Day 4- Juneau

Unlike Ketchican which was cloudy and overcast-- it actually rained on us in Juneau-- but we met an amazing family running a small business-- Harv and Marv's-- They are two friends who have known each other since high school who 4 years ago started their whale watching business. Jay (Harv) was an amazing man who lives "off grid" meaning he lives on an island --uses solar energy, collects rain water, catches fish and canoues to work each day (to the marina). Now I know what your thinking... but no he's not crazy-- he's not happy about living in poverty (this will be the first year his business will make a profit) he just made a choice to live a different lifestyle... along with the 39 other families that live on Shelter Island. Anyway we were picked up at port by his father in-law-- Sandy was a nice older gentleman who took us to the marina where we boarded a small metal 6 person boat and met Jay-- Jay took us out to find Whales-- we laughed as he told us about his money back guarentee if we didn't see a whale.. he was holding a plastic toy whale... thus we wouldn't get our money back... seriously he said he has been lucky that they have always found them... And we did that day... along with seals... and a huge Eagle's nest. We could have spent all day with Jay-- he was smart and entertaining. Shared his views on politics and turmoil cruise ships caused in Alaska.. the good for the economy and the bad for locals. I like him.. I like what he stood for. And could have talked to him for hours... As for the whales-- they are huge creature.. and you find them by scanning the water looking for the blow-- and Eureka when you did you knew you were in store for a show.. over and over they surfaced.. and then finally when you saw the tail you knew they would be gone soon... Jay took us to multiple spots and at each one we searched and luckily we saw multipe whales...
After our Whale watching adventure -- Sandy met us back at the dock. Our next item of the day was to go to Mendenhall Glacier. Sandy gladly said he would drop us off their.. What we weren't expecting is that he said if we would meet him in two hours he would gladly take us back to town.. WOW that is customer service at its best. We took him up on his offer and hiked down to see the Glacier.
Just as we arrived a broken peice floating glacier started turning in the water.. pretty amazing. -- Seeing glacier was an unbeleiveable sight.. monsterous peice of ice. And the color-- the bluest blue... we were told that on a sunny day we wouldn't have seen the color as easily-- ahh bring on the rain!!!
After our hike down to see the glacier we headed to the visitor center-- learned more about glaciers and how how they have moved and receeded over the years.
My Dad had seen the Red Onion Saloon on our way out of town and really wanted to eat there.. what a fun place.. a piano player who got the crowd singing -- and by that time any food was a good thing! He decided he had enough day and headed back to the ship... but we had heard of a Jewlery exhibit at the State Muesum so we headed off in the rain to walk about 6 blocks.. probably not what Mike needed to do... but he insisted on Joining us. It was a great exhibit and the Muesum had alot of historical memoriblia that told the history of the state. Glad we went.. but we sure were tired.

Again back at the ship we raced for dinner... hahaha seemed to be a pattern.. we skipped the show and headed back to our room after alittle window shopping....