Here's the room. It's the only one with a breakfast nook and they will bring our breakfast up to us if we like. That seems a little posh to me!
It was supposed to start raining early this morning but held off and we were even teased by a couple of blue patches in the sky. So instead of going into Juneau, we went to the Mendenhall Glacier where we planned to hike. As I noted this morning, the salmon have started running in the creeks and rivers and the bears are all over them. When we got to the park, we had beaten the cruise ship buses so it was pretty deserted. There were some people looking at salmon in a creek where there was supposed to be a bear feeding. One guy had a dog that was barking and it apparently scared the bear away. However, she left her two cubs and they climbed a nearby tree. I'm not sure why the mother would leave her cubs but she did. This is the best I could do as far as pictures go.
By the time we left, the tour buses had arrived and there was a crowd looking at the cub. We felt sorry for him but the rangers weren't making anyone leave.
The creek where the mother was, was filled with large salmon like this one that were in the process of making nests and laying eggs.
Before the crowds came, we hiked over to the glacier and Nugget Falls. This area was opened up by prospectors during the gold rush and the nearby mountains are named after two of them. This was our first time seeing a glacier and we were amazed at the blue colour of the ice. It was a bit misty but the view was still quite incredible.
There were a number of mini icebergs floating around that had broken off the face of the glacier. They also had the blue tint.
Here are a couple of close ups of some sections of the ice. We were reading that the colour is better on rainy or overcast days so we were in luck!
On the hike back from the glacier, we stopped a few times to look at some of the interesting sites in the forest.
As we were leaving, we saw some people looking into the bushes near the parking lot. Turned out there was a baby porcupine eating leaves nearby. It was very soft looking and I don't think it had quills yet but didn't check!
As we drove out of the park, the promised rain showers started. Our next hike would have to wait and we headed to downtown Juneau. One thing we've learned so far is that towns where cruise ships go look pretty similar. Both Skagway and Juneau had old town parts that were extremely tourist centred. The stores were the same and the merchandise was the same. That's why we are not staying in the tourist areas. Here are some shots of downtown Juneau.
There was a line up to get into the Red Dog Saloon at 11:00!
This very long staircase seemed to lead to someone's house. Not good if you are carrying luggage!
We did do one very touristy thing while in Juneau. Right down by the docks where the cruise ships empty their passengers, there is a food place called Tracy's Crab Shack. It is definitely a tourist trap kind of place. But, sometimes you just have to try a place out to see what all the hype is about. And we did. The food was good and the sideshow was better. Would we go there another time? No. But we enjoyed our crab lunch and beer today and met some fun people.
Not surprisingly, we found the Juneau quilt shop after lunch. This one was on the second floor of an old building and there was a fly fishing shop right next door so I was occupied too!
This was my bear encounter for the day!
The rain stopped again and the sun came out so we jumped in the RAV and headed off to Douglas Island which is just across a bridge from Juneau. It has only 22 miles of roads and we took one of them to the end to find a rain forest trail. Surprisingly, there is a temperate rain forest in Alaska. I would have thought it was too cold for the type of growth we saw but it obviously isn't. We walked through scenery that reminded us of Jurassic Park and Lord of the Rings. The path also ran along the beach in a couple of places.
We met a woman who told us that this maple leaf look alike is called Devil's Claw and that its berries have medicinal qualities.
This mossy stuff was growing on many of the trees.
These mossy growths were on many of the trees as well.
Seaweed art on the beach.
This is another one of the Jurassic Park plants that I couldn't identify.
On the way back to our place we found a Costco. We were overjoyed to find that they had a wine section! Yellowtail Shiraz, 1.5 litres for $8.69! Need I say more? I knew we couldn't fill the RAV with wine and get back across the border so this was the result.
And finally, when we arrived home after 14 km of hiking and city walking, we didn't really feel like going out for dinner or eating crackers and cheese. Quite a dilemma. We ended up getting room service for the first time ever. We'd seen tons of great reviews for the restaurant in our hotel so thought it was worth a try. So glad we did as the food was excellent. Here's what it looked like in our breakfast nook.
This is seafood fettuccine for Marilyn.
I had their fried chicken which was highly recommended online and it didn't disappoint!
Tomorrow, we're planning on hiking in a couple more remote beach areas where we're told you can sometimes see whales from the beach. And bears. So, we'll see how that goes.
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