Ice Gazing

Our first port of call on the cruise was Juneau, Alaska.  There are three things to do in Juneau:  go see Mendenhall Glacier; go whale watching; or go shopping.

If you've ever been on a cruise you know their excursions are ridiculously overpriced.  Someone advised us to forego the ship's excursion to Mendenhall Glacier and instead just take the shuttle that is parked right outside the ship.  That's what we decided to do and it worked out very well.


The glacier sits in the beautiful Tongass National Forest which is actually a rain forest.  



Irv and I have been to this glacier twice before.  Usually it's cold and rainy, but this time the weather was perfect.  I'm going to try to find my photos from our first visit about 15 years ago to see how the glacier has receded.


We watched a movie at the visitor center and made the 2 mile hike out to the waterfall. 


I'll also have to find the previous photos  of Irv and I to see how we've changed over the years too.


As on any hike, this is always my view.  20 paces behind.


We didn't see any wildlife, only other tourists.  This recreation site doesn't allow any food or drinks.  The gift shop doesn't sell any snacks, not even bottles of water.  Speaking of bottles of water, have you heard that this administration has recently lifted the ban on bottles water in national parks.  The lobbyists have won again--who the hell cares about the environmental impact?


The men were having serious discussions while Marilyn and I were off to get the perfect shot of this glorious place.

After hiking back to the visitor center we hopped on the shuttle back to town and some shopping. Did you know that Alaska is the diamond capital of the U.S.?  Jewelry stores line every street...it became a joke with us about how many diamonds we needed to buy.  We came home with zero diamonds.




Comments

Yogi♪♪♪ said…
Looks like fun to me. I didn't hear about the water bottle thing. Talk about a giant step backward.
August 16, 2019 at 8:00 AM
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