Surprisingly, the drive down was uneventful and we arrived in Skagway at 0715 Alaska time, so we walked around empty Skagway for 30 minutes. We thought people were kidding when they said the town was dead when there were no cruise ships at the docks. There wasn't a soul in site. The State Ferry had arrived, so we ended up watching vehicles unload for a while.
The Fjordland (our boat) arrived right on the dot and started loading passengers. Sean thought this would be a great cruise to take seeing as the boat they use is a catamaran, so it would keep him from getting sea sick.
They make one more stop in Haines, AK to pick up a few more passengers, and then we are off to Juneau. They provide breakfast and supper on the boat, which we thought was pretty amazing.
Apparently, our captain for the day was the owner of the boat and was filling in for one of his crew members. Sean and I were both impressed with the ride and the scenery. Everything exceeded our expectations ten fold! The captain was great, and he seemed to go out of his way to show us things about the area he knows so well. He took us to see waterfalls, eagles and their nests, glaciers, and all the while keeping his binoculars close to find some whales for the passengers to view. You could definitely tell that he had a passion for his homeland and that he never worked a day in his life because he was doing what he loves.
We pulled up to a dock about 15-20 miles outside of Juneau, what they call the borough, and had a tour bus waiting to take us to downtown. The dock area we pulled up to had a stream that runs down into the Canal and you could sit and watch the salmon jump out of the water and up the stream.
Once in downtown Juneau, we hurried to Subway to eat lunch so we could walk around. There were certain places we wanted to see: Capital Building, Governor's Mansion, Federal Building, and a few museums. Of course with it being a Sunday, most of it was closed.
So, instead we decided to watch the boats go in and out, and walked down to a pier. It was low-tide so we found a path down to the seaweed encrusted sand and saw a huge culvert draining lots of water that had salmon jumping around in it.
As you can see in the picture above, of the cruise ships right next to each other, they really have to cram them next to each other. So, some smaller cruise ships opt to anchor down in the harbor and use the small boats they store on-board to carry their customers back and forth.
Once the bus collected us, we were off to go tour the Mendenhall Glacier. We were dropped off at the Visitor's Center and were told by the bus driver, on the way there, a few trails to take to get closer to the glacier and Nugget Falls.
Our bus driver took us back to our boat, and the Captain told us we were going to an area where they had seen some whales before they came to pick us up. Surprisingly, they were still there. On the way to the whales, we found some sea lions and they gave us a show while we watched them. They were yelling "BWAAAA" at each other over and over, haha!
There was an area the Captain knew of that frequents bears, and behold, a grizzly was right there!
After viewing the wildlife, it was time to go home. On they way back, we noticed there were lots of fishing boats out and about. The Captain had to be diligent about maneuvering around the nets.
There was a personal yacht at Haines, AK when we pulled up to drop off some passengers. It was name Lady Christine and, if you are interested, you can buy this beauty for $55 million US. It comes with a helicopter, loading dock for all your toys, an infinity pool with a waterfall, and many luxurious rooms (as far as we could tell).
We ended up getting back to port around 9pm Alaska time because the Captain kept going out of his way to find us some wildlife. It was a great trip and we both would recommend this cruise to everyone who visits the area. Certainly worth the money!
While driving back to Whitehorse, we saw something running down the right side shoulder of the road in front of us. We slowed down and we could see it was yet another black bear! No pictures of this one because it was dusk so it was hard to get the camera to focus. We got within 10 feet of the bear at 3 or 4 mph. Alaska is amazing. We have to pinch ourselves to remember we are not at some zoo, or some fake wildlife ranch. This is for real!
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