Juneau, Alaska

After sailing out of Seattle, we spent the first full day of our cruise at sea, occupying ourselves with spa treatments, cocktails, hot tubs, bowling, naps, and, of course, food (it was also Stacey's and my one-year anniversary!).  It was nice to offset our outdoorsy plans and the rainy forecast with some total relaxation.

Our ship pulled into Juneau on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a little surreal -- for almost two days, we'd seen nothing but open ocean and distant islands, and then suddenly we opened the door to our balcony and we were in a little harbor.  The mountains rise right up out of the ocean, and since the weather in southeastern Alaska is usually very rainy, everything was misty and foggy.  But we could smell pine trees and rain, which we miss after almost a year in dry, sunny California.

Susy disembarked for her Mendenhall Glacier hike, and Becky for her photography tour.  Stacey and I had booked a sea kayak trip, but it was cancelled due to white caps.  Instead, we went to Mendenhall Lake for a raft trip down the Mendenhall River.  Although it was a pretty tame raft trip, we had a good time.  It was particularly exciting because Mendenhall Lake is home to -- you guessed it -- Mendenhall Glacier, and at this point we had never seen a glacier before (more on that later).  You can see Mendenhall Glacier below -- it's the blue thing to the left of the big mountain.  The blue color has something to do with the ice reflecting every color except blue -- or something like that.

Below, the view from the raft looking back toward the glacier.

Further down the Mendenhall River:

We saw a bald eagle in a tree and a few Arctic terns, but other than that, not much in the way of wildlife.  The trip down the river confirmed the fact that Alaska smells amazing!  Maybe an affinity for crisp weather and pine forests (not to mention 37 degree water, which is VERY cold when it splashes into the raft and onto your hand) is ingrained in me by my New England childhood, but it felt somehow familiar -- something like Maine, writ very, very large.