We haven't posted for a while but that's for two reasons.  First, Jon went home for a few days from Juneau so nothing was happening during that time.  Second, since we left Juneau, we have been out of contact.
We left Juneau about 10 days ago and went back to Glacier Bay.  This time we took the boat up to the glacier and Molly had to go potty on the boat.  She's not allowed to get off the boat in Glacier Bay.  fter some initial hesitancy, she did splendidly.  By the time we left Glacier Bay she would go out on her own to the swim step and go potty.

But now more about Glacier Bay.  We arrived in the rain at North Sandy Cove and it rained hard all night.  We couldn't believe the kelp in the cove.

Then the next morning we awoke to dense fog.  Since we had 40 miles to go up to Margerie Glacier and then 40 miles back, we had to get going.  So out we went into the fog.  Fortunately, it didn't take it long to lift and by the time we got to the glacier, the sun was shining.  We got up to the glacier, turned off the motor and just drifted, watching and listening to the glacier calving, for about an hour.  It was really magnificent.  There are pics from the glacier in the previous post.

The next morning we left and headed out of Glacier Bay for Elfin Cove.  We had been told that we really should stop there.  Unfortunately, when we got there, the dock was full and the fishing boats were rafted 3 out.  So we decided to keep going on to Pelican, only another 2 hours.  Pelican is an interesting town.  There are no roads, no motorized vehicles except quads.  The entire town is built on a boardwalk.  This is the only motorized vehicles allowed in Pelican.

Tough to find someplace for Molly to play but there is an area down at the tideflats where we played some frisbee.  The only internet connectivity is at the library which is only open 2 hours/day.  So all the vistors head up to the library for those two hours to get their internet fix, including us.  A few hours is all you need to see the entire town and meet all the residents.  Unfortunately weather didn't cooperate so we were there for 3 nights.  We went to Rosie's for dinner and Rosie was tending bar, at 81 years old!  Several residents of the town helped her out as she was just filling in for her daughter who normally runs the place.  So we met quite a few of the residents just by going out to dinner.

We finally got to leave Pelican and we headed out Lisianski Straits to the ocean and down to Sitka.  We opted for the smooth water route so we were only out in the ocean twice for a total of about 2 hours.  However, we left at 5:30am and ended up going all the way to Sitka, about 10 hours.  It was a tiring day.  Either we were out in the ocean rolling around with the swells or we were widing our way through the rocks.  We originally had planned to take two days to make it to Sitka but out weather window was pretty small so we opted to just get it done.

Sitka is definitely the best town we've been to yet.  A lot of BIG fishing boats, nice neighborhoods, the harbor is huge and the town is well kept.  Today we went to visit the Alaska Raptor Center where they rehab birds, mostly eagles, falcons, hawks and owls.  That was really  interesting.

This guy sat with that 10 lbs of eagle on his arm for about half an hour talking about the eagles and answering questions.  Then we walked around and saw all the birds they have (about 21 at present) in various enclosures.  They have a clinic where they treat injured and sick birds and then reintegrate them into the wild.  If they can't release them back into the wild then they will give them to zoos and sometimes just keep them.

  

We will leave here tomorrow morning and head back north to the Peril Straits, and go across to the east side of Baranof Island.  We hear there is a bear reserve at Ell Cove, and we have yet to see a bear.  Onward to find the bears.