juneau

i've fared pretty well on previous cruises, but the chilly choppy water off Canada and Alaska really got to me, and the majority of passengers on board! after a few bumpy sea days, we were all very relieved to be on land, and better yet, in Juneau Alaska! we took a view off the balcony and were blown away by how gorgeous and green it was! the mountains had this misty fog swirling around creating such a cool atmosphere! so we bundled up and stepped off ship!
view into Juneau:

the highlight of Juneau is Mendenhall glacier, which is really amazing, we took a little walk through the rainforest of Juneau and it must be the texas summer we just left or something, but we loved the green, the chilly air and the never ending drizzle!

there's a lot of bear activity near the glacier, what with all the alaskan salmon swimming around and everything, so the walks were not guided but more "walk at your own risk, you've been warned." we didn't linger around too long, but i did love the sign that warned against dogs, looks like Juneau's my kind of town!

Juneau rainforest

view of the glacier, and all the flooding that's slowly inching up the trees!

so Mendenhall glacier is blue, the ice is so thick it absorbs all the colors of the rainbow, except blue, which it reflects. interesting right? i tell ya, you learn something new every day!

a little breakage action

the glacier comes from the Juneau icefield and is about 12 miles long. scratch that, i learned more than one thing new!

our excursion for Juneau was to walk on the top of the glacier. you've probably wondering how that was going to happen because lets face it- i don't hike. enter our ride:

yup, we helicoptered to the top, can you tell how excited we are?!

helicopters are so fun! they go straight up or down, side to side and they just hover, it was great! some views of Juneau's city

water views out the other side

above the glacier

the little orange specks are the guides we're going to meet up with

arriving in style:

glacier pics

view from the top

the 350 ft of packed ice we walked around on. they gave us these glacier boots to use, they reminded me of track spikes, so we wouldn't slip around.

a little glacier stream they let us taste, so clean, pure, and freezing cold!! while our guide was letting us drink the water some other guides were playing around testing the ice and one girl fell in up to her waste! she obviously had water proof stuff on, but it was chilly to see!

this crevice was super deep, it made me a little nervous!

to the side of the glacier was a little waterfall, quite picturesque!

grandma lil braving the glacier with her escorts mike and clarke.

so on cruises people always take really cheesy pics where the guy holds the girl, but usually they're on a strip of beach in board shorts and a teeny tiny bathing suit, so here's our shot- Juneau style!

our glacier trekking group (me, justin, jana, rob, clarke, alyssa, shauna, ryan, mike, diane and grandma lil.)


after we got back to the "airport" we took a quick pic by a bear, stuffed of course!

Juneau was amazing, so pretty and green! visiting Mendenhall glacier with everyone was really cool, and we loved the helicopter rides!!