Alaska Day 6 - Juneau/Mendenhall Glacier and Orca Point Lodge

This morning we docked in Juneau.  It's the only state capital in the 49 North America states that you can't drive to.  You either fly in, bring you car on the ferry or simply come by ship.  About 40% of Juneau's population work for the government - figures since it's the state capital.  One of the crew members took this early morning picture as we arrived in Juneau.

Juneau itself isn't that big of a place.  For us the main attraction was the Mendenhall Glacier.  We spent several hours walking out to the glacier and the waterfall that's right next to it.  Interestingly, 20 years or so ago, the waterfall used to be covered by the glacier.  However, Mendenhall - like most glaciers - is receding.  When the glacier covered the waterfall, the falls gushed from the face of the glacier - sounds neat.  Here are some photos of the glacier and us near the glacier and falls.

There was a lot of ice floating in the lake in front of the glacier.

After lunch we went to downtown Juneau and visited the Alaska State Museum.  The museum had an interesting display on World War II and the battles fought in Alaska.  If you can't read the banner it says: "When "Over There" Was Here: World War II in Alaska."

Also, they had many native Alaskan items on display.  I liked this one - a waterproof jacket made from animal intestines.  Interesting!

We left Juneau and headed to the Orca Point Lodge for an Alaska crab dinner.  Here's a picture of the Lodge from the ship.

The bay was very peaceful.

The crab legs were delicious!

We also had a demonstration of how to fillet a salmon.  Here we are holding an 8 lb silver salmon.  The finished fillets are below. 

After dinner we had an outdoor fire and made s'mores.  I had several data points to say they were delicious!

The sunset that evening was simply outstanding.

We're almost done with the Inside Passage tour.  The next stop is Sitka - where we started.  However, it's a pretty long trip back; lots more stuff to see!