We were in Juneau today. It's our shortest port call of the trip; dock at 6:30am and leave at 3pm. Since our room service yesterday was sub-par, we decided that I would go up to the buffet and grab us some omelets while Angela got ready. This worked out perfectly since I almost always am ready before Angela.
The Harv & Marv's folks were at the gangway waiting for us as we walked off the ship and we waited for a couple minutes for our driver to pick us up. It was about a 20min drive to Auke Bay where their boats are tied up. Once at the dock, we saw not one but two bald eagles perched on some tall pilings surveying the water for breakfast.
We met our boat captain Louis (sp?), boarded our boat and set out to find some whales. It didn't take long to spot the tell-tale spray hanging in the air. We tracked a couple of mothers and their calves make lazy passes around our boats coming up for air, diving, etc. It was pretty amazing but not awe inspiring like a full-on breach would be. We moved to a different spot and while we were repositioning, Louis casually called out “there's a breach” and got on the radio with the other H&M boats nearby to let them know. In seconds we were racing out to “Humpback Island” where the breach was spotted. I have no idea how Louis did it, because we wound up going at least 10 minutes at full speed to get there. The whales kept it up for a couple minutes, and we got close enough to actually see the whales completely out of the water but not close enough for pictures and by the time we got there they were all tuckered out. All we saw “up close” were the “deep dive” maneuvers that expose their tails. Louis claimed that they see full-on breaches about once a week on average, so I guess we were lucky.
We saw some Stellar Sea Lions hanging out on a buoy and more Bald Eagles on the way back to the dock, but they paled in comparison to seeing a whale breaching.
We made a quick stop at the Mendenhall Glacier, but we were fairly “glaciered out” by then and probably weren't “wow'ed” as much as we maybe should have been.
We had a great lunch close to our ship at a place called “The Twisted Fish” where I had a Halibut sandwich and Angela had Halibut tacos.
After lunch, we went up the Mount Roberts Tramway since we had about an hour and a half until the “all aboard call.” At the top we had a good view of Juneau all the way to Auke Bay. We got a bonus view of an active Bald Eagle's nest thanks to a little hand-drawn map on a guard rail. Not wanting to waste a shopping opportunity, Angela was able to find a very nice copper Christmas ornament in the shape of a bear. If we can't see one in the wild; we might as well have the likeness of one on our tree.
Since tonight was a “formal night,” we decided to try out the grill for burgers and brats. I was pleasantly surprised at the tastiness of the burgers and brats as well as the fries. As per usual, we eschewed the “show” in favor of doing some laundry.
Every night we get a little newsletter called the “Princess Patter” that presents the schedule of events for the next day, including arrival and departure times at the next port of call. Our plans for tomorrow include a floatplane tour in the Misty Fjords National Monument, but our schedule looks to have changed and we need to try to get in touch with our pilot to reschedule. Hopefully he'll have an earlier opening; and thankfully we get AT&T cell service in port.
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