We had plenty of time before we were due to arrive in Juneau, so we spent much of the morning up in the Spinnaker Lounge doing some wildlife watching and card playing.
We didn't arrive in Juneau until about 2:00 (an hour later than we were supposed to due to the little emergency detour we took the previous day), but we still had time to do what we had planned on doing. We took the city bus (because we're cheap) up to the point nearest the Mendenhall Glacier National Park and walked the 1.5 miles to the visitor center.
Not every day that you see a "bear crossing" sign along the road.
All four kids took their cameras on the trip with us, but Emily was by far the most prolific photographer. She probably took about 100 times the number of photos than the other three kids combined. I felt just a little like a Japanese tourist at this moment.
Mendehall Glacier to the left and Nugget Falls on the right.
What little kid can resist playing on a giant sandy beach?
The kids all wore their "Camp Jupiter" t-shirts that Malinda made for them since we would be visiting a glacier. I guess in the book "Son of Neptune" the main characters also spend some time at a glacier.
Jody was able to pull Sarah away from playing in the sand for a few minutes to take some photos. Super cute!
Emily checking out Nugget Falls up close.
Elise testing the temperature of the waterfall.
Ben taking in the misty breeze from the falls.
Four cute girls on the walk back from the waterfall.
Abby and the other kids found some big chunks of clear ice scattered around the visitor center. Abby thought they were super cool.
The walking (from the bus stop, plus walking to Nugget Falls and back) took a bit more out of us than we planned, plus we didn't really want to get back to the ship so close to departure time, so I talked to a passenger van cab driver there how much it would be for a ride back to the ship. When he told us the great price, we decided it would be well worth the extra cost to save our legs/time. He sent his wife Ginetta (juneausightseeingtours.com) to pick us up after we got back from our hike to the falls, and she was super nice and told us funny and interesting stories about Juneau and her life (she was from Chile originally) all the way back to the dock. Unfortunately we didn't take a photo of her, but she was so nice that I had to mention her.
Two of the many bald eagles we saw. These were on a tower near where the Pearl was docked.
The girls were excited to see this cute froggy towel animal when we got back to our state room.
Then we went back to the Garden Cafe that night to refill from all the walking we did.
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