5/26 - Juneau - Two Mile Hike & Whale Watching

Today was our Alaskan capital day - Juneau. The weather wasn't perfect but at least it didn't rain.... well at least at first. We thought it would be great to escape the hoards of cruise tourists - there were four ships in port. The main attraction in town was a Mt. Roberts tram that took tourists up the face of the mountain that surrounds the city. Chris thought that it would be too boring to take the tram as everybody else did... and instead decided to take us on a 'two mile' hike. I have to admit I agreed that hiking would be much better since for a change we would get to stretch our legs a lil and get some fresh air! Our two mile hike that was supposed to be 35 minutes end up being a lil bit over an hour. :o) Our whole hike was accompanied by Lucka's complains about how steep it was and how tired she was... and God knows what else. Chris counted himself lucky that he couldn't understand her, I didn't have that advantage. Mom & Dad end up taking the tram to the top and enjoyed the same view we did... they even seen the resident eagle, who was too hurt to be released into the wild.
After lil shopping in town (mostly alcohol) and a food refill on the boat we departed on our evening whale watching tour. At this point it was raining cats & dogs so we didn't expect to enjoy it all that much... but luckily we were wrong!
The ship was very nice, they even had a wonderful buffet setup for us... yeah like we need more food after being on the boat where there is food available allllllll day!!!! but to our surprise most of the people there loaded up a full plate! Crazy! The beginning of the sail was mostly uneventful, we did see some whales but they were all too far to really see. Until..... the lil one found us!!! It was fantastic. He managed to escape his Mom, who was in his pursuit... and started to practice all of his moves. He was breaching out of the water.... smacking the water with his flippers and waving at us... and just rolling around. Eventually his Mom caught up with him and they both started to play. It was a really spectacular show. The captain said that they have not seen anything even close to what were bared witness to. Unfortunately, we had to leave eventually ... but luckily it was after the lil one got tired and was not quite as entertaining. Later on the naturalist on board explained to us that the lil one was practicing all that his Mom has taught him that he will need later on in his life and his Mom was making sure he was doing it right :o).
It was a great finish of our day. It was truly an amazing experience for all of us.
Now... Lucka & I are chilling in our room watching movies while Chris ventured into the casino.