Day 34 Second Day on Alaska Ferry

Dear Diary,

Pat had a difficult night with little sleep.  The ‘bed’ is the pits.  Waking up with achy knees and hips.  Pat got up at 4AM for a head visit and walks outside for a quick view.  We are traveling very fast with mountains and glaciers passing in part cloud to the east.  We rise at 8AM as we enter the Icy Straits.  The rolling stops and the water becomes calm.  The entrance to the Inside Passage is foggy but we see the mountains and heavily treed low rolling hills on each side.  The mist and rain is the usual here.  We are in rainforest area.  As we round Adolphus Point the captain tells us to look for whales.  There are small fishing boats and a long line of 10 whales are spouting and tails up.  We can’t see what they are but they are not Orca for sure.  We are not close enough to take any pictures.  Small islands and rock reefs, small fishing boats and tour boats are active in this area.  We are enclosed in mountains and narrowing water.  The rain stops and we have pretty clear view of the mountains.  We both get in quick showers and it helps make us feel better.  We go to our fave perch at the back of the boat and are in full sun.  The peaks are still partly hidden but the little islands and rock reefs and shores are very clear.  We see a couple more whales spouting and now know they are humpbacks.  We can see huge Herbert glacier winding its way down in the distance and then we get a view of Mendenhall Glacier in all its immensity.  Mendenhall lies just behind Auke Bay.  If we go north at this point up Lynn Canal we would be in Skagway.  The mountains are very high in this area with lots of snow and glaciers.  We dock at Auke Bay a little suburb outside Juneau with its own bay.  Very pretty with small islands dotting throughout.  We see an otter swimming by and eagles are everywhere.  We have been to Juneau in the past and we only have 3 hours, it’s 12 miles away.  So rather than take a taxi and worry about the time we decide to stretch our legs with a walk further into Auke Bay.  There are all kinds of wildflowers along the road and we find pink lupine which we have never seen before.  It’s a busy road going in the 1.5 miles but a bike lane helps.  We are in full sun and the temp. reads 64 degrees but it feels much warmer in the sun.  There are some very beautiful unique homes bordering the Bay here.  Also the University of Alaska has a branch here.  We walk to the small marina.  Lots of crab pots.  We find a charming little ‘shack’ fish restaurant called Hot Tots that is painted, clean and beautiful flowers.  We decide to sit outside at a picnic table.  Chuck gets the captain’s platter with fried shrimp and cod.  Pat gets a small garden salad and cod tacos.  Everything is excellent, even the garden salad quality was so good it didn’t need dressing.  A nice surprise for little out of the way place.  We walked around the tiny harbor and can see scallop shells which are probably what the otter was eating.  We also see a large school of herring and a fellow was catching them for bait.  He told us he was going King salmon fishing tomorrow in a local bay.   The day is still nice and the peaks are open.  We walk back to the ferry.  Right after we docked the Malaspina also docked.  It’s a smaller ferry than ours which is 399 passenger potential. The Le Conte (ferry) has also docked; it is the smallest of the 3 docked.  As we return the Malaspina is departing and it has to back out of the bay.  Interesting to watch.  The largest ferry is the Columbia.  We watch our ferry being fueled.  It is a bit unnerving to think of that fuel so close to all these people.  They are loading a lot of cars on for this trip.  It is disappointing that the only way into Juneau from the ferry is to take a cab.  No bus route or shuttle for ferry passengers.  We didn’t price the 24 mile round trip but we are told it’s expensive, later we found out it was $35 each way.  Seems not very accommodating for a state capital not to make it as easy as possible for tourists. Back on the boat we are fortunate to get 2 of our favorite chairs on the back on the boat. Here we sit and admire the view for the next 3 ½ hours, talking to a gentleman who just retired from the Golden Valley Energy Coop in Fairbanks and is just starting a long summer vacation trip with his son Chuck talks to several of the Coast Guard people and finds out one of the couples is from Upstate New York, and on their way to Washington, DC via the Finger Lakes. We are going out and around using the Chatham Strait route not Stephans Passage directly out of Juneau.  We pass the tiny village of Angoon in twilight.  It is very remote and isolated, only a few houses are visible.  Juneau sits up the Gastineau Channel and only cruise ships dock there.  We retire to the back enclosed viewing lounge as our favorite outside chairs are occupied, as we wait to see if the boat will head to the Wrangle narrows via Frederick Sound. About 11:00pm we see that the captain is going to sail around Cape Decision and skip the Narrows.  Too bad.  We head to our room for some needed rest. Good night.