After viewing Tracy Arms and all that beauty, we are due to arrive at Junea early afternoon.  It is amazing how many of the towns in Alaska can only be reached by boat or planes.

Shortly after arriving at Juneau, we met our excursion crew, and headed to Mendelson Glacier welcome center.

We were very close to the glacier, and how beautiful it is.  The Alaskan glaciers are thousands of years old, thus they must carry a great deal history within the layers of ice.  Some of our co travelers took a hike while we were there, and saw a brown bear. 

Next we headed to a nearby harbor, and boarded a catamaron.  We were going whale watching.  We were only out about 20 minutes when a humpback whale was spotted, so we drew near and turned off the engines to watch.  There happened to be a mother and baby humpback and they were really putting on a show. I guess the mother whale was trying to teach the baby how to act like a whale.  They jumped out of the water, did there turn, and came back down into the water with the beautiful tale going in last. We have learned how intelligent whales are, and wonder why we let people slaughter them for no reason for many years.  The waters were rough, which seems to be a favorite weather condition for whales which makes them very playful.  We watched them for about 20 minutes and marveled at how graceful they are in their jumps, turns and dives back into the water.  However the baby seemed to do a number of bellyflops.

  We moved on and then found a group of about 5 orca’s or killer whales.  Their antics were equally amusing and at one point they actually got very close the the boat.  We moved on and found another group of humpback whales which were bubble feeding.  This means that the whales get in a circular ring, and blow bubbles to the surface which traps the small shrimp and krills, so that they are confined to the inside of the bubbles.  The whales swoop up with their mouths open, catching the little fishes.  Now, isn’t that smart.  They were so beautiful that it kind of left us awestruck about these amazing creatures.  Apparently they eat about 1000 lbs of fish a day. Look what we have in common.  When we are on a cruise, we eat & eat & eat, and the whales each a great deal everyday. 
and then returned to the ship to eat another gourmet meal.  We are so moved by the amount of care the staff does to serve us perfect meals.’
We went to a late Broadway show, and it was wonderful.

We have learned a lot about Bald Eagles, which are plentiful in this area.  We are quite aware that they are birds of prey, and could rip us apart with their talons (claws).  And it happens that we encountered an Eagle while in Juneau, 
We were not afraid, because we are very brave.  We knew that if we were kind to the Eagle, she would not hurt us.  Here is the proof.

And the ship is now heading for Skagway.