Well, we have had a wonderful couple of weeks.  We spent several days in Juneau and our friends on Buster rented the last car in town and were gracious enough to let us tag along to see the sites around Juneau.  It was Celebration Weekend in Juneau which is an indian festival and that, with all the cruise ships, makes for a busy town.  But we did venture up to Mendenhall Glacier with Buster.  Of course, I didn't have my camera so we'll have to go back and get some pics.  Beautiful up there.  We went to see all about the Celebration Opening which is the indians rowing over Mendenhall Bar and into Juneau landing on Sandy Beach in Douglas, across Gastineau Channel from Juneau.  And we did make it to the Red Dog Saloon where Jon decided he really liked the pulled pork sandwich.

Once my sister arrived we headed back out on the water.  First stop Hoonah.  We had planned on staying in Hoonah a couple of nights because of weather.  But Kitty and I walked out to Icy Point and the old cannery.  Boy, they've turned that into a tourist trap all for the cruise ships.  The old cannery is shops (very expensive shops), some tiny restaurants and, believe it or not, a zipline.  But what we enjoyed was the eagles.  They are perched in a line on the breakwater, dozens of them.  All day they sit there and greet boaters as they enter the harbor.  Since it rained all day the next day, we had a marathon Mexican Train game.  Got to do something to occupy your time.

Once we left Hoonah, we headed out Icy Straits to Glacier Bay.  We had a wonderful cruise out to Glacier Bay, beautiful day and calm waters.  We went through our orientation at Glacier Bay Visitors Center and then anchored in Bartlett Cove.  The whales were all over Bartlett Cove so we were happy to sit there and just watch them.  Being short on time for my sister, we took a boat tour of Glacier Bay and saw the whole thing in one day.  And we picked a great day for it.  We could see the Fairweather Mountains.  The ranger told us that a day where you can see the Fairweather Mountain Range is a Fairweather day.  Usually, you can't see them because of the clouds.

This was a great tour because we had a park ranger on board telling us what to look for and taking us to all the right places.  We went up to Margerie Glacier and saw it calving.

We went by South Marble Islands with all the harbor seals and birds.  We saw numerous puffins.  We went by Gloomy Knob and saw mountain goats.

We spent all the next night watching the whales in Bartlett Cove.  Then we left the next morning heading back to Juneau expecting to stop at Swanson Harbor on the way.  We had a nice calm day on Icy Straits but as soon as we started to round the corner heading up Lynn Canal it wasn't so calm anymore.  As a matter of fact it was downright nasty.  Fortunately, Swanson Harbor is right on the corner so we didn't have far to go.  Our friends on Buster hailed us on the radio to ask if we were still coming in to Swanson Harbor to let us know that they were there because they had abandoned their plan to go to Auke Bay because it was so nasty.  Soon after we got there several fisherman came in grousing about having to get out of the seas.  So what do you do when the weather turns nasty?  You play another marathon Mexican Train game.  By the next morning all was well with the world again and we continued on back to Juneau.  Today we took a seaplane tour of the glaciers and visited Taku Lodge for a salmon BBQ.  That was wonderful.  You get a whole different perspective of the glaciers from the sky.  Here are some pictures of that.

This is the view from the lodge of Hole in the Wall Glacier.  Imagine looking at this all day long. 

 Jon and Patti in the lodge waiting for our salmon

 Jon helping the guy BBQ the salmon.

 Quite a feast!

I even managed to a get a picture of Dixie from the air as we flew over the docks.

You can barely tell it's here.  On the left, third boat from the top.

That's all for now.  My sister leaves on Tuesday and Jon and I will check the weather and see if we can make it up to Skagway.  We hear the Chilkoot Train ride is not to be missed!

OK, we're back online, at least for a while, and boy, have we seen some stuff!
Some more pictures from Wrangell, a very interesting town.

Boats on the grid

Elephant Nose

 Petroglyph Beach

 And I love this!  Moving to another place in the harbor?

Once we left Wrangell we headed up Wrangell Narrows to Petersburg.  That brought back memories of the ICW.  Follow the markers!  We tried to time it for favorable tides and were successful, so we saved on fuel (a little bit helps).  We spent a couple of days in Petersburg which is a nice town, but not much happening.  Everyone told us about the norwegian influence, which is there, but I guess I expected more of it.  Maybe it's decreased over the years.  Several of the boats that we had met along the way, all showed up in Petersburg over the few days we were there.  Here's Molly on bow watch in Petersburg.

We left Petersburg and headed out into Frederick Sound and then the fun starts.  We had a beautiful day so we went further than we had planned.  We anchored that night in Cannery Cove, which is beautiful.  There were eagles everywhere and as we left the next day we realized why.   The fishing lodge at the entrance to the cove puts all their scraps out for the eagles to eat.  As we left there were dozens of eagles chomping down on the beach in front of the lodge.

Here are some pictures of Cannery Cove.  Absolutely beautiful anchorage!

We left Cannery Cove on a beautiful calm morning and started to make out way to Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier.  However, along the way, just outside Gambier Bay we had to take a rest.  We were surrounded by whales.  They were all around the boat so we just stopped, turned off the engine and watched and listened.  We found our heads turning in every direction as we heard a whale come up.  They were so close to the boat.  Then two passed about 40 ft off the stern of the boat.  We sat there for probably 45 minutes and marveled at the whales.  We saw one jump completely out of the water (couldn't get a picture of that) and we tried to get as many pictures as we could.  Below are a few of the pictures.

After that wonderful experience we continued on to Tracy Arm.  We anchored in Tracy Arm Cove and the next day ventured up Tracy Arm toward Sawyer Glacier.  We cruised through the ice floes as far as we could and made it to about the 2nd to last turn before the glacier.  Tracy Arm is just beautiful.  Here are some pics of that.

Then we went back and anchored in Tracy Arm Cove the next night so we could venture up Endicott Arm the next day.  A few iceburgs make their way into the cove.  There is a shoal at the entrance that keeps the big burgs out but Tracy Arm Cove has a nice view also.

Our friends on Buster joined us that evening in Tracy Arm Cove and we headed up Endicott Arm together the next day.  Again the ice got too thick and we didn't make it all the way to the glacier.  Even the tour boats were complaining about the ice but they go a lot further than we were comfortable doing.

After Endicott arm we headed to Taku Harbor.  Another great place.  Alaska has a lot of public docks in many of their coves that are free and very well maintained.  Taku Harbor is one of those places.  So we tied up to the dock and sat there for two days in the pouring rain.  It was hard to even walk around the old cannery there because it was so wet.  So Buster and Dixie left and headed to Juneau.  Which is where we are now.  We finally found Molly a dog park so she could run to her hearts content.  It's been a little difficult for her to run much because I think she can smell the bears.  She goes off the dinghy to shore but doesn't want to stay very long.  She hears things rustling in the bushes and doesn't like the unfamiliar smells.  So she's a happy camper now and we ran her til she gave up this morning, TWICE!

We will be here for several days and my sister is coming on Sunday.  So then we will head over to Hoonah and Glacier Bay and we'll see where we go from there.  See you soon!