Blogs from Juneau, Alaska, United States, North America - page 7

Juneau is much like Ketchikan when it comes to the town facts. It rains 300 days out of the year, it’s also an island and it’s the 3rd largest city in Alaska with 30,000 people. There are a few differences. Juneau does host a local university which averages as many students as PurdueUniversity according to our guide for the day who attends the college. The main difference between Ketchikan and Juneau is the gold. Juneau has MountRoberts which has 400 miles of tunnels left over from the gold mining days. The mine put out close to a billion dollars (today’s price) worth of gold. It appears there is still gold left in them there hills. Permits are being filled to continue the mining gold. The dirt removed was used to build up the local city. The ... read more

Wednesday June 27th, 2012 Taku Harbor to Juneau Juneau was only 20 miles from Taku Harbor and I could seen the cruise ships before we even entered Gasteneau Channel. We found moorage fairly near downtown and we had just finished tying up when Kira said, “OK, can we find the bookstore now?” We did walk to the downtown area mingling with the thousands of cruise ship folks. Kira found her bookstore, which should keep her occupied until her birthday anyway. The Juneau Volunteer Band played under a gazebo and when they struck up “Stars and Stripes Forever” the crowd gathered, marching, tapping and cheering. We docked in front of “Drumbeat,” the boat I met in Foggy Bay and Dave gave me the lowdown on Juneau. Thursd... read more

After gorgeous weather and blue skies at the Hubbard Glacier and a day of scenic cruising in Glacier Bay we headed south. Being here just left us in awe...we hit such incredible weather and it is difficult to describe such raw beauty when nature reveals it so stunningly. The snowcapped mountains, glaciers and blue green glacial waters with the large floating ice cubes were quite the combination. We felt so lucky. We got quite a few incredible photos and videos and was able to get video of the Marjorie Glacier calving. Here as well there were birds sitting out on the ice incuding an eagle. So hard to judge distance on water. There was one wall of mountain that looked like it had many faces carved into it. We walked miles on deck. In Skagway the ... read more

Trip to Alaska Part One – June 2012 - Juneau to Ketchikan Intro I have always wanted to visit Alaska. I have made numerous business trips to Ketchikan, but, they were, well, business and I really did not have time for more than minimal sightseeing around Ketchikan. On these trips to Southeastern Alaska, I learned that it was beautiful, it rained a lot, and that I wanted to come back. My wife and I knew we wanted to take a special trip to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Unfortunately, we did not have the time for some of our dream trips such as Australia and Southeast Asia. Knowing my interest in visiting Alaska my wife kept up-to-date on the travel news and noted that Innerseas Discoveries, part of American Safari Cruises, was now doing Alaskan cruises on ... read more

Woke up to another beautiful day as we come into Juneau, Alaska's capitol. Juneau can only be reached by air or water, so it is interesting that they chose this to be the capitol. It is the largest state capitol by land area, and the only one that borders a foreign country. Today we are heading out for another bike ride - this one near Auke Lake. The van picks us up and we head north up near the Mendenhall Glacier. The highway runs for a number of miles in either direction, then abruptly stops. We unload near a little chapel on the lake, a very picturesque place and I'm sure very popular for weddings. Our guides take us on a pretty (and fast!) ride along a trail all the way to the glacier. We stop ... read more