"Whale" hello there

Again this weekend we had the chance to go back out on the water and do some wildlife watching.  I must sound like a broken record but it was again one of those moments where it was hard to believe we live here.  We weren't just on vacation; this is our home, that we share with some amazing creatures.

Like humpback whales...

In this picture alone, you can see three.  The "humped back" of one, the fin of another, and the spray from a third.

An enormous mouth coming up out of the water.

And two swimming close by each other, the tail of one going down and the blowhole of another cruising along the surface.

And then the stellar sea lions...

We saw them first just splashing around with the whales.  But then, our captain took us out to this little island and we were treated to this show -

I love how you see the flippers on this one.

At one point, a whole group saw right over to the boat and were looking at us just as we were looking at them.

The pictures really do not capture the sheer size of the whales (the naturalist on board said to have in your minds something that is the size of a yellow school bus and weighs as much as 7 African elephants) or the sounds coming from the sea lions (Addy said she at first thought it was a helicopter overhead).  I took some video but between the wind and the sound of the boat, not a whole lot comes through but you at least get a taste.  Come visit and we'll take you out!

Thanks for this adventure goes to Allen Marine who worked with the Girl Scouts of Juneau to offer this whale watching cruise at deep discount as a volunteer appreciation.  The cruise itself was great but it was fun to have the boat filled Girl Scouts friends and their families.  Our captain is even a Daisy troop leader herself.

An Alaskan Labor Day

In the spirit of family scouting, the Girl Scouts of Juneau organized a gold panning event for Labor Day.  None of us have even been gold panning.  When we moved into our house over a year ago, Sherry was unpacking her stuff in her apartment and found that the previous tenant had left certain things behind.  Extra light bulbs, cleaning supplies, random stuff...but tucked in the closet was a gold panning kit.  We joked that we needed to get out there and do it.  Now we'll know how.

It was a pretty classic Juneau day, mid 50's, raining.  We outfitted ourselves in wool long underwear and rain gear and headed to the Last Chance Mining Museum along Gold Creek.  One of the Girl Scout leaders gave us a quick geology lesson and a demonstration in panning.  Each girl panned one scoop of gravel from the creek bed and one scoop of "gold-bearing" sand brought in from Nome.

No big nuggets for us.  But still fun.

To earn their Girl Scout patch, the girls had to visit the museum and share one interesting fact they learned with the organizers.  Both our girls gravitated to the mine safety facts...safety first :)  They also were quite satisfied to have met Galena, the mine's dog.  We've seen, well heard most times, the dog while hiking Perseverance Trail and wondered what it was doing there.  We weren't sure from afar whether this was really just an abandoned mine building.  It is most definitely abandoned mining equipment but now complete with the story of Juneau's gold mining history.

The real Alaskan highlight of the day, though, was when headed out on the water that afternoon.  We rented a boat and went off on a marine wildlife adventure, hoping to see some seals, sea lions and whales.  And we did - what a treat!

My amateur pictures can in no way capture this experience - the eagles keeping watch over the harbor, the seals and sea lions bobbing up and down in the water - but I tried to get a few.

We saw this whale spout from quite a distance away and slowly trolled and drifted closer, watching it make its way up the shoreline.  I will never get over the sheer size of these beautiful creatures!  We considered ourselves lucky to have seen it and were ready to start making our way back.

Just to mix it up, Graham suggested going around the other side of Shelter Island in the Lynn Canal for a different view.  As soon as we rounded the end of the island, four whale spouts sprayed in front of us.  And for the next hour we were treated to the most awesome show.  We could not even count the number of humpback whales we saw, breaching, flapping their tails, rolling and "waving hi" with their fins. One came up out of nowhere not 50 yards from our boat and showed us his beautiful arched humpback and tail.  All Addy, Cora and I could do was squeal with delight. (And maybe keep our fingers crossed Graham was going to keep the boat going out of the path of the whale!)

As headed back into Auke Bay harbor, we were all so thankful for that time.  Time together, time in nature, and time with the whales!