Mendenhall Glacier

We could either walk to the glacier or visit the impressive visitor's center. We decided on the glacier first so we would have time to get there. 
It appears that there was a waterfall between us and the Glacier.  

And away we go.  

The blue ice on the right was ice that was just exposed.

Juneau UU’S

  Potluck
Juneau UU’s
Provided Delicious Spread
Local Foods Generously Prepared
Fundraiser

 
This morning, July 15, we boarded a flight to Juneau, the capitol city(so-to-speak) of Alaska. We were met at the airport by a bus whose driver was Duane, a member of the UU fellowship of Juneau and who sported a fabulous Alaskan beard. He piled all our luggage in the front of the bus and we seated ourselves behind for the short journey to come. 
    We stopped at strip mall on the way to have lunch. We scattered about for our lunch which was on us and not part of the tour. We ended up eating lunch with Duane. Our destination was the Mendenhall Glacier which was one to which we could walk -- no boat trip needed. 

Lots of ice flows at the tip of the glacier.
The boulder field to the left was as far as we walked. We never even got to the waterfall. All the subsequent close up's were by virtue of my 8X zoom on my CoolPix 5700.

Mendanhall Glacier

  Glacier
Gorgeous Ice
Retreating Up Valley
Certainly Global Warming Victim
Challenge

These two pictures show how far we walked.

This was taken from inside of the visitor's center.
And so ends our first day in Juneau. Ben, our host, ate dinner with us and then took us to his house for the evening. We never got a picture of him, but his hospitality was much appreciated. Our next adventure was to the Tracy Arm Fjord which takes us to the very bottom of a huge and beautiful glacier by boat. We get there from the boat dock the morning of July 16.