Why no posts for almost two weeks? What is up with that?

Well, we are in the full summer swing now with 4-5 cruise ships almost daily.

Last Saturday I was able to do a tour on one of the other whale watching tours with a company called Gastineau Guiding where they do both whale watching and hiking.  I was able to see two glaciers fogged in, breaching humpback calf, black bear cubs and more...

Eagle Glacier

Herbert Glacier

Man and the Sea

Breaching Humpback calf with

a perfect 10 for the landing!

Sitka Spruce with rain.

Mama black bear with cubs

they were looking for something for lunch.

However the Salmon were not running yet.

Then, we had Allen Marine Naturalists Rob and Alli over for supper Saturday night.

Gwen and I met these two great folks while traveling through Canada earlier this spring.  We happened upon them in Prince George, BC.  After a few minutes of talking we found that they were headed to work for Allen Marine, also!  We have had many great times with them since.

Over that weekend Gwen came down with a bad cold and was off of work for two days.  Monday night I had to go get some Chicken soup and crackers.  Then the sun came out and I had to stop and visit Gastineau wetlands with the Fireweed.  With the sun and blue sky it was amazing.

Does anyone see the T-Rex in the cloud?

Then I had to work a 12+ hour day on Tuesday.  So on the way back in for my late Check-in I had to stop just a few hundred yards down the road from the Fireweed and get the double rainbow over Gastineau Channel.

Wednesday, my first Mother-in-law was up in Juneau for a cruise.  We were assigned the departures for her ship that day.  We sent her out on the Allen Marine Tracy Arm tours.  When she came back, Gwen and I were able to take her out to Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.

 While there, we were able to see the Sockeye Salmon starting to make the run upstream for spawning.

Shortly after, we saw that the Black Bear had found out that the Salmon were spawning as well.

This Porcupine was not to concerned about the activity.  It was fast asleep in the tree.

This little guy was hungry, he did not even stop to smile for this picture.

After watching all the wildlife eat we took Velma out for a nice Waffle at the Southeast Waffle Company here in Juneau.  We had a good time visiting and it was good to see her again.

Thursday we had late Check-in's again so we took our supper out to Sheep Creek where the Chum Salmon were still running up stream to the waterfall.

Friday night we just crashed, as by this time, Gwen had passed her cold on to me.  Yesterday we had to get up at 5:30am to be ready for 3 departures on the Disney Wonder.  By 8:00am we had sent off about 550 people. Then naps were in order.

Today (Sunday) it is a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies.  We are headed out for an Evening Whale Quest.  Just something to get us out on the water and have a relaxing evening.  Hope that you all have a great week.

Where have we been for the past week?

Mostly, we have been working this past week.  We are in the peak tourist months here in Juneau.  We have been able to do some hiking though.

During those hikes Gwen has been collecting rocks.  It is truly amazing how many different types of rocks there are in a very small area.

The three rocks below were picked up within about three feet of each other... (and they are just the green ones)...there were also red, black, white and gold....

July also starts bringing the salmon upstream.  They will give it everything they have to swim, jump and slide up their native stream to spawn.

Along with this activity, come increased obstacles and hazards as well.  These obstacles and hazards come in many shapes and sizes.  They do not just include rocks, waterfalls and sand bars.

 

What is most amazing to us is that these salt water fish, when they enter the fresh water, actually start to die.  As they wait to spawn they actually start to decay in the fresh water.  Then, once they spawn, they will die.  They fight to stay alive so that they can die, because once the salmon leaves the salt water, it will never return.

As you can seen everywhere in Alaska, as one thing dies another will grow up and take its place.

 When you actually stop and watch it happen, it is truly amazing.

The 4th of July in Alaska.

So how do you do fireworks in Alaska?  The land of the midnight sun?  Well here in Juneau they actually do their fireworks at 12:00AM.  Needless to say, since we had to leave for work at 5:45am, we did not attend them.

However; we were able to attend the 4th of July parade, as they had to shut down both roads downtown for two hours.  No tours were able to depart at this time.

It was quite a parade...  it had antique fire trucks:

and big yellow trucks.

There were bored dogs.

and bored participants.

Even Super Heros...

And Super Villians attended the parade.

There were individuals from outer space

and individuals from other lands.

We even saw Uncle Sam.....

Thanks to all those who have helped us keep and/or maintain our freedoms here in the US of A.

Really, another rainy day in Juneau?

Yep, we had our second day in a row with rain this week.  So what to put on the blog?  Well,  I went back into my approximately 8750 photo files.  One of my goals was to get some images of the Orca here in Alaska.  Here are some of the images that I have taken so far.

This first group was in a real hurry to get to up north.  They were moving fast and really hard to capture pictures of.  When the male decided to take off, he really went.  He outran our boat going twice as fast as us.

At another time this mom and calf tried to sneak under our boat.   They gave me some excellent images.

 

Later, the calf decided to try and fly.  It did not succeed, but I have to wonder.  What did that fisherman think when he saw that mammal jump out of the water just a few yards away.  It was definitely the size of his boat if not larger.