Juneau is actually located in a rainforest area and gets around 100" of rain a year and around 100" of snow a year although last year they had 180" of snow. Mendenhall Glacier is near Juneau (although we did not go to see it) and the area is surrounded by mountains.
We saw plenty more eagles including one right outside our balcony on the dock. We got off the ship at about 8:00 AM and headed straight towards the Mount Roberts Tramway to get a spectacular view of the area.
After the Tram, we headed to the Capital building and took a tour of the place.
The Capital building is very simple looking compared to Wisconsin or Minnesota's Capital building. The tour we got was very short, partly because many parts of the building were under renovation. We learned about one very infamous governor, John F. A. Strong (from 1913-1918). Partway through his term they learned that he was not from Alaska but instead a Canadian citizen and that he had 2 wives (one in Alaska and one in Canada). It was also very interesting to see that they had a countdown to the end of Sarah Palin's term labeled "Time to Make a Difference."
From the Capital building we took some time to stop and admire some of the cascades in the mountains and the eagles circling right around them. There are five bald eagles in the picture below (click on it to see a larger version of it).
Then we did some shopping before meeting the rest of our family at Tracy's Crab shack for some excellent crab. They served king crab by the leg.
Then it was time to head back on the ship and relax a little before we cruised through the glaciers. Once leaving Juneau, the scenery was just incredible with cascades, small icebergs, snow-capped mountains, and even a little wild life. My husband said he even saw some grizzly bears in the far distance (I missed them because I was sitting in the Endless Summer Restaurant with a different beautiful view doing a margarhita tasting with my sister and her husband). Here are some pictures of the scenery.
The ship was then suppose to go to Tracy Arm to see the Sawyer Glacier however, there was too much ice for the ship to make it safely so instead we went to Endicott Arm where we saw the Dawes Glacier.
Once at Dawes Glacier the boat stopped to allow a tour boat to empty it's passengers onto our boat. I'm not sure if it was people on an excursion from Juneau that were cruising with us or we were helping them out or what.
From there we turned around and headed back out for some more beautiful scenery and a few rainbows and hanging glaciers.
That evening we ordered room service in my parent's room so we didn't have to miss any of the scenery.
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