Alaska: Juneau & The Mendenhall Glacier

July 5th we spent in Juneau.  It was still cold (kind of) a little rainy but not windy.  It was very mountainous with lots of views of little stream coming down off the mountains.  The town was really neat and had lots of interesting shops along the main street.  I stopped into one that I had read about and picked up some Glacier Silt Soap.  It's pretty cool stuff.

Yep, those steps are metal!

We got to see a sea plane land.  It was pretty cool!

I had really wanted to take a shuttle up to the Mendenhall Glacier.  David, Dustin, Danielle and our David wanted to see it too.  Sharon, Drew and Matthew stayed in town and did some more shopping/exploring.

 Nugget Falls - we didn't have time to walk over there and still get back on the boat on time.

Mendenhall Glacier

Here is some information about the Mendenhall Glacier from The Alaska Cruise Handbook

"If there is ever were a reason for the 'See it before it melts,' motto used by some travel agents, it is this glacier.  Very accessible - just 12 miles from downtown...it has dramatically sped up its retreat back towards the Juneau Ice Field.  Between 1980 and 1999, Mendenhall retreated an average of 90 feet per year, then startled biologists by dramatically speeding up - losing 300 feet in 2000, and more than 600 feet in 2004.  What's particularly scenic is that is regularly calves small blue icebergs - the size of trucks and houses into Mendenhall Lake, creating a spectacular foreground.