Glacier & Whales

 I watched some cruise ships come in, while I had my coffee and worked on my blog.

After a leisurely breakfast we drove up to the Mendenhall Glacier

Waterfall near the glacier

The trail was well maintained and fairly flat. This is one of the places that the many people from the cruise ships will come to, so they have to maintain it.

Ice chunk which had broken off

Devil's Club

More ice chunks

We had a fun time. 

We drove home and had sandwiches for lunch.  

A variety of "greens" to add to our sandwiches

Timi's work room

The back of the house

Looking at the cruise ships

We relaxed for a while.  Our whale watching tour was not until 2:30 pm.  As it got closer to the time of the tour it started looking more like it might rain.

We got on the bus at 2:30 pm.  They used 2 buses. Our bus driver pointed out the local sights on our way. 

Lots of bald eagles (Alaska's pigeons)

Once we were on our way Owen gave us a running commentary about the whales.

Humpback whale's "tooth". The whale takes a huge gulp of water filled with herring.  The "teeth" help to hold the herring back while the whale spits out the water.  They use their tongues to clear off the "teeth".  Then they swallow.  We learned a lot about humpbacks.  That is the commonest whale around Juneau.

Rain was coming in

The whales are known by the shape and design of their tails.  They are given names and are tracked.  

The first spot there seemed to be just this one whale, Kelp.  So we moved to another spot. There were quite a few whales there.  It sure was hard to take pictures.  The rain didn't help.

Some whale tails

Synchronized swimming

We saw 6 breaching whales.  I actually only saw 2 of them.  One was very close to our boat but I was behind a bunch of people so I missed it.  

3 whales that look like the Loch Ness monster. ;-)

So many pictures.  I really should have gotten a picture of all of us on the boat watching.  I am glad that I brought several layers.  And my jacket worked.  We had intermittent showers.

Sea Lions on the buoy.

Lighthouse in the background.

Coming back in to dock.  There are some fancy boats.

Our fabulous crew.

Our tour company, Juneau Whale Watch (www.juneauwhalewatch.com)

More eagles.

Our bus back into town.

When we got off we walked straight to dinner.  We had a reservation at the only Indian food restaurant in Juneau.  Erik had recommended it.  

Spice Juneau

Close up of the lights.

Aloo Tikki - crispy potato cutlet with a cilantro dip.  There were 4 of them, but I was slow with the picture taking.

Naan and raita.  Very unusual naan.  It was more like a crispy garlic flatbread.

Sabji or vegetable korma with paneer.  This was very tasty.

Aloo Gobi.

And we got rice.  We brought home left-overs.  Maybe Erik and Timi will like them.

When we got home I started the big job of deleting pictures.  I got a lot of terrible shots.  

This was my favorite photo of the whales.

My favorite glacier photo.

Juneau, Alaska

 Nathan has been in Juneau cat (Fiona) sitting for Eric & his wife Timi while they travel.  Eric was his boss but he recently retired.  George and I decided to visit Juneau while he was here.  We got to the MAX station about 1:30 pm on Friday.  Rebecca took the car home.  She will take care of the pets while we are gone.  

Mt Hood

We got to the airport an hour later.  No problems going through security and getting to our gate.  

Before taking off I saw this plane.  I was not familiar with it.  It is a German airlines, Condor. Apparently, they come in a variety of colors.

It was a quick flight to Seattle.

We did not have much time in Seattle

We made it to our gate in plenty of time.  But not enough time to buy a dinner. So I bought one of the boxed snacks.  Not a very exciting dinner.

Coming into Juneau

We landed in Juneau right on time at 7 pm.

A lot of helicopters around.

Juneau airport

Juneau is surrounded by mountains or water

Nathan met us.  He is using Eric's car.  It was a perfect day to wander around a bit after the flight.

Fun sculpture

A lot of art around

We checked out the tram schedule then went to the grocery store for some ice cream before heading to Eric and Timi's place.

Eric & Timi's place, nearly on the water.

Views from our home away from home

View of the cruise ships.

Living room

Nathan and Fiona

"Our" room

Looking towards the kitchen

Nathan's work station.

The music room, office.  Eric plays the trumpet and guitar and Timi is an artist. Most of the paintings are hers.

Fiona enjoyed going outside for a little while.  We sat on the deck and played 10, 9, 8 while the brownies were cooking.  I had my glass of wine.  Ahh.  What a life!

The deck

Brownies and ice cream.

It finally started to get dark around 11 pm.  Never really got dark, more like dusk.