We took a 4 hour ferry from Haines to Juneau.  Alaska has continued to give us tons of rain and clouds.  All the locals we have talked to are saying that this is the coldest and rainiest summer they have seen.  Hopefully the cooler summer and extra rain will help the glaciers not retreat as fast.

While in Juneau we went on a 12 hour glacier tour and hiked up to the Mendenhall glacier.  Juneau is a rain forest and it definitely lived up to its reputation and rained every day, with the exception of one, that we were here.

Unfortunately my stepfather Butch lost his battle with cancer while we were here.  He was a very intelligent man and was quite a spit-fire.   He had one of the warmest hearts I know and was a father figure to me. Much of my love of the national parks is due to my mother and Butch dragging us on family vacations through the country.   He will be very missed and was taken from us way too early.

R.I.P Butch

Please click on the first photo to start the slideshow.

Behind Juneau there is a neat park that had an old mine visible.

We found a great sandy beach on Douglas Island situated across from Juneau.

Neat old pump house with two bald eagles perched on the roof.

My parents took a glacier sight seeing tour on Tracy’s Arm. I know big surprise they didn’t bring me. This is a cool view of a large iceberg that had an amazing blue hue. This is on an overcast day, I can only imagine how the colors would have popped on a sunny day.

Mommy in front of a pretty waterfall

My Parents are ridiculous. Should I tell them they really aren’t that funny???

Breathtaking

Tons of seals were resting on the icebergs

One of the seals wondering what we were doing

Mommy and I took a hike to the Mendenhall Glacier

This is the first sunny day we have had in 3 weeks.

Great view of the Mendenhall glacier

I decided to see how cold the water was……

Nothing better than chewing on a stick after a long hike.

There is that pump house again but this time there is a cruise ship also visible in the background.

One last romp on the sandy beach before our 19 hour ferry ride to Ketchikan

We think we may upgrade to this for our next trip.