August 1, 2009

We took the Fjord Express, a 63 ft catamaran, through the Lynn Canal, our continent’s longest and deepest glacial fjord, from Haines to Juneau. It was mostly cloudy today but we had a great trip and the scenery was beautiful.

We went by Battery Point, where we hiked yesterday.

Rainbow Glacier was beautiful and has a waterfall that cascades over 300 feet down the mountain.

We stopped by a Steller Seal Lion rookery where there were a number of this year’s pups. The captain told us that these pups were probably just weaned and the adults have left the rookery. We had fun watching them slide off the rocks and try to get back on.

We saw two lighthouses and the last one is for sale. We think it would make a great summer home – it even has its own ghosts and a helicopter landing pad. There was a rookery of harbor seals on the point.

When we got to Juneau a bus picked us up and took us downtown. We ate lunch at the Red Dog Saloon – it was a loud, crowded saloon with great food and our waitress was unforgettable.

We walked around Juneau and found some really good ice cream. We were surprised at the number of jewelry stores in town. We also watched float planes take off from the harbor – they were doing flightseeing tours to Taku Glacier.

We boarded the bus again and went to Mendenhall Glacier just outside of Juneau. We only had 45 minutes at the glacier which was not near enough time. On the boardwalk to the visitor’s center we saw a black bear in a tree and a couple of trees over was a porcupine. We also saw some really red Sockeye salmon spawning in the creek by the trees.

After watching a short film in the visitor center we walked to an overlook of the glacier and lake.




Our bus then took us back to the boat and we headed back to Haines. We were lucky to see a pod of 6 or 7 Orca whales. We were able to watch them for 10 or 15 minutes – what an experience!

We stopped at Christmas buoy to watch some lazy Steller Seal Lions.

Again, we saw lots and lots of beautiful waterfalls on both sides of the canal. We had a great view of Haines and Fort Seward as we came back into the harbor.

It was a great trip but did make for a long day. We hired Ivanca to dog sit Camille and Cody while we were gone. The Eastern State Fair was in progress in Haines so she took the dogs to the parade. She dressed them up in jerseys and they walked in the parade, along with 2 Golden Retrievers, an English Setter and a Yorky. She also entered them into a dog show and actually got them to do some tricks. Ivanca said Cody and Camille had their pictures taken and will be in the local newspaper. She promised to send us a copy of the paper. It sounded like the dogs had just as much fun as we did today.