I have to say that the day promised to be a disaster. We were to pull into Juneau a little after noon and be able to disembark by 12:30. We did not have to be back on the boat until 9:30. Nine hours to see the town. What could be so bad?

What could be so bad? The weather. The forecast was for a high of 45 and for 100% rain. There was also a wind alert, talking of gusts up to 45 mph.

After a leisurely breakfast, we went to the top deck (the Crows Nest) to watch our entry into the city with windows in three directions, and to listen to the boat’s naturalist talk about what we were seeing. The weather outside seemed as expected. The views were beautiful, but not as they would have been on a nicer day. A few pictures tell the story.

But by some miracle, when we left the boat, the rain had pretty much stopped and remained only a drizzle the rest of the day. The high winds never materialized.

Juneau, the state capital, has a population of about 30,000. It is isolated in that there is no access by land (the only “highway” peters out 7 miles north of town and about 45 miles south), only by air (there is an airport served by Air Alaska and Delta)), or you can come by single engine sea planes), or water. There were five large tour boats moored in town today, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. That may add 10,000, or 33% to the population of the city. But Juneau is used to this and the closest blocks to the ship were loaded with souvenir and jewelry shops.

Juneau is in a valley, cut by water and surrounded by mountains.  There are a few residences, not fancy, behind the tourist shops. I liked the color contrasts at one address and was flabbergasted at the steps at another (I started counting the steps, got to 80, and lost count).

We had scheduled an excursion to see the Glacier Botanical Gardens, a privately owned tract of land that rises 600 feet and includes a very small part of the Tongass National Forest (the entire forest is the size of West Virginia).

(I could have taken many more pictures, but I didn’t. And I could tell you the unusual story of the garden, and of its upside down trees – see above –  but I won’t). We  were then scheduled to visit a salmon hatchery, but Colleen (our guide and bus driver) mixed up the order of our visits, and by the time we finished the garden, the hatchery was closed for the day. The hatchery, as I understand it, is a place where salmon are conceived through some form of artificial, or human engineered, insemination, and then freed into the salt water where they live the life of Riley for two to five years, but then return to their place of birth, as salmon do, where they become dinner.

Filled with disappointment, we (all 18 of us), under Colleen’s confused guidance, decided to substitute the Mendenhall Glacier, twelve miles south of Juneau. We would get there at 5:30, 30 minutes before the visitor center closed, and have an opportunity to glimpse the glacier itself, which we were told stayed at the same place 24/7. (In fact, this not entirely true. Since John Muir visited the glacier in 1880 or so, the Mendenhall has receded 6 miles, or so they say.)

Digression. Juneau and Mendenhall and a lot of other place names up here were the names of late 19th century men. It reminds me of something that I heard years ago in South Dakota where, at about the same time, a visiting businessman from New York named Rushmore pointed and said, “what’s the name of that mountain?” His host responded, “Why, that’s Mt. Rushmore! Hahaha.” End of digression.

The Mendenhall is one of many glaciers surrounding Juneau, all of which border Canada, and is the only one accessible by road. Here are a few photos from the entrance to the area. The surroundings are beautiful.

And here is Thomas Mendenhall himself, a meteorologist who helped set the Canada-Alaska border. Look up his bio. Very impressive.

We were back at the boat for dinner. I ordered lingcod. No, I never heard of it, either. It’s a fish. White. Flaky. But not for me. But my fried chicken, cole slaw, and zucchini lunch was just right.

Next on the agenda? Glacier Bay National Park from the water and Icy Strait from the land. Stay tuned.