Juneau

Juneau today.  For the morning, we’d signed up for a whale watching trip through Orca Enterprises, and on the walk to their offices, a couple hundred yards from the ship, saw a bunch of people looking up in the trees.  Sure enough, up there was a bald eagle sitting right above the road. It took off shortly after we spotted it, so we headed on to check in. We ended up with Captain Larry as our captain, who looks exactly like you’d expect for someone that’s spent his entire life at sea, and Jeff as our naturalist.  Headed out looking for whales, and after a while found a spot where we were the only boat looking, but sure enough, we ended up with at least 4 or 5 whales around us, in all directions.  One of them even surfaced right next to the boat.

After watching those whales for a while, we then headed off to a spot where there’s been whales bubble net feeding for a while.  And they were indeed still there doing it.  There were a couple groups, and the one that was closer to us was a bit inconsistent, but we did get to see one really good look at them doing the bubble net feeding.

After that, we’d arranged for them to take us to Mendenhall Glacier and drop us off there.  The advantage of doing that is that you don’t have to go all the way back to where the cruise ships dock, but they do only give you about an hour before they pick you up again, and that’s probably just a little short.  Didn’t see any bear, but some people in our group back to the ships did say they heard bears, and there was a section of trails closed that might have been because of them.  There was also evidence that the bears had been feeding.

After the tour, headed back to town to do some shopping.  Eventually made it back to the ship.  While sitting in the hot tub that evening, watched a bald eagle fly over the ship, then settle in one of the trees on the hillside near the ship.  Was able to watch that bald eagle for quite some time from my balcony.  Every now and then it would take off and fly around for a bit, then land back in the trees.  At one point, saw as many as 3 bald eagles flying around at once.