Juneau, June 19

We are now in Juneau. This is the capitol of Alaska. We had expected a big city but it is not. It is a lovely town with some old charm to it. The historic area has narrow streets with lots of shops, etc. We are able to park at a lot near the Coast Guard and walk everywhere in town. The town is towered over by huge mountains. In the winter the town is always mindful of the possibility of avalanches which could wipe out the whole area. Occasionally they fire/shot  into the drifts to cause controlled avalanches.

We started our touring here by going out to see the Mendenhall Glacier. It is spectacular to see it up close. It is a half a mile across in the narrow area behind us and over a mile wide at the top area you can see. This is 1 of 38 glaciers that come off of the icefield above. That icefield is the size of Rhode Island. Immense.

There is a bridge across Gastineau Channel that goes over to Douglas Island. One of these pictures is the view from over there down to the city. You can see the mountains in the background. We drove out to the Gold Mining Museum only to find it was closed so we will try to hget back there today. We also  took another brewery tour this time the Alaskan brewery and again sampled a lot of their beer brands.

We are staying in a Campground here and have caught up with a friend of  a friend. Sharon has lived in Juneaus for years and has been so helpful in advising us of things to see and do. We are so fortunate to be traveling the way we are as we are spending several days in different places, we can tour at our leisure and spend as much time as we chose at a particular site. We have a couple of tours lined up the next 2 days so today we are going to do some more things downtown. The sun is actually out today!!!! I have to go.................