Of all of the adventures anticipated I never expected to be photobombed by bears and eagles in Juneau, Alaska. I’ve talked forever about how I wanted to see a bear, or see an eagle in flight. The brief, casual occurrence of these encounters surprised me! Both incidents were accidentally caught on film. But let me explain what to expect, and the unexpected.
The Weather in Juneau, Alaska
We cruised in Juneau, Alaska on a Holland America ship, as our first stop. I took my very first step into Alaska. The weather in Juneau was as I expected. It was foggy, cold, and damp. Even in July, I had layered up with a tee shirt, a flannel shirt, a beanie, a fleece jacket and a windbreaker and it was still a bit chilly. Everyone visiting Alaska will tell you to dress in layers.
Juneau as a Destination
Since Juneau is the capital of Alaska, I expected it to be historic, and touristy. The pier was filled with souvenir gifts shops, restaurants, and bars. But I wanted to experience the real Alaska. Our first excursion of our trip was a whale watching cruise and a bus trip to see the Mendenhall Glacier.
We loaded the tour bus from the dock and went 13 miles to the Mendenhall Visitor’s Center. Read more about it in the travel guide I wrote.
After visiting the Glacier, we boarded back onto the bus and went to the boat for our whale watching trip. As we waited to board the ship, I did my thing. I took photos of everything that was in a 360 view of where I was standing. Then I would move three feet and take another hundred photos. Even waiting at the edge of the water, Juneau is so beautiful. Its rugged beauty and dense forests are captivating.
Whales, Eagle and Bear
So there I am, snapping away and I see a giant blur fly in front of me! “Eagle! Eagle!” someone cried as I watched the back of the bird sail up into the skies. Sure enough, I checked my camera and this is what I caught:
Then we headed out to sea. We literally saw about 25 gray whales and humpback whales. I was excited to see mommies and babies swimming together!
We boarded the bus again, and headed back to the cruise ship. I continued to do my “thing” snapping photos out of a moving bus. And you wonder why I have over 150,000 photos on my iPhone. My husband was sitting in the seat behind me talking to the other passengers about how cool it was to see an eagle, but he wished we saw a bear as well. AT THAT MOMENT, I looked out the window and we whizzed past a bear! It was casually strolling through an open meadow. I was so in awe at just having a bear, being chill, out my window that I froze. “BEAR!” the person three seats behind me yelled. My husband leapt up from his bus seat, (he is six foot five, this is no easy feat) and twisted front to back looking. Then I finally found my voice. I got it! I got a photo and pulled it up to show Greg. Needless to say, he was not impressed by the quality of the pictures.
This post: https://bit.ly/WGWJuneau
