D’YOU KNOW JUNEAU?

Juneau must be the most quaint capital of all the U.S. states.  It’s really a small town, despite having the most geographical area of any capital.  That must take in a lot of zero or low population turf.  Save for the adjacent residential areas, you can walk around the whole place in a couple of hours.  The setting is drop-dead gorgeous, between the mountains and the sea, all done up in Gold Rush chic.  The shops were much like those in Ketchikan (and, as we would see, like all of our stops), and for us were almost entirely avoidable.  Shopping ain’t our thing.  But we like to stroll around and look.

After breakfast (eggs benedict for Loni) on the stern, we walked off the ship and right into town.  We got a tourist map and decided to see the government sights.  First up was the state office building, which was up a hill and had an observation deck that overlooked some of the city.  Even at that I couldn’t get much of a shot.  The building did have a very chatty and nice guard, who doubled as a font of tourist info.  He directed us to the oldest totem pole in Alaska and this odd looking brown bear.  Can you spot what’s wrong? 

Well, take a closer look at his legs.  When they built the display case and brought it for installation, they found that it was two feet short of the needed height.  Did they fix the case?  Nooooo.  Instead, they cut two feet off the legs of the poor beast, and installed his truncated bod in the case.  We also learned from the guard that across from Juneau lies Douglas Island, and beyond it is Admiralty Island with the largest concentration of brown bears in the world -- he said 5,000 of them, but multiple online sources say 1,600-- in only 5mi x 28mi!  They are referred to as “island grizzlies,” and are much larger than the mainland griz due to the more abundant food sources on and around the island.

OK, moving on.  Alaskan towns are surprisingly colorful, at least in the summer, and Juneau was no exception, with pocket parks, flower patches, and technicolor houses all around.

It’s also a lot of up and down, with stairways climbing and descending all over, including this rather aptly named one.

Both the governor’s mansion and the federal building were undergoing renovations, so we skipped those and stopped for peeks at the Catholic church and the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, the latter the oldest original in Alaska, both tiny.

We finished our walkabout with a stop at the Arts & Culture center, very much a home-grown operation, but where we found a lot of nifty arts and crafts by the locals, including a beautiful set of paper earrings that Loni couldn’t resist.  So, we spent some money after all.

The afternoon was devoted to a whale-watching cruise that was one of the ship’s add-on excursions.  Turned out to be a pretty good afternoon (understatement).  We took a bus to another harbor, where we boarded a catamaran-type boat.  Thank goodness the waters were peaceful since Loni is prone to seasickness on small craft.  She was armed with her wrist bands, which seemed to do the trick.  Off we went.  As you can see, we were enjoying quite balmy weather while the sun was out.

The landscape up here is just enormous, and the clear air allows for huge vistas as we traveled up the Stephens Passage.

We did manage to spot quite a few whales, but mostly distant views of tail flukes and spouts.  This is where I really miss the lack of a true telephoto on my Lumix LX100.  This is really a long shot brought closer by extensive cropping.

Not everything was large scale.  These seals were enjoying their tiny bit of island despite the clanging bell and constant bobbing.

Glaciers are alive and well in Alaska, and my favorite shot was this one showing two of them.

Thanks to the little boat for providing a sense of scale.  A closer view of one:

The sailors were having a terrific time.  Ole Dad doesn’t get into many shots.

For our kayaking friends, I thought these hardy souls were inspirational.  What a backdrop.  I think they were in a lot better shape than I was yesterday.

This was about a 3-4 hour trip, but our day wasn’t over yet.  After we offloaded, we boarded a bus to take us to the Mendenhall Glacier, 1.5 miles wide and 12 miles long.  Although that sounds impressive enough, there were markers there that showed that the glacier has hugely retreated from its former glory.  Global warming at work.  This is what it looks like from the beginning of the path that you can take over to those falls at the right.  For scale, that’s a horde of people standing at the base of Nugget Falls.

Nugget Falls is truly an impressive amount of water.

Although we’re only a few days into the trip, Alaska has proved to be an amazing experience already.  We’re thankful for the great weather that has allowed us to actually see its incredible vistas.  I’m more thankful to be sharing it with my love.