Juneau, Alaska

Well, what can I say about Alaska and rain!  Juneau, the capital of Alaska receives ninety inches of rain a year.  That can mean at least one to three inches a day if it rained every day!  Yesterday was one of those rainy days.  We were soaked rats---even our back packs were soaked along with the contents----and our jackets were gore-tex!!  We rode on a fast moving water taxi.  The ride was through the fjords to Juneau and we traveled 85 miles by water. Juneau is the only stat capital that can only be reached by water or air.  The historic downtown of Juneau is built on debris created from the many gold mines.  We then boarded a bus to take us to the Mendenhall glacier, one of thirteen in the Juneau Icefields.  There were three cruise ships docked in Juneau and from what I understand two more were to enter the harbor.  To say the least, Juneau was a very bustling city.  Went to the two yarn stores ----  both had yarns that were dyed in Juneau.  One yarn store was so full of yarn that there was only a path to stand in.  It really took away from enjoying the yarns in the shop.  

While we were coming into Juneau there were hundreds of fishing boats in the harbor with their fishing nets.  Alaska opened up the salmon fishing for commercial fishermen for 48 hours.  I never saw so many boats -- all with thirty foot nets strung out into the ocean in such a small amount of space.  It was like a jig saw puzzle for our water taxi to maneuver through.  

We saw nine hump back whales, one bear and a lot of bald eagles.  

Tomorrow we leave Haines and travel to Whitehorse, Yukon, and begin our travels down route 37 towards Hyder in hopes of seeing the bears in bear creek.

Happy Fourth of July.  By the way, fireworks in Haines begins at dusk which is 12:30am.  

Love ya'll..............