It rained all day! And we were prepared for it, rain ponchos and umbrellas at the ready. The ship docked just south of the downtown area, just far enough that you had to take a shuttle from the ship to get to downtown. Our activities for this day included a stop at the Botanical Gardens and the Mendenhall Glacier.
The Botanical Gardens
A guide met us at the bus and gave us a short tour of the grounds and explained the history of the gardens.
They created these amazing flowering tree sculptures by uprooting dead trees, then replanting them upside down into the ground. They added the flowers and nature does the rest. Very unique and beautiful.
Next we boarded golfcarts and trams for a slow journey up the mountain to the lookout point for views of Juneau airport and the surrounding area. Because of the rain, the visibility wasn’t very good. This part of the visit would have been more enjoyable on a clear day.
Mendenhall Glacier
The pictures on Google earth don’t do this area justice. The bus dropped us off just outside the Visitor’s Center. Even though the rain was coming down a little harder we chose to walk out to the peninsula to get a closer look at the glacier. The umbrella came in handy to protect the camera lens from getting wet in the rain. Even after taking several photos, there’s nothing like being there in person. Besides the visual aspects of being there, you could hear the rain and the waterfall next to the glacier. And the air was damp and cool. It was amazing.
If standing out in the elements is not your thing, there are great views of the glacier from inside the visitor’s center. They have information on glaciers and rangers available to answer your questions. The gift shop is small but filled with a nice collection of books on Alaska.
At the end of our tour the bus offered to drop us off downtown Juneau. Since we had spent several hours now out in the rain, we decided to just return to the ship. This was a difficult decision because our wait staff onboard the ship told us the best place to eat Alaskan King Crab Legs was at a little place on the water behind the Library, but you eat outside on picnic tables. This will be on our list of must do’s for our next trip to Alaska.