glacier_kitty

On Monday mom and I flew to Juneau..we had to get up really early, ugh..but at least we were rewarded with Denali again haha. We didn't have a window seat to Juneau, but we do on the way back. It was raining when we landed, but it's still beautiful even in the rain. After we got our rental car we drove to the bed and breakfast we're staying at..it's only like five minutes away from Mendenhall Glacier..I love all the random places around town where you can spot it, it always gives me butterflies. :D After settling in and meeting our nice host we thought we might as well drive to the glacier haha ("the glaciers are calling and I must go" :P). It has retreated some since I last saw it (up close) in 2012, aww. :( There were SO MANY PEOPLE..OMG. I'm sure there were over 10 tour buses there..the visitor center was so packed you could hardly move..ugh. I later learned there were FIVE cruise ships in town..OMG. D: Since the glacier is so close, we figured we'd come back another day in the hope it wouldn't be so crowded. All those people looked like they were freezing..one person was even wearing snow pants! I was fine, but they probably were from much warmer climates haha. We also had dinner with mom's friend Christine (I think they met through Bonnie) and her boyfriend Jim. We made plans for the next day too, and then just hung out at the B&B

Yesterday we met up with Christine at the state museum where she works (she's an educator and gives kids tours). On the way I saw at least three bald eagles sitting on light poles..so awesome! Since Christine works at the museum and we're her friends, we could tour it for free! Awesome haha. There were a bunch of Native artifacts, prehistoric bones, a sledge (*swoons*), etc. So a couple weeks ago mom and I were watching Sea Hunters, a show where these guys (including the author Clive Cussler!) look for lost shipwrecks, and one of them was on the Princess Sophia, which grounded on a reef and sank in Lynn Canal, near Juneau, in 1918. All 353 passengers died, and it's now known as "Canada's Titanic." I was hoping I'd find a book or something about the ship in Juneau, and indeed the museum had a book about the ship, and artifacts recovered from the ship! So surreal looking at things like that. There was also fabric and this radio thing from the airship Amundsen flew to the North Pole!! Way cool! After that we went downtown..there were "only" four cruise ships there then..those things are MASSIVE, like an entire city on the sea. O_o I couldn't stop looking at them haha. There were of course LOTS of people, and cheesy tourist shops haha. We went to a quilt shop and a couple bookstores (which also had books on the Sophia haha). I have bought waaaay too many books on this trip, I hope they fit in my suitcase. :P After that we took the tram up Mount Roberts..it was raining, but the views of Gastineau Channel and the mountains were still gorgeous (I was probably the only one there identifying old terminal moraines from Mendenhall Glacier LOL). You could see the tops of the cruise ships..one had what looked like a little waterpark with a slide, and another had at least THREE pools..crazy haha. After that we found our first geocache in Juneau (yay!), and then went across the bridge to Douglas Island and had yummy pizza (Jim met us there too). I was so tired when I got back to the B&B haha

Today after breakfast mom and I went to another bookstore haha..it's owned by Friends of the Library, and it's HUGE. You could spend hours just going through the fiction. :P It was SUPER cheap too..I got like 7 books for $4.50!! Hard to resist when they're THAT cheap lol. After that we met Christine at her house (I didn't think we'd be hanging out with her this much, but that's fine, it's fun with friends lol). We drove to a quilt store that someone mom used to work with works at, but she wasn't there..they still bought fabric though haha. After that we had lunch and then found a few geocaches. The forests here are so cool..lush and green with huge trees! We saw some kind of sapsucker (I think that's what Christine called it..she's good with birds after working at Creamer's Field lol) feeding her chicks..aww! After that we drove to Mendenhall Glacier again haha, and found a geocache there too. There were FAR less people there this time, so that was nice. Then we dropped Christine back at her house (she's pretty close to where we're staying..must be cool having the glacier in your backyard lol) and now we're relaxing..so tired :P

Tomorrow it's supposed to be mostly sunny, so I'm hoping to go on a flightseeing tour! I so want to see some glaciers I haven't seen before, like Taku, which is advancing! I hope we don't need a reservation and can fit us in. Then I think we're going kayaking with Christine at Mendenhall Glacier! That would be so cooool. :D I hope the weather will be as nice as they're saying it's supposed to be!