Today we pull up to Juneau, this is again another early morning the day started at about 4:30am because we are getting off the ship before it docks in Juneau.  We are boarding a catamaran directly from the ship in the endicot arm (fjord) at about 6:00am.  From here the catamaran will take us to Dawes Glacier, we will then tour the glacier, and the arm before the catamaran retuns us to the ship in Juneau.

This tour of the Dawes Glacier was a PCA organized event and we filled the catamaran, there must have been a group of 60 people abord.  There was another catamaran group as well but not for PCA members. Where we boarded we could not see the glacier but there was quite a lot of ice in the water, just cubes not really anything to worry about, no Titanic events going on today with what was floating around.

We were only about a 20 minute ride from where we embarked the catamaran, but along the way we sailed along the shore line taking in the mountains and the shoreline.

When we arrived to the glacier, we did see some small calving happening, this is when the ice breaks off from the glacier.  We got quite close to the glacier, at the nearest we were probably about 2km away so very easy to view. The entire time I could hear the ice cracking and snappling.  

We did get to see quite a lot of calving, small sections of the glacier just giving way to float away in the fjord (arm).  There was one section though that was really quite active, we could see sections of ice falling from either side of this large section of ice that was just getting ready to let go.  Small sections would fall away, and those in themselves were quite spectacular but we all were on the outer deck just watching and hoping for the big pieice of ice to let go.

Then we saw a lot of small calving happening, sections to both the left and right were just letting loose then it happened, a huge cracking noise came from the glacier and the big section let go it was impressive.  When the ice hit the water it created a wave that was 2 or 3 feet high and it ran out from the glacier and along the face of the glacier.  The wave was high enough to create other small calvings along the face.  This was a great show.

Once the calving was done we then headed back toward Juneau.

Along the way the captain was really quite good stopping for us to see bears and eagles along the coast.  We first saw a single black bear on the shore just scavenging.  The next point where we slowed we saw three bears, a mother and her two cubs again just scavening.  The people that were with us really don't understand how to behave around animals, they all were yelling 'look at the bears' as if they would just stay there and let eveyone look at them, this is not a zoo, a lot of people did not see them because of couse as soon as the bears heard the humans they took off into the trees.

We continued our trip back to Juneau combing the shoreline for more life, we did not see anymore bears but there were a few eagles in the trees.   

We did stop at another glacier on our way back the Yusuke "You Suck" glacier.  This one did not come down to the fjord like the others but still impressive.  It was here that we did encounter a whale.  She would pop up ever now and then and did display her tail a couple of times.  We probably spent about 45 minutes just chasing down the whale.  Then we headed off to get back to the ship who has already docked in Juneau, at this point we are about 3 hours away.

The trip was pleasant, Krista and I spent most of it on the outer deck, this is Alaska we didn't want to be sitting inside on the boat just sleeping, there was way too much to see.  The mountains alone were just spectacular and the skys were pretty much clear except for a quick shower every now and then.

We arrived in Juneau at about 1:00, we embarked the ship here the same way we got off at the Endicott Arm and then headed to the buffet to get some food.  After a quick lunch we headed off to explore some of Juneau.  We decided to take a tour out to the Mendenhall Glacier.  Tour busses take cruise passengers out to the glacier.  There are limits to the number of people that can go out, and how long they can stay.  There is a limit of two hours at the site.  The glacier is quite nice, I would say that the Dawes Glacier that we saw this morning was more impressive, probably because we could get close to it. 

The mendenhall glacier though impressive also had a huge waterfall on site which I thought was nicer than the glacier itself.   We hiked around the site took some pictures then headed back to the bus to take us to our ship.

We debated wandering around Juneau, but it was raining quite hard and we were really quite tired, its been a long day and we both were ready for some food then some rest.  We made this a very early night.  

Tomorrow is another early morning, we will find ourselves docked in Skagway.