July 25, 2012

Juneau, Alaska - June/July 2012

This post is really late, but Steph and I wanted to give you the quick summary of our trip to Juneau, Alaska, a few weeks ago and share photos. So, I'll give a little bit of info about what we did and share a lot of pics. Visit our Flickr page to check out all of our Juneau Pics.

My middle sister, Zelda, lives in Juneau with her husband, Jacek, and their two daughters, Iza (6) and Zosia (4). It was important to us to see them (especially the girls) before we head out for so long. They change so quickly. They all used to live in Anchorage, but now they live right on the coast in Juneau - and we spent our time whale watching from their front deck. We didn't snag any photos of the whales, but we saw humpbacks and orcas right out in front of their house. Steph had never seen a whale before, so she was pretty excited. I lived in Juneau for a summer after college with some buddies and worked on a fishing boat, and I've visited several times since then, and I always love it up there.

After arriving late on June 27, our nieces greeted us and we tried to get some sleep despite the brightness of the night and the cruise ships passing by outside our window. The next day, we bundled up in waterproof gear and headed to Tongass Mendenhall Glacier. It's been a long time since I've seen the glacier and I was sad to see that it's melted so much.





After checking out the glacier from afar, we took the nature walk through to the giant waterfall. Juneau is actually a rainforest, so everything is super green.

These plants lined the walk and the droplets of water sat on top of the leaves in perfect spheres. Steph snapped this pic.


We also took a drive out to the Juneau Mining Museum (not recommended), had a night of enchiladas and margaritas at Zelda and Jacek's house, hiked the Mount Roberts Trail before taking the tram down, visited Jacek's research lab at the Fish and Game, and checked out Jacek's new airplane. We were thinking about taking a quick trip on the plane to Canada to escape the dreary weather in Juneau during our visit, but Steph and I forgot our passports, so we couldn't go. We had a few great meals and loved the quiet that comes from getting outside of a major city. The best part of the trip was seeing our nieces, who are hilarious and super imaginative.
Clockwise, from top left: Cruise ships going past their house around 1am; The view from the top of the Mount Roberts Trail; A bald eagle hanging out in front of their house; Enchilada/Margarita night

Iza (taller, and with darker hair) and Zosia (the toehead)

Pretending to drive Jacek's plane

Look at these goons!

Super Tourist Pic

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