Note This is the third of three blog entries I've posted today. I've had horrible Internet access until Juneau, so I'm just getting around to posting the ones about Petersburg and Wrangell. If you haven't seen those, look further down the main blog page (blog entries are in reverse time order). Be sure to check out the link to more pictures for each of them!

Juneau, being the capital of Alaska, is quite a bit more metropolitan than Petersburg or Wrangell, but it seems very spread out. There is a Wal-mart here, a Costco, and the most gigantic Fred Meyer store I've ever seen, but all of them are a taxi-ride from each other. It also doesn't have a main downtown touristy area like Ketchikan did. Like Ketchikan, there are up to four cruise ships here at any given time.

Our friends from our neighborhood (the Backous family) joined us for a couple days up here, and we also visited with the Leons, who are also our neighbors (they are here cruising on their own boat). Brian and Molly were very glad to have some friends aboard. It rained pretty much the ENTIRE time they were here. At first, they thought they'd go for a ride in our Boston Whaler, but after coming back totally soaked, they mostly stayed in the big boat, slept, played games, and read books.

Now that we've been in Juneau a few days, we're starting to see that our experience with the sunny days down by Ketchikan was indeed not the normal. It's been raining a LOT. Really a LOT. Sheets of rain for hours at a time. Rain pretty much everyday for most of everyday.

We're heading out toward Glacier Bay tomorrow, hoping that we can get in. In spite of our attempts to acquire permits to get in, we only were granted a one-day permit which doesn't do much good, as we'd only get part-way in before having to turn around, so we're hoping that a last-minute fax will grant us one of the 48-hour advance notice permits, allowing us to stay in on the 10th through the 12th. If we get that, we'll likely not post to the blog until the 13th or 14th at earliest -- as we're not likely to have any Internet access until a few days after Glacier Bay.

Photo Gallery

Sumdum Glacier - That's really what it's called. This is the first glacier we saw on our trip -- heading up Stevens Passage toward Juneau.

Waiting out the rain - Shadow looks wistfully for something to do while the rain continues to fall.

Soggy Boat Ride - Our friends went for a boat ride with Brian -- they came back soaked from the driving rain.

Dry Activities - Giving up on outdoor fun for a bit, our friends the Backous family choose a drier form of entertainment.

The Leon's Tugboat - In the center of the picture is the "Maris Pearl", a 100-foot long 1944 military tug that has been converted into a family cruising boat by our neighbor, Jay Leon. He and his family are on a cruise to Alaska at the same time we are.

More Cruise Ships - We hadn't seen many of these since Ketchikan, but Juneau is a major port for them as well, and there are often four docked here at the same time.