Day 5: Juneau (continued!)

Oh my goodness. Canoeing in Mendenhall Lake was AWESOME!! WOW! The Mendenhall Glacier was, of course, impressive... but you know what I liked the most? The icebergs! There were TONS of big ones floating around, and we just rowed right in between them. We also got to stand on a small strip of beach beneath Nugget Falls, a beautiful glacial waterfall. But really? The icebergs were unreal. They were so blue! Check it out!



See that last one? Well, as we rested by Nugget Falls, it finally became top-heavy and capsized-- minutes after I took that picture! We heard a sound like a gunshot and instantly looked toward the glacier to see if it was calving (which, clearly, it was not). It was pretty cool!

Anyway, it was a great experience, despite freezing my tail off. The air temperature was around 50 degrees today, but there was an icy wind coming off of the glacier that tore right through me. My hands, in particular, felt like they were going to fall off... I had decided not to bring my gloves along, thinking that I'd be working up a sweat while rowing. Nope! Luckily, Gus wasn't freezing like I was, and he had brought his gloves. That was much better! However, it's very hard to operate a camera with big old gloves on. And while the gloves took care of my frozen fingers, my frozen face was another issue entirely. I couldn't talk without stuttering because my lips simply would not do what I told them. I was so cold that when we finally got back, I jumped into a hot shower.

At any rate, it really was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to canoe through icebergs and pass right along the face of a huge glacier. We even saw a few bald eagles, but I couldn't work the camera quickly enough to catch them before they flew into the dense trees. Alaska really is an incredibly beautiful place, and I can speak for both of us when I say that this has been an amazing vacation so far! I can see us coming back here, eventually, because there is literally SO MUCH to explore! I can't get enough!

Tomorrow's destination: Sitka, where we will be taking a smaller boat around to look for wildlife (sea otters, in particular, but also possibly some orcas, bald eagles, dall sheep, bears, etc.). It is supposed to be one of the best excursions, so I am really excited about it!