Jumping around Juneau

Sunday 29th May Jumping around Juneau We awoke to our ship gently making it’s way up the reasonably shallow waters of the Inside Passage to Juneau which is the capital of Alaska. We saw our first very small iceberg. It was very blue and very tiny. The scenery was just beautiful as we drew closer to Juneau with towering mountains covered in trees rose up out of the ocean and behind them you could see snow capped mountains and glaciers. We enjoyed being out on deck as our ship docked ahead of time in Juneau. It didn’t take us long to disembark and do the short walk of about 1&1/2 km into the town centre. There were buses lined up for people who didn’t want to walk and also for others who were off on different excursions. We did a bit of a walk around the shops, bought a few souvenirs and then had some lunch. As Rob was going on a helicopter ride out to a glacier to do some “dog sledding”, he returned to the ship to get ready for this and Heather, Paul and I went up on the Mount Roberts tramway gondola. This gave us spectacular views of the whole area surrounding Juneau. While at the top we were able to go for a beautiful walk, view an injured bald eagle and watch a short film about the Tlingit people who are the native people of Alaska. Once we had returned back to Juneau, Paul walked back to the ship while Heather and I finished off the shops.
Rob
I set off in the bus for the airport where they showed safety video for helicopter and fitted us with ice boots that did up over your shoes. The flight was stunning flying over a number of glaciers, including one called Suicide Glacier. It is about 3 kms long and ends at cliff where the ice drops down 1500 feet! The sled camp has 280 dogs which come to glacier as a summer camp to keep up fitness. Our driver, Michael Baker will race in  next year’s Idarod 1200 mile sled race.
The ride/driver was fantastic and interacting with the dogs was great. And of course my first trip in a helicopter made for a memorial afternoon.