day trip diaries: juneau

Of all our port stops, we had the longest day in Juneau, but it flew right by with everything we packed in. I must have been exhausted in the moment, but when you're in a new place for such a short period of time, you really learn to appreciate every second of it and really soak in all in. 

  We kicked off our day at Mendenhall Glacier; standing on a beach....at the base of a waterfall...with ice glaciers in view, I'm a fan!

hello ice glacier!

getting my clothes wet with playing in the waterfall mist and couldn't be happier.
worth walking around in damp clothes for the day 

just as we were leaving the glacier, we spotted some furry friends crossing the road

we had to follow them into the woods right(?) and almost missed our ride back into town. worth it to see this mama bear & her cubs up close (from a safe distance of course) 

 how cute is this little cub in the water

honestly between the waterfalls and glaciers and bear cubs, we were pretty satisfied and could have called it a day, but Juneau still had so much to show us 

 had to stop at the famous Tracy's for lunch because crab meat is my absolute favorite 

And the Alaskan crab legs here are the biggest and best I've ever had. Seriously, this place pretty much ruined all other seafood for me because nothing else will be able to compare. Would it be crazy to go back just to eat here again?

decided to work off the best lunch with a little hike, but first...we got to take the air tram up the mountain with the best views of the Juneau down below...also the best place to be for spotting bald eagles in the trees. 

hiking all the miles through the fog and the rain in the Alaskan wilderness!

The weather wasn't exactly cooperating for us because on the rare occasions that it wasn't pouring, there was a wall of fog, but it meant that we had the trails to ourselves so we loved every minute of it.  

P-O-R-C-U-P-I-N-E

I spotted this guy first and stopped hiking abruptly so I didn't scare him off, which then made the husband scream like a girl because he assumed it was a bear, in which case we would have been much closer than you want to be. But nope, it was this harmless fellow so his initial reaction was a bit hilarious.

I know that you can't tell because the sun is just setting, but it's 11PM here and finally ending our day through Juneau. Love that we had the opportunity to visit Alaska's state capitol because it was the best mix of big commercial city and embracing the environment rolled into one.