Alaska: Day 5

Tracy Arm, AK

The morning of day five we cruised the Tracy Arm Fjord. A smaller boat went up closer to the fjord, but we didn't do this because we had other excursions in Juneau that we had to make that afternoon. Even though we didn't get to see the fjord up close and personal it was still beautiful. My favorite part was the waking up to the color of these waters!

Here you can see the smaller boat headed up closer. The boat is really rather large, but it looks very shrimpy in comparison to the magnitude of the mountains!

Gorgeous waterfall

In the back of this picture you can see a glacier behind the wispy clouds...

Closer up...

Iceberg

Tia and Lilly playing their favorite giggle game! It's hilarious how every time Mel hides Lilly immediately stops laughing. Her giggle is so precious and joyful!

Juneau, AK

That afternoon we arrived in the capital, Juneau. It was weird to see some office buildings in the midst of such beautiful nature, but I guess that's not a bad view to have! Juneau is still an island so it is strange to think you can only access the capital by air or sea.

Float planes are a common mode of transportation it seems.

Mom, Lilly, and I went to see Mendenhall Glacier after her nap. It was huge and very neat. It is much more viewed than Hubbard Glacier and not near as spectacular. There were lots of tourists, but glad we saw it!

One of the more exciting things about our trek up there was getting to see RED salmon. They were beautiful! I always pictured salmon as red, but they supposedly turn red after they spawn right before they die. Yes... they spawn and then die... so sad!

I thought this was so cute! The play little league in Alaska too. The difference is they take there championship picture in front of a huge glacier! :)

I thought the architecture of this visitor center was really neat!

When we got back to town we decided to take a Gondola ride up to get an aerial view of the city.

At the top we saw a bald eagle.

On the way down Lilly had some sleepy eyes as she snuggled her favorite spotted seal.

When we got back to town Mom and I split an Alaskan Summer Ale at the Red Dog Saloon. It was bizarre.... such an odd place. So... we decided to look for somewhere else to eat. 

We were 2,474 miles from home!

We grabbed a bite to eat at Tracy's King Crab Shack. It was AMAZING! Mom and I split the combo of crab legs, crab cakes, and crab bisque. Yum!!!

That evening we were supposed to go on a whale watch. We had the time wrong and missed it by five minutes. :*( It was a bummer, but ok. It was a busy day and Lilly was pooped, so we kept telling ourselves it was for the better. They ended up not seeing any humpbacks on the whale watch and only a few orkas (killer whales) from a far distance. We saw several orkas right off our balcony and pretty close so not too bad!

The rest of the crew: Jpop, Mel, Cace, and Jere went Fly-in Fly Fishing for pink salmon while in Juneau.

They took a float plane to get there.

Got outfitted...

They arrived at their beautiful, remote location surrounded by mountains and eagles in the sky.

It was Mel and Cace's first time to fly fish!

They did great!

Everyone caught so many salmon that they lost count! Don't worry, it was catch and release.

They were fishing for Alaskan pink salmon. The males have the humps on their backs.

They saw bear footprints in the stream. They also saw some fish half eaten by the bear as well.

Action shots...

The guide always carried a gun on his back in case they came into contact with some bears and needed to defend themselves.

A successful day!