Continuing on our grand alaska adventure, you, the intrepid reader, find us sailing into Hoonah, Alaska. If you wish to read how we got here, please read part 1 of the alaska trip
Day 4 – Icy straight point / Hoonah
The day opened with us sailing into Honnah, or also called Icy straight point. The village used to be a salmon cannery, and now is another tourist destination with their claim to fame being the longest zip line in north america, i believe. This port did not have a dock for cruise ships, therefore we had to take what they call “Tenders”, which are small 100 person boats to reach shore. So we disembarked, and got into the little town. There we had organized a 4 hour whale watching tour, followed by a bear search tour.
We got onto a smaller boat and set out for probably 50 minutes or so, to get to where the whales where. well, we certainly got to see humpback whales. when we got to the site where they were supposed to be, there were many pods all around us. the boat would slow down, and try to drift in their direction, not getting to close, but letting them do their thing. I was properly prepared for such weather, as it was really cold, so i had my fleece and rain jacket on to keep the wind out. yet, still, lots of people braved the cold to cram around the sides of the boat to catch a glimpse of the whales around us. we saw lots of tail, dorsal fins, but no full breaches. even if we had, its so hard to predict where they are going to jump out, and to be able to have your lens pointed in the right direction is no easy feat. anyways, I got lots of good whale pictures. then we returned to town, to go on our bear watching tour.
Here they took us 30 min outside of town, along a train that they have some prime bear watching spots set up. I really enjoyed this part, as i got to learn more about the local fauna. i love seeing all the little plants, and learning about the different trees they have around. we got to see some bog, forest, and lots of scenic views. alas, it was too sunny, and the bears did not make an appearance.
after this we returned onto our boat for more eating.
waking up to Hoonah
our cruise ship
its so small!
yours truly
Noa and I
As we left for whale watching
Alaskan fishing boat
there is what we came for!
and more tail
some feeding
we got lots of good family pictures
i really like this one
Sick of pictures yet?
Our Bear tour guide. the closest we got to a bear that trip.
some of the scenery
i love stunted trees that are naturally bonsaied
insert, theres supposed to be a bear here, here
devils club. huge, nasty plant apparently. new one for me to meet
Day 5 – Juneau
The Capital of Alaska! How exciting! but its an island. what, you have to take a boat or plane to get there? you cant just drive? wait, theres no place to live in town, as its all built on a side of a hill? the number one business in town is government? it rains all the time???!!
Im not sure why people would want their capital in such a place. but it was pretty. the cool thing is that the only reason the town exists is it was built on the tailings of the local mines. go mining. anyways, we rolled into juneau in the morning, and noa and i went on a gold mine exploration tour. it was reasonably good, probably better for someone who knows nothing about mining. but i still found it interesting. the real fun part though was lunch and afternoon.
So for lunch i was sort of sick of boat food, and wanted to have some fish and chips. after asking around, i found out about this place called the hanger. sounds good too me. well, i had the best halibut and chips ive ever had. also the first, granted, but so amazing. i could eat there every day. i also got to try my first alaskan IPA. not bad, but not as good as some of my favorite ipa’s. then, hold onto your seats, the real excitement began. i know, your asking, but andrew, how can anything be more exciting than an IPA and halibut and chips. i would look at you and say, i know, but check this.
So, in the afternoon, all six of us took a helicopter ride over glaciers! i know, right, how amazing is that. we flew past the end point of one, and then up the glacier to where its formed. well, i got tons of pictures out of the helicopter, with most of them turning out pretty well. but, our final destination was a small spec in the middle of the glacier as we fly further inland. what is that you ask? slowly, a dog musher camp comes into view!! there were over 200 sled dogs, along with their mushers living in the middle of a glacier, with no way on or off other than helicopter!
we landed and got to meet our musher, who was going to take us on a sled around the camp. He races in alaska, and has raced the iditarod 3 times. he owns 30 of the sled dogs, and lives 6 days on the glaciers, and then has 2 days off. this was his main way of making money in the summer, and he would then race most of the winter in alaska. anyways, we got a brief overview, and then onto the sleds, and off we raced! it was pretty exhilarating. the dogs were SOOO excited to be running. you can just tell from their behavior that they absolutely love their job also, and all they wanted to do was run and run. we all got turns standing up and sitting. This part of the trip was probably noa’s favorite out of everything. then after we got back to camp, we got to meet all 12 of the sled dogs. they were all alaskan huskies, which have been bred to have more stamina and endurance than the ones we are used to seeing. and they were all so well behaved. we met all the dogs, spent some time with them, got some good photo ops, and then, back onto the helicopter. We flew back out over the glacier, and took a nice scenic ride home. it was all so spectacular.
We ended the day back on the boat, all jittery from the amazing day we had. more eating occured, and we finished the day off knowing that tomorrow was going to be our last port of call.
the tram to the juneau overlook, which we did not do
Noa and I testing the ore carts
us infront of the portal
Its true….
I call this one, flowers before cruise ship
lets get SERIOUS! some local IPA action
YUM. all im gonna say. really.
RAWR!
looking proffesional
whee, lets go!
a glacier!
pretty amazing
the dog musher camp
we are excited!
Hai noa says
we are ready!
self explanatory
the dogs
and then it was time to head home
back in town we say our first bear, and halibut
and then.. we had more night time sunsets, and i got this wonderful picture
and that wraps it up for those two days. i think thats actually a bulk of the pictures, i went sort of crazy on uploading dog sledding pictures. but its by far not even close to the end of our adventure. check back tomorrow, for more excitement, as our next destination is SKAGWAY, Alaska, famous place of the canadian gold rush! stay tuned….
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