My Alaska Trip (04 Aug - 18 Aug)

Day 4 (07 August 2005)

Today is also one of the highlights of the cruise journey. Our ship arrived at the beautiful town of Juneau - the capital city of Alaska at 8am. We woke up at 7:30am and quickly washed up and rush to the deck to see the ship approaching the port of the city - an activity that Agnes likes to do.

Port of Juneau

After having our breakfast at the buffet area at level 10, we went back to our room to pack some stuff for our shore excusion. We have signed up for a "Mendenhall Glacier, Whale watching and Orca Point Lodge" shore excursion. The bus was waiting for us beside the ship on the port. We boarded the bus and know that the first stop will be Mendenhall Glacier. The bus stopped after 20 mins for us to take some pictures of the glacier. This is a perfect place to take pictures of the glacier from a distance.

Next, we proceed to board the smaller ship for our whale watching cruise. While cruising, we were told to look out for wildlife in particular seals, bald eagles and of course whales - as that's what we came for. It is very cold when the ship starts cruising and the wind chill factor is about 4 degrees. You can feel your cheek turns numb. After about 20 mins of cruising, we entered this area which feels like the bermuda triangle as the area is surrounded by a ring of fog. It is quite exciting for us as this is the first time we encountered such things. After we have cleared the ring of fog, our ship slows down and we are all busy looking around for whales. After some anxious waiting, we finally saw them. One of them even flip their tails! But we did not see them jumping out of the water, which is suppose to be spectacular. The fun part of whale watching is that whenever someon spotted something that looks like whale and shouted "whale", you will see the the whole group of people on the opposite side of the deck rushing to the same side of the deck where the "whale" was spotted. It was almost a spontaneous reaction.

A documentary that we saw later on TV tell us that Alaska is the place where the mother will bring and teach the child how to hunt for food. The best place to see whales is Hawaii as that is the place where they mate. So for the male whale to attract the attention of the female, they have to do all sorts of acrobatic stuff including jumping out the water. We also saw some killer whales - a whole family of three. We were told that we were lucky to see them as it is not a usual sight. We also saw lazy seals sun-tanning on the edge of an small island and bald eagles. Bald eagles are hard to spot. If you see a white dot connected to a brown oval shape amongst a span of trees, high chance that they are bald eagle.

Ring of Fog

Seals sun-tanning on the island

Bald Eagles

Killer Whales

The Humpback Whale

After we have seen our whales, we procced to Orca Lodge to have our lunch. We had wild salmon for lunch. Now this is something that I will never forget. The salmon is bake and it taste so good. Nothing like the cooked salmon that we get in Singapore. It has a nice aroma and sweet taste to it. We were told that the salmon that we ate belongs to the Sock-eyed Salmon - the second best breed of salmon in the world. The best is King Salmon. There are altogether 5 types of salmon. I think what we usually eat in Singapore are the pink salmon - the lowest grade and not breed in captivity.

The ship that we took for whale watching

Orca Point Lodge

My unforgettable Salmon

After our lunch, we proceed to the Mendenhall glacier. When we reached the glacier, the temperature was like 10 degrees with a wind chill factor or 6 degrees. We immediately wrapped ourselves like a dumpling with all our warm clothing.

After we are done at the glacier, we proceed back to the town in coach. When we reached the town, it was already 5:30pm. Sun sets at 10:30pm in Juneau. So we still have time to shop. The ship sets sail at 9:30pm. So we decided to sacrifice our dinner on the cruise which starts at 6:30pm. Anyway it is formal attire tonight so I am not really in favour of going through all the trouble of wearing a suit just for a meal. So we went shopping in Juneau. One thing to note is that the architecture of the buildings in the town is very western and colourful. Souvenirs here are more expensive as there are taxes now.

Town of Juneau

7:40pm and still so bright

Anti-Bear Dust Bin

Time flies and soon it is 8:30pm and we return to the cruise ship reluctantly. Had a quick dinner at the buffet counters at level 10 then went to bed early as we had a very exciting yet long day.