Alaska -- Day Eleven -- Juneau

We docked in Juneau this morning at eight. Bryan was out on deck so that he could watch. Channel 44 in our room allows you to watch whatever is happening at the front of the ship. I preferred the warmth of our room!

While everyone loaded up on buses for expensive shore excursions we chose the local bus to Mendenhall Glacier. However, we still had 45 minutes before it came so we decided to hike up to the state capitol building. We almost passed by. It is a nondescript office building. I also wanted to walk by the Russian Orthodox church...I always make Bryan visit churches when we are on vacation. But while we were studying our map of Juneau a man walked by and said, "There is an amazing parade taking place a couple streets over. It is a parade of the native tribes and they only have this parade every other year." We took off at a run and were not disappointed. What an amazing treat.

Eventually, but much later than we expected, we caught the bus to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is about 12 miles north of Juneau and is the most visited glacier in Alaska. It has receded almost 2 miles since 1958. The visitor center used to be right next to the glacier. Because of Mendenhall Lake, which was formed by the glacier melting, we could not get right next to it.

We did hike out to Nugget Falls and were able to get much closer to the glacier. It was a very rainy day and the glacier seems to create its own weather. By the time we hiked to the falls and back we were completely soaked. We dried off in the visitor center and waited for our return bus to town.

By the time we got back to Juneau we were hungry and so we had the requisite fish dinner. I had wanted to ride the tramway to the top of Mt. Roberts but clouds had rolled in and would have obstructed the view. We poked our head into shops on our way to the Russian Orthodox church. (Of course, I hadn't forgotten.) It was a steep climb up the hill and it was a bit disappointing.

We stopped in a bread store and Bryan had so many of their free samples that I felt obligated to buy a cinnamon roll to help them recoup their costs. We got coffee and sat on the pier watching all the floatplanes return from their excursions. A native group performed a dance. It was a perfectly wonderful day.