Anchorage

This will be a short post.  Mike and Dana met us at the airport, we went to their house to settle in, and we went up on a mountain south of town so we could see the lay of the land.  Then we took them to a Thai restaurant that they liked and we saw our first moose right off the road.

Next morning we caught the train to Denali National Park.

Well, not that train.

Then on to our cabin that we will stay in for the next two nights.

I have no idea what changed this print!

Sun set at 11:33pm and it is almost midnight and I am tired.  Next time what we did in Denali Park.

Boat trip from Juneau to the glaciers in Tracy Arm.

Tuesday, July 16th.  We left the harbor in Auke Bay around 10am in Mike and Phtllis's 32ft. boat.  

A bald eagle was their to see us go.

We headed south east along Stephens Passage.  The scenery is incredible! And we begin to see small icebergs.

After 8 1/2 hours we turned into Tracy Arm and went into a small cove to anchor for the night.  Phyllis and Mike cooked dinner and Milinda and I went kayaking.  After dinner Mike and Phyllis went kayaking while we cleaned up.  Where else but in Alaska can the sun be shining while you are kayaking with sandals on while little icebergs float by outside the cove?

The next morning we pull the anchor and start up the fjord.

It is like a Yosemite filled with water.

Can you see the sailboat!  These walls are over 1000 ft. and the water depth is over 1200 ft.

We finally come around a corner and see the first glacier.  We hear it thunder, watch it calf, and see the splashes.

Then we tear ourselves away and go see the one.  It is larger with lots of icebergs so we can't get too close.

We start back and after hours leave Tracy Arm, head back up toward Juneau, and after 10 1/2 hous on the water tuck into Taku Harbor.

A killer whale (Orca)

Time to finish the trip.  We cruise along Admiralty Island in search of bears, bot no luck.

Another 7 hours and we are home. This has been an unforgettable 3 days!!!

Beautiful day, every day

Here is what I wrote on Monday night, but I posted it in the wrong place, so I am doing it again....

We have been so lucky with the weather! Every day has been gorgeous! Our trip up through the inland passage has been incredible with sun every day and NO rain, which is so unusual for Southwest Alaska.

We sailed into Ketchikan on Sunday at 7 AM and we will were able to get off the ship for three hours, Then on to Wrangell by 3:30 PM next we went to Petersburg at 7:30 PM getting off for just a short time each of those places.  We arrived in Juneau at 4:30 AM on Monday where we got off to stay with old Kodiak friends for a while.

What a great day we had...seeing the glacier, riding up the tramway to the top of Douglas mountain, having crab bisque at a neat little restaurant by the harbor, and having dinner with Phyllis and Mike's daughters, their partners, and other friends.  Here the sunsets go on literally for hours....From around 7 PM to 10 PM.  Last night after a wonderful dinner of fresh halibut we went for a walk near the Mendenhall glacier to look for bears.  We left the house around 10 PM and returned around 1130. It was still light!  No luck with the Bears, but we have seen three porcupines today.  We got up at 2 AM to see if we could see the northern lights, but it was still too light.

This morning we are leaving for Tracy Arm to see glaciers in their boat and we will be gone for three days.

A little place before we got to Ketchican

these next few are for you, Michael.   Petersburg

On to Juneau

The Mendenhall Glacier

The pump station at the old Treadwell gold mine

Mike, Phyllis, Chris, Pilar, Eric, Adrienne, and Ganasha