Mendenhall Glacier
We took a bus to the glacier and only had about 30 minutes to walk around, which was a little disappointing to me, because it would've been a fantastic place to take a longer hike. However, the size of the glacier more than compensated - it's HUGE! Initially my digital camera was on the wrong setting (sunset) from the night before, so I had to delete a lot of photos that were too underexposed. But I shot several with the film camera as well, and I'm hoping those turn out better.
Glacier Gardens
This was really cool - we took a short ride to a family-owned and operated botanical garden near the glacier. The husband is a landscape architect who bought and restored the acreage before adding extensively to the flora there. One interesting thing he did was use dead trees as planters: he just turned them upside down so that the roots are exposed at the top and serve as the base for all kinds of plants that then grow out and over the edge.
Our guide, Ian, told really bad (corny) jokes as he drove us on a golf cart up a steep grade, pointing out rainforest plants (SE Alaska gets LOTS of rain, apparently). Despite the fact that the mute button on my imaginary remote control wasn't working on Ian, I enjoyed the ride. So much to see.
Whale Watching
We were guests aboard a large catamaran operated by Allen Marine on the whale watching tour. It was so awesome, and we saw several humpback whales. Also learned about the other types of whales that frequent Auke Bay, the Lynn Canal and a couple of channels on the Inner Passage near Juneau, such as gray whales and orcas (which are really large dolphins, not whales). My digital camera was not responsive enough in the overcast conditions, so I took tons with the film camera, and I'm hoping for the best. The humpbacks are typically soitary, so we found them popping up individually in most cases. We did see a mother and baby. Oh, and one of the whales breached for us - apparently that's a rare sight. Orcas are pod-oriented. Much to my and Jason's dismay, we didn't see an orca on the entire trip. Maybe next time!
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