Juneau, Alaska

September 2, 2015
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We arrived in Juneau on Wednesday, September 2nd. There were already two ships in the port when we arrived. The Ruby Princess with 3100 guests, the Holland America Oosterdam with 1850 guest of course we arrived on the Holland American Amsterdam with only 1380 guests. We really prefer the smaller more personal ships that Holland America has. Next year they will christen a new large 2650 guest ship the Koningsdam. Although it is still smaller then it's competition I believe they are going in the wrong direction, I Don't believe they are decomissioning their smaller ships so I guess there are still options for all!

Juneau, Alaska

The City and Borough of Juneau is the capital city of Alaska. It is the second largest city in the United States by area. Juneau has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka (We go to later) as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900. The municipality unified on July 1, 1970, when the city of Juneau merged with the city of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current municipality which is larger by area than both Rhode Island and Delaware.

Juneau is rather unusual among U.S. capitals in that there are no roads connecting the city to the rest of Alaska or to the rest of North America (although ferry service is available for cars). The absence of a road network is due to the extremely rugged terrain surrounding the city. This in turn makes Juneau a de-facto island city in terms of transportation, since all goods coming in and out must go by plane or boat, in spite of the city being located on the Alaskan mainland. 

State Capital

We had no excursions booked for Juneau because we read that you could take a shuttle bus for $20.00 round trip to the Mendenhall Glacier while if you booked from the ship it was twice that amount.

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls

The busses all drop you off at the visitors center. You have to walk to the Nugget Falls on the Nugget Falls Trail if you want to get near the glacier.

Nugget Falls Trail

There is a board walk that is a bear viewing area as well as an area that you can see the salmon. There were no bears here while we were here but you can see salmon in this picture.

Spawning Coho Salmon

We started down the trail. Beautiful views everywhere! We normally take selfies but swapped taking pictures with another couple. 

Patty and Brian at the start of the trail

Getting closer........

Glacier

This is the trail. Most of it was paved.

Nugget Fall Trail

Our view from the trail

Nugget Falls Trail

The trail is no longer paved at this point. The views are seriously incredible!

Trail

We made it to the falls. They are huge! As you got close you would get wet.

Nugget Falls

I stood near the falls so you  could see how large they are. I was getting soaked from the overspray! LOL!

Wet Falls

I took this panoramic picture with my cell phone. It automatically stitches several pictures together to make a pano picture. I think it looks pretty cool. Hope you enjoy it!!

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls Panoramic

Well that's it for today. Next blog will be about Sitka, Alaska. 

Please continue to pray for Avery Huffman.

God Bless,

Brian and Patty