky enough to see some.

We purposely booked a tour on a smaller boat that only held 50 people and were thrilled when there were only 18 other people with us.  Our captain headed out and within minutes we found not just one, but a group of about 5-6 humpbacks, including a mother and her calf.  We learned that whales do not usually travel in groups so finding 5-6 together was unusual. 

All of a sudden, we witnessed a very rare feeding technique called bubble netting.  In order to catch a lot of fish, the whales swim in a circle and create a ring of bubbles.  The school of fish will not swim out of the bubbles so the humpbacks can wipe out an entire school of fish in one gulp.  Our captain told us that it was very rare to see this and we didn't just see it once, but a total of four times during our tour.  It was absolutely amazing!

While we were still in awe of witnessing the rare bubble netting, the humpbacks turned and swam within 20 yards of our boat.  Our captain (after freaking out a little!) informed us that they rarely come that close to the boat but told us not to worry because the whales were always aware of where the boat is and would not do anything to harm us.  (Note: the video below is not zoomed in...that is really how close we were to these amazing animals.)

The whale watching tour was by far the highlight of my trip.  Have I mentioned how amazing it was to be that close to humpback whales?!?!?  I seriously could have stayed on that boat watching them the rest of the day.  But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. 

 

Fortunately, Alaska is full of beauty and we still had one more part of our excursion to see- the Mendenhall Glacier.   This was the first of many glaciers that we would see on our trip and it was neat to start learning more about glaciers and actually see one in real life.  Did you know that glaciers look blue because the ice is so compacted that there is no oxygen remaining in the ice and all colors are absorbed except for blue? 



Our day in Juneau far surpassed all of our expectations.  It was awesome to finally see the Alaska that we came to see.  Little did we know that our next port in Skagway would be just as amazing!

UPDATE- I realized after I posted that I forgot to include one more thing that we saw in Juneau.  After we got off the boat that morning, we were waiting for our tour guide to arrive and started talking to another tour guide.  He asked us where we were from and Cory made some comment about wanting him to show us something we couldn't see in Texas.  He immediately pointed to the mountain in front of us and said. "See those two white dots in the trees?  You won't see that in Texas every day.".  We got out our binoculars and saw this:

 Two beautiful bald eagles just sitting in the branches. 

Later, during our whale watch, another bald eagle swooped down and caught a fish, right in front of our boat.  Moments later, another bald eagle flew in and started fighting him for the fish.  It was like watching a Discovery nature program but we had a front row seat!  It all happened so quickly so my pictures are not great, but the tour guy was right... this was definitely something we don't see in Texas!