Day 4 - Juneau

Day 4 dawned sunny and warm in Juneau, state capital of Alaska (pop. 30,000). As we weren't going on any of the optional excursions, we took the time to walk the town proper. We walked up the hill from the dock to the State Capitol Building, which is a very impressive 5-story hunk of stone! We stopped in at Sarah Palin's office, but she was apparently back home in Wasilla, which is near Anchorage and many, many miles from Juneau. Since she wasn't in her office, we decided to walk over to the governor's mansion on the hill overlooking the port. After all that was said about Sarah Palin, it was rather heartwarming to discover that there is a trampoline in the back yard of the governor's mansion!!!
Following a wonderful, warm morning in Juneau, we sailed back south and into Tracy Arm, a long and narrow valley left over from the Ice Age. At its end were the North and South Sawyer glaciers. At about 5:15pm, we passed the first iceberg that had broken off one of the glaciers, made its way down the Arm and out into the sea.

After turning a couple more corners (Literally "corner", as one of them required making a 90 degree left turn with our 900' long ship!), the number of icebergs increased dramatically. The perspective here is hard to imagine, but if you look at the largest iceberg in the center of the photo, it is about 40' long, and according to "iceberg wisdom" we are only seeing 10% of it above the surface. The helmsman steered us neatly through all of the big ones, and we "pushed" the smaller ones out of our way.

The South Sawyer glacier. The small, black dot beside the ice sheet is one of the ships 20' inflatables, carrying the ship's photographer. The glacier itself rises 200' above the water and extends over 600' below the water. It is about 400' wide at the top. The ship, which is only about 1/2 a kilometer from the glacier, is in little danger of going aground, as the water depth is 658' below the ship! The trip down Tracy Arm was definitely the highlight of the trip, and the crew and the host said it was one of the most perfect days they had ever seen to make the journey.

Sunset on Day 4... at 10:13pm! A beautiful end to an amazing day.

Dinner on Day 4 - Teppanyaki (Japanese food cooked right in front of you by two knife-wielding Phillipino chefs!)