Grandview Bed and Breakfast Juneau

... on paper, is incredibly large – bigger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined – but the inhabitable area is very tiny and comprises a narrow strip of land on a series of islands. The huge area is explained by the city limits incorporating the immense Juneau Ice Field, comprising dozens of glaciers. There are only 30,000 people there, and it's the third largest city – only a couple ...

... weren't enough, on the way back the captain took some detours to get close to waterfalls in the surrounding canyon and to see humpback whales.  This excursion was the highlight of our Alaskan adventure.

The next day, we rented a car to see more of the Juneau area outside of downtown.  We went to another beautifully blue glacier - Mendenhall Glacier  -- very close to town.  Near the glacier is Steep Creek where we saw salmon spawning.  Next, we drove down the length of ...

... what to do and see while we’re here. Looked at some of the historical buildings: Governor’s house, St Nicholas Russian Church

Drove out Thane Road to end.

Watched native Alaskans catching chum/dog salmon just before the salmon hatchery; they were cooking them right away.

Lots of chum salmon at Sheep Creek. The boys catching them ...

... a log rolling contest where people have to stand on a floating log with an opponent and they have to try to knock each other off by spinning the log. In the evening we watched one of the best firework shows we have seen. It was really sumin' for such a small town. A couple of days later we managed to get a cheap(if you can call $100 cheap) trip to a place where there are lots of bears feeding on the spawning salmon. We saw lots of black bears catching fish ...

... town,. It is only accessible by boat or plane with no roads into town as it boarders a large icefield, it is the capital of Alaska and the home of Sarah Palin. Also Alaska is rich with oil money and therefore Alaskan residents don’t need pay income tax.

We walked the town this morning, another blue sky day…. we have been lucky as we have had no rain so far on our trip. We ...

... Héeni "river where the flounders gather", and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called Aak'w "little lake" in Tlingit. The Taku River, just south of Juneau, was named after the cold t'aakh wind, which occasionally blows down from the mountains. Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet (4.9 m), below steep mountains about 3,500 to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) high. Atop ...

... to the viewing platform, where we were greeted by a gizzly bear feeding near to the viewing platform. We saw a few more bears hunting (well, standing on salmon ...

... in any one place. They had quite a few inflatable boats, but the good ones were too big to fit into our camper and the small ones too flimsy. So we tried Fred Meyer, and there we found a 4-man inflatable that seemed just right, including two sets of oars. So we sprang for it, together with a pump, two lifejackets, and a pair of boots for Dick (they didn't have any small enough for me), all for considerably less ...

... out with bears and dealing with tourists coming there asking the same questions over and over. Jason and I look around, me whispering as we are in a museum, Jason talking with some more volume as we are the only ones. Out of the museum we walk back down to the creek where a whole load of people brought their complete gold searching equipment and turn the creek upside down for gold. They are so possessed with the thought of gold being still ...

... justice in this world. We have a few chats with some people over there and head back home where the fire alarm goes off once we get there. It turns out that the detergent in the laundry room had a chemical reaction and the towels started burning. Nothing major though, just a few towels and the fire was fastly put out. Still in the mood of being outside even though clouds have now covered the sky, we take a bus over the ...