Juneau Part 2

Our third day in Juneau was intended to be the highlight of our stay. Going whale watching has long been a dream of ours so we finally got our chance. And let me tell you it did not disappoint. Getting into the car to head to the harbor I announced I just want to see a whale… oh and a whale tail would be cool like you see in the pictures… and for one to jump out of the water and twist. That’s all I want… too much to ask? Well we got all that and more, there was tail slapping and group bubble feeding thrown in for good measure. We got the works, even our guide was geeking out at how good the show was. We picked a good morning, it was sunny and warmer after being cold and rainy for days. The sea was glass it was nothing that I expected after the weather the previous days. We toured with Jayleen’s Alaska and we got Jayleen herself as our captain. It was a small boat that could take 6 so just the five of us on board. The morning went by quick and we had so much fun. We might be ruined for whale watching not sure how it could get much better. Super awesome and fun. Look Jayleen up if you get to Juneau and want to go whale watching, 

After whale watching we did some more driving around, Took  a very cold dip in a lake. Then explored Douglas island driving it up to the north end then checking out the town on the south end. We got some great takeout from the Island Pub that evening and settled in for another evening. 

Our final day in town was also spent on the water. We booked a fishing charter and headed out just our family again on the boat for some salmon fishing. We had wanted to go halibut fishing but you can’t harvest halibut on Tuesdays so would have had to be catch and release. We would have been fine with that but when we got to the boat they said salmon have been hot today and recommended we stick with that. We’re easy, breezy so it didn’t matter to us let’s just catch some fish. Well the salmon were hot in the morning (we saw the buckets of fish from the all day charters) but proved elusive for us as they had slowed down and it was good old fishing were used to. Much more fishing than catching. We all did catch fish and it was a lot of fun. I’m counting mine since I got it in the boat. It was pretty small so we threw it back but the other four all had keepers. We were in the same area as the whales so got to see them some but nothing like the show the day before. Just one here or there. I hadn’t planned on keeping any fish but now we had some we could keep it was shaping up to be salmon for supper. Our captain from Juneau Adventures, Terry gave us a salmon rub recipe and we decided to attempt fresh grilled salmon. It was a bit of a production, I’ve never cooked salmon and none of us really like Salmon but figured fresh should be different and how hard could it be? Boy did we make a mess of our Airbnb. Well we got it grilled via indirect heat as per Terry’s instructions. It was moist and flakey and probably the best salmon any of us had ever had… But it was salmon and eh not great. We ate our shares, or moved them around the plate so it looked like we ate most of it and were glad we had the rest shipped to Becky’s dads house instead of our own. So we spent over a hour cooking and then had a mess to cleanup. Got that done and it was getting late and we have to be at the ferry terminal at five in the morning. No rest for the weary we had to get packed and all the Airbnb stuff squared away so we could shove off bright and early in the morning. Could have been noon though as the sun was already up and shining, looked to be another gorgeous day.  

It’s a ton of pictures and I have so many more, if you get bored there are whale videos at the bottom so don’t bail before checking those out.

Eagles around the marina. Getting some of the easy pickings from all the fish cleaning going on 

Walking to the boat saw a huge star fish

Alaskan beauty 

We’re on a boat!

Seals sunning on an island on the way out. 

Whale waving at us

Whale tail check. There was a whale they named Kelp that was really showing his tail off. He was the crazy one who breached twice, did the tail slapping. Some of the pictures aren’t the best but there was a lot I didn’t capture. The other adult was with a calf and wouldn’t show her tail but the baby did which I guess is rare. Finally the guide saw it so knew it was Bullethole and its calf Bullseye

Humpback

Kids looking ont for more action. The seagulls helped they would swarm the area they were bubbling grabbing some fish so gave a good idea about where they would come up. 

Glass

They had really quality auto focusing binoculars. Didn’t need mine these they were way better. 

I loved it when they would blow. It sounded so cool.  I’m going to try to include some video. 

Great one of Kelp

Becky taking in the sights. Whales and the scenery were top notch

Me and Luke

There’s a WHALE on your boat… ala Tommy Boy was said many times… always funny (I love that movie)… but always hurts my feelings :-).
We’re done burning back to the harbor. 

Stopped at Auke Lake to get in some water.

Becky wading in the cold tanny looking water. 

Becky, Marc, and I got in. It was so cold. Lake Tahoe in June cold we decided. Couldn’t stay in too long and I was chilled the rest of the night. It was awesome. Sam and Luke chose not to swim.

Turn off rocky beach area on north Douglas Island

We walked along the rock beach, was fun required some rock scrambling

Marc and I went for another morning run, he’s much faster but that allowed me to get a picture I was in the middle of the Douglas bridge when he popped out by the whale statue, that’s him running there. 

I made it a short time later. Was really fun running, cool weather great views everywhere you look. Didn’t even miss my earbuds I left in the camper. 

Shot looking back to Douglas Island. Our Airbnb is in there.

Seaplane landing

Fishing time. 

They do all the work so just sit back and wait to be handed a reel once a fish is on.

Becky struck first

But it was a king salmon and we can’t fish those so she didn’t pull it in he released it.

There’s a reason they call it fishing and not catching. 

Marc’s turn his first one dropped off the hook and got away we had a couple of those.

Sam pulled in a lunker, the biggest one of the day!

Becky got hers

It’s a big one

Kelp paid a visit, eating alone today.

Another calm day.

Marc landing his fish

It was a greedy guy, got both lines hooked. Created a bit of a mess bringing it in.

Luke got his late we were hoping he’d get one clock was counting down and finally it struck

Another successful day. Now we need to figure out how to grill salmon but first to the grocery store.

Here it is, it made a lot this is one whole fish. We had the other ones shipped to Becky’s dad. It’s Crys’s problem now. 

Getting ready to dig in Becky got a picture of me before we all sat down. I finished my piece it was ok I liked the rub but the texture is just a little weird for me not quite fish like but not meat either.

Ok here are some links to some whale videos I took and includes one of Kelp breaching taken by another captain and sent to our captain. The boat in the video is us we were really close. Second video is a longer one has the glacier in the background total Alaska. A little far out but a good taste of what we were seeing. The third one is a closer shot of a whale tale converted from a live photo. And last one is an awesome sound of the whale blowing.