Juneau

So when I woke up Tuesday morning I looked out the window and saw the town of Juneau. Notice I used the word town. It has a population of about 30,000 people and is the capital of Alaska. There was a mist coming down over the mountains that was really cool. Our excursion for the day was White Water Rafting at the Mendenhall Glacier. It was raining outside and you could see your breath in the air. Hmmmm. The only thing that we were told was that we would get wet and to bring extra socks. I decided to not take the big camera on this trip and just took our little one. Good decision. We had breakfast delivered to our room and then ran out the door. Here is Juneau from the view of my balcony on the cruise ship.

Here I am waiting for the bus that would take us out to the drop in point for the rafting trip. As you can tell it is quite balmy and that the style of clothing in Juneau is HOT!
When we got to the drop in point, they gave us fishing waders (one size fits most), boots, and a life jacket. I should have put my coat on the outside of the waders. I'll tell why in a few minutes. We were paired with 10 people we didn't know and a very talkative guide. The water was covered in mist and you could not see 20 feet in front of you. Eldon thought it was like in Lord of the Rings.
If you look closely, it's hard to see with all the mist, you can see Mendenhall Glacier. It's really cool. It is very, very blue in many places. Never in my life did I think I would be rafting next to a glacier.
Here is my handsome paddling partner . The lady behind him had a partner of the same gender. As luck would have it, they were on our next excursion with us in Ketchikan as well.
There is a beautiful waterfall off in the distance. This is still at the drop in point.

Here is what was floating in the water when we rafted by. Did I say that it was cold? While going down the river, a very large amount of freezing water went down my waders and provided a floating effect in my jeans. It was very cold. Hence the reason I should have put my coat on the outside. The water also filled up in the bottom of the boat where our feet were under about 6 inches of water. Although they were dry, freezing water does provide a perfect effect of what it would feel like to be standing in ice through the boots. When we got finished, I took the waders off and my pants were soaked through. I looked around and no one else had the same wet look that I did. Also it was raining through the whole thing so my hair was wet. All I wanted was a nice pair of warm sweatpants. Irony would show that my socks were completely dry and I didn't need the extra pair they had recommended. For future trips, I would recommend extra pants and underwear. Eldon was totally dry. I was so cold that I don't have a picture of the after effect. You will just have to believe me and create an image in your head. I was going to go back to the boat to change, but we only had a few hours before we were to set sail again and we had a lot of shopping to do as well as some King Crab legs and chowder to eat. I was already wet and the rain was not letting up so why go get another outfit wet I said? I bought a headband to cover my ears and offer some support to my ailing hair that says Alaska across the front of it. (Just in case I got lost, I would know where I was) I got a very cute fleece jacet thing, gifts for the boys and others, some wonderful fudge from the Alaksan Fudge Company (highly recommended by the Washburns who have lived there), and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the crab legs and chowder. MMMMMM........

When we got back onto the boat, we were allowed to go up to the bridge with the Captain and watch them sail away from Juneau. It was very cool. Everything is very computerized, but they do have the wheel that they use when they are not out at sea. While we were "pushing off" a small fishing boat kept approaching. We heard the crew radioing to them to move as we were going to win a fight if it came to that. Finally they called the coast guard because they were not responding. Their were sirens going off and everyone was gathering to check out what was going on. Very cool.

That night we ate the high end restaurant. We were not hungry. The crab legs had put me into a stooper of joy and I was not looking forward to eating again. This was my first meal where there was a cheese course. I don't like stinky cheese at all. I was a huge whimp and tried the cheese that had no flavor and it was great. That night was also the midnight buffet. I was absolutely not going to eat again, but Eldon wanted to at least see it so he would know what it was like. It was very cool with ice sculptures and it was mostly a dessert buffet. That night we had hit rough water and the boat was bouncing all over. We had to hold onto the wall almost to walk. I have no idea how the ice sculptures stayed standing when everything was moving like that. I was so ready for bed that night. It was cool to go out on the deck of our room and watch the storm. The waves were rough and it was cold, but it was amazing to see how the ship just ran right through it.