Jim and Kim's Travels: Mendenhall Glacier Float Ride in Juneau

We sailed into Juneau early in the morning. Juneau was founded as a gold mining camp in 1880 and is the capital of Alaska. Its population is 32,000 and it's not as cold here as you might think.

The Grand Princess was also in port and tendering their passengers on the little orange life boats. They actually hold over 100 people, so not so little.

We'll be on the Grand in January going to Hawaii. It's quite a bit bigger than the Coral at 3100 passengers.

Love the native art with the beautiful colours...

Jim had done the Mount Roberts tram when we were here with the family, while I went whale watching with Stephanie and Randy. The tram was heading up into the clouds this morning, so it was iffy how much you would see once you were up there.

Today, we were going to do a lazy river ride. It sounded fun and was something we hadn't done before. Our bus driver took us out to the site giving us his commentary on life in Juneau at the same time. His comments about Sarah Palin always included her being called "Sister Sarah."

Look at the view these people have...stunning!

And here we are all suited up for our rafting excursion with the beautiful Mendenhall Glacier in the background.

Dang, we're cute!

The Mendenhall Glacier is over 13 km long but is receding at a rapid rate. Since 2007, it has receded about 1800 ft, which is pretty substantial.

So serene...

Siblings!

The last time we were in Alaska, we saw the glacier from the other side where the visitors' centre is. You're quite a bit closer to it from that side.

Here it is in 2012, from the other side...magnificent! Can you spot the teeny, tiny people? That gives you a better idea of how huge it is.

Lots of rafts ready to go...

And we're off...

How adorable is our guide, Kelly? We all look slightly dorky and, while rowing, she still manages to look super cute!

Beautiful homes on the river...

Ooh exciting...we could see rougher water ahead!

We're getting ready to go into our first rapids. The lead guide went ahead to test them out.

Getting our instructions from Kelly. I was trying to figure out how I was going to hold my phone and take a video while holding on to my seat. Holding on to the seat won...

OK, so calling them rapids was a slight exaggeration, but it was fun!

Love this photo of Joanne looking so happy!

More "rapids" ahead...

We went under this bridge and then waited for the rest of the groups to come through...

The biggest section of the rapids...whee!

We're the lazy rafters...there was an option where you could help row, but I think we would have been more of a hindrance.

This photo looked much nicer when we saw it on the screen at the end of the ride. When it printed, it was pretty whited out, but we all looked happy. Well, maybe not the couple in the back...

Happy rafters!

Kelly talking about the trees before giving the command "Oar!" which means you're about to get an oar in the back if you don't lean forward.

The river was pretty low so instead of the water taking us along, a lot of times the guides were doing most of the work. Kelly said when she first started at the beginning of the summer and hadn't learned the proper techniques, she had some pretty nasty blisters.

Now we were lazily floating past these homes...majestic view.

Kelly pointed out the junk on the shore, which turned out to be car parts...

Used for a breakwater...not so pretty.

Jim started naming some of the cars and their years...I guess some of these parts were identifiable if you know your cars.

Pretty chill...

The river was really low...it looked quite neat with the mist rising off it.

These houses have lost quite a bit of their backyards to erosion and have spent major money to put in a breakwater.

These people are fishing for salmon. Notice the two different colours of water. They are fishing in a pristine stream, while the river is murky from glacial silt.

These lights are on the football field at the local high school...

It was such an enjoyable ride and, at 5 miles, much longer than we expected.

Major erosion...

The trees that end up falling into the river with the erosion can make an obstacle course for the rowers...

Kelly said there have been so many trees in the river that they had contacted the fire department to ask for their help in clearing some of them.

This one looked like a piece of art...

Kelly would do a 180 degree turn periodically to see where the other rafts were...still following behind.

And that ended our lovely ride...it was so relaxing.

We didn't have much time to look around as we were apparently running late for the bus to take us back to town. There were a few snacks laid out for us and some hot apple cider, which was much appreciated, because we were feeling pretty stiff with the cold.

Back on the ship, there was a display of local photography in the atrium. Someone had told us the story of Romeo, a wolf, who ended up being more like a pet.

Until sadly someone shot him...

Libby Riddles was in the theatre giving a talk so I popped in. She is very entertaining with many stories of her being the first woman to win the Iditarod race in 1985. She has since retired and enjoys her many dogs.

She brought one of her dogs on board, and you were allowed to pet him, but his eyes were laser focused on Libby.

We had noticed all the balloons in the atrium. They were doing a balloon drop party at 10:30 pm., but we figured our chances of being there to see it were slim.

We went to the production show which was called On the Bayou. Princess does an amazing job with these shows and the costumes.

We were on our way back to our cabins...the Grand Princess lit up.

But stopped for "one" drink in Crooners Bar. We met up with two couples from England who were quite entertaining and, next thing we knew, we were there for the balloon party.