Skagway, AK and Juneau, AK
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2008
1
13
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
Juneau,
Alaska,
United States
Sunday, July 13, 2008
July 13, 2008
Skagway,AK, USA and Juneau, AK, USA
Today was an exciting day. Lot of stuff occured today but let me start the outline and then get into details in a bit. We got up bright and early this morning to be down at the harbor at 7:30am. Our catamaran arrived and we boarded the Juneau Express to head to Juneau for the day. The trip was planned out for pretty much a ferry to Juneau with shuttle service to downtown and then pickup and drop off at the Mendenhall Glacier and pick-up and drop off back at the boat, with wildlife stops along the way.
So we made it down to the dock and as I was walking on the dock a touch of good luck struck, and hey any good luck is good luck in my boat. I found a $10 bill which would later prove itself as to what it would be used for. So I get by the end of the dock near where our boat will depart and this lady is sitting there seemed pleasant enough, but looks can be deceiving. Anyway, we left Skagway for Haines, AK and then to Juneau.
On our way to Haines, we spotted entirely to many bald eagles to count and probably about 10 harbor seals. Once we left Haines the fun began. We encountered several pods of small Dall's porpoise, which if anybody know Dall's, they are truely ADHD. They won't hold still for a picture for much of anything. We stopped at a rookery for Stellar Sea Lions, saw a few more dozen harbor seals and even a sea otter.
While enroute, of course clutzzy here, was opening up the window and taking pictures out of the window, she opened it with rather strong amount of force and caught her hand between the pane and the frame and broke, yes broke, her little finger.
Bald Eagle
The finger is mighty black and blue, swollen and almost resembles a c. The crunch was fairly well felt and heard. So please excuse any typing errors.Then the other thing that will make the trip a trip I will never soon forget, this woman. She would be the kind that has a comment for everything. Talks excessively and well has no concern for anyone other than her self. Truthfully, she was not only getting on my nerves but many others as well, even the captain finally told her off. It was kind of amusing.
Anyway, so at Juneau, we were taken in to town and dropped off at the park where we explored. I finally got to see my statue of Patsy Ann. Patsy Ann is the famous Bull Terrier of Juneau, who roamed the streets, she was deaf and could not bark, but somehow knew when cruise ships were going to arrive, even if not on schedule. We after she died, they buried her under the dock in a coffin and errected a statue of her on the dock above her. Truely, one example of a dog being man's best friend.
We then went to lunch at "The Hangar" and watched the sea planes land and take off. Once we did that, we went and got a geocache at the visitor center, went and got my finger splinted and then walked the Russian Orthodox church in town where dad was really facinated with. Once that was said and done with we walked around town and looked around and of course got ice cream.
All that said and done and climbing up hill for 8 blocks (kind of like San Francisco) we caught our bus and went to Mendenhall Glacier where we picked up another cache and then hiked about 1 mile and took our pictures.
Eldridge Rock Light
We were then taken back to the boat for the return trip.On the return trip back to Skagway, we saw 6 humbacks, one breeched (jumped completely out of the water) lots of tail flukes getting stuck up in the air. We also stopped at the Eldridge Light lighthouse and saw several pods of Dall's porpoise along with seals.
Overall, it was a really good day with the exception of the finger, which is going to be getting babied for a while until we are at such a place where it can actually get medical attention for it which will probably be in the lower 48 as this area only has emergency clinics with flights out of the area. Not a good place to get seriously injured or have a finger that is somewhat resembling a "C".
Tomorrow should be interesting, especially with my hand the way it is now. We are slated to go gold panning, just to try it out, at 10 am. After that is lunch at the Red Onion Saloon follwed by a tour of it and then do probably about 3 or 4 loads of laundry before be get on the Kennicott to head down the inside passage toward, Sitka, Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Petersburg.
If I don't get another blog up for tomorrow before we leave port, see you in the lower 48 probably friday night or saturday morning.
