Our Day in Juneau, AK

You may have heard about how much it rains along the Alaskan coast.  Well, we're experiencing it, plus cool and breezy.  I thought this is like going on vacation in Michigan in late November in the rain.

Malaspina Ferry 

..inside church

Totem Post

Mendenhall Glacier

Here's a picture of the ferry S.S. Malaspina that brought us here.  It looks like a midget compared to the huge cruisers that dock 4 at a time in the harbor.  Downtown Juneau is packed with tourists, many speaking foreign languages.  We took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier.  Awesome, and it's only one of 38 coming from the same ice field.  Excellent visitors center there to explain all about glaciers.  Back in town we stopped in at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church.  Tiny place, but the rector, or priest said that it will hold about 100 people, all standing up.  I don't think my back would handle that.  We stopped for lunch at a bakery and dropped $32 there. Ouch!  Yesterday we visited the Alaska State Museum, which had excellent displays of native tribes of the area, as well as of the Japanese invasion of Alaska in 1942.  Tomorrow we get up early to ferry over to Sitka. I know that there are reasons for it, but it is hard to imagine Juneau being capital of Alaska.  You can get here only by air or water.  It is so skinny between the ocean and the mountains, that where we got the bus it was less than the length of a football field from the cruise ship across the parking lot and street to the mountain that seemed to go straight up.  There is a lot of snow up there yet, with many little water falls.  Nell reminds me to "keep 'singin' in the rain'"!!  Mo