First we visited Guillermo's brother Eugene and wife in Seattle. John and Angie toured Seattle during that day.
This is the view from the back deck of their house. It was so beautiful.
Their daughter Shirley and husband Ken hosted a dinner that evening at their lovely house. We had such a nice time visiting with everyone.
The next day we flew to Juneau from Seattle.
Wow, what a different world it seemed when we landed in Seattle. The beauty was everywhere and it was cold!
This is us taking a break while doing the dreaded "steps". There are a LOT of stairs and uphill walks in Juneau!
Stairs were practically everywhere.
There are constant flights in small planes taking off in the harbor. We didn't go on one.
We took a tram up Mt Roberts our first day in Juneau. It was cloudy and rainy but the view was still amazing.
And we did quite a bit of hiking while up there!
And it's really hard to see but there in the center of the picture is a porcupine in a small tree nibbling on something.
We also saw a Bald Eagle in a tree on our way down.
Views from around Juneau. Our first 4 days there were very cold with constant rain or drizzle.
Here we are on Gold Creek at a Salmon Bake. It was interesting, just cold and rainy.
The next day we got a rental so we drove out to the Mendenhall Glacier. We took the trail to the closest viewpoint. We saw way too many helicopters flying around but when between helicopters, it sure was lovely out there. It was another cold and rainy day.
Some nice lady from Juneau was just hanging around this other viewpoint and graciously taking tourist's pictures with their cameras. The umbrella from Hell was with me everyday and came in super handy with all the rain and practically constant drizzle. Hell, Norway, that is.... When we visited that place in 2014, I accidentally forgot to pick up my umbrella while going through security at the Oslo airport. So knowing how rainy Norway is, when we stopped to spend the night in Hell, I bought another umbrella from a little mall there. Hence, our umbrella from Hell.
We also drove north from Juneau to where the road just ended. On our way back, we stopped at various places to admire the view.
Here's a precious marmot.
We crossed the bridge from Juneau to Douglas Island and drove around hoping to find bears. We didn't see any but as always, many beautiful views. This picture below reminds me so much of how the skies always looked in Norway.
Looking at the Mendenhall Glacier from Douglas Island
On our way back to return the car, we stopped along the road to admire all the Bald Eagles hanging around. We also saw a little bear cub playing around by the trees but no pictures.
Our last full day in Juneau we took a boat tour out 50 miles through Tracy Arm to see Sawyer Glacier. It was a 10 hour tour and was just awesome!
Guillermo and I, and sometimes John, spent most of the ride on the bridge with the captain. The captain was a very nice young girl named Alyssa. She enjoyed talking with her passengers and we enjoyed talking with her. When the waters were as glassy as they are in the picture below, she just kicked back and steered the boat with her feet!
When we got closer to icebergs, Alyssa was very attentive to the situation.
This one in particular was so beautiful.
We enjoyed watching this Eagle eat whatever it is he had captured.
Not a fan of selfies, but thought I'd try one.
Alyssa practically took the boat under the water of this waterfall, we were so close! I didn't take pictures then.
Approaching North Sawyer Glacier
This is North Sawyer Glacier. Alyssa tried to maneuver the boat to South Sawyer Glacier first but the water was too full of icerbergs.
We spent a lot of time at the North Sawyer Glacier. It was doing a lot of spectacular calving.
We got a few videos of calving but like just about any other picture or video, it's just not the same as in real life. The sound of the ice hitting the water sounded just like a gunshot, it was amazingly LOUD and very impressive.
Heading back to Juneau
An island covered with Steller Seal Lions.
Last view back before arriving close to Juneau
We stayed at a nice Air BnB in Juneau, it felt just like being at home. This was the view out of our bedroom window - at 10:00 at night!
The last thing we did in Juneau was hike a flume trail. It was interesting and very pretty.
This is how most of the streets are in Juneau. We did a LOT of uphill walking every single day.
It's always wonderful to travel, but it's always nice to get back home too. Now we're getting our house ready for Fernando, Eva and Leo who will be coming in July!
