WARNING- There are way too many pictures of whales on this post. You might get bored. Just be warned!!
At the end of the trip when we were all talking about our favorite day it was the consensus between pretty much all of us that Juneau was the best!
Of course we had to start the day off with a good buffet breakfast!! 
We had chartered a private boat headed up by Captain Jack for the day. Prior to going to the docks we had our car take us to Mendenhal glacier. It was so beautiful!!!
This was our only really rainy day that we had. In Alaska if it rains you just keep going because it rains all the time. 
While we were standing looking at the glacier a beaver walked right in front of us and jumped into the water. It was fun to watch him swim around.
Some people decided that it was a good idea to let a 4 year old cross some rock over the water that was really cold. Needless to say they learned that was not a good idea (like someone had told them already).
We learned that glacier ice is not really blue but just looks blue to our eyes because it is so pure and reflects the blue light. So interesting!!
This is one of my favorite pictures!! I love the waterfall's refection in the lake. Gorgeous!!
After the time at the glacier we headed over to the docks to board our boat. For about 2 years my dad had a project in Alaska that he was working on so he was up in Juneau about 15 times. My mom went up to visit him one time and they found Captain Jack and did a whale watching tour with him. They loved it so we knew we had to do it while we were up there. We were all so excited to see some whales. Captain Jack promises that you will see whales or you get your money back. 
This is Captain Jack. He was awesome. He knows so much about the area and the whales. I was fun to just talk to him.
I love this picture of Kelly and Andrew.
This was our 8th anniversary. It was an amazing way to spend the day.
We headed out on the water. It was a cold and nasty day. We rode for quite a while and didn't see anything. They Captain Jack got a call that there were Orca whales about 7 miles away so we headed that way. We passed this beautiful lighthouse.
The mountains all around were just amazing with the low clouds.
Then we saw it. Some fins and some blow spouts.
It was a humpback whale...
Then we looked on the other side of the boat and saw this...
It was a huge pod of Orca (killer) whales. They were everywhere. Really we think there were between 30-40 of them all around our boat. Do you see the one jumping out of the water in the picture above. They were all jumping and flipping their tales. There were whales everywhere!!
Captain Jack says they only see Orcas about every 2 weeks and never this many. It was a once in a lifetime thing. He said that one of us must have been living right!
I took about 200 pictures of the whales so I had a really hard time narrowing it down for the blog!
The baby whales loved flipping their tales and splashing the water.
Have I said that it was amazing? The whales were so close to the boat.
This was one of the really big adult males.
We just sat out there for about an hour watching them put on a show for us. It was so much better than Sea World with Shamu!
Even the kids were amazed.
This one was heading right for us
They were just everywhere...
After about an hour they started to head off to the ocean. I guess they were tired of showing off. It was just absolutely amazing!!! We started to head back. We stopped by where the sea lions hang out.
On the way back in we stopped and watched several humpback whales. They are humongous.
So beautiful and graceful in the water.
Some people decided that it was a good idea to let a 4 year old cross some rock over the water that was really cold. Needless to say they learned that was not a good idea (like someone had told them already). 
We learned that glacier ice is not really blue but just looks blue to our eyes because it is so pure and reflects the blue light. So interesting!! This is one of my favorite pictures!! I love the waterfall's refection in the lake. Gorgeous!! After the time at the glacier we headed over to the docks to board our boat. For about 2 years my dad had a project in Alaska that he was working on so he was up in Juneau about 15 times. My mom went up to visit him one time and they found Captain Jack and did a whale watching tour with him. They loved it so we knew we had to do it while we were up there. We were all so excited to see some whales. Captain Jack promises that you will see whales or you get your money back. This is Captain Jack. He was awesome. He knows so much about the area and the whales. I was fun to just talk to him. I love this picture of Kelly and Andrew. 
This was our 8th anniversary. It was an amazing way to spend the day. 
We headed out on the water. It was a cold and nasty day. We rode for quite a while and didn't see anything. They Captain Jack got a call that there were Orca whales about 7 miles away so we headed that way. We passed this beautiful lighthouse. 
The mountains all around were just amazing with the low clouds. 
Then we saw it. Some fins and some blow spouts. 
It was a humpback whale...
Then we looked on the other side of the boat and saw this... 
It was a huge pod of Orca (killer) whales. They were everywhere. Really we think there were between 30-40 of them all around our boat. Do you see the one jumping out of the water in the picture above. They were all jumping and flipping their tales. There were whales everywhere!!
Captain Jack says they only see Orcas about every 2 weeks and never this many. It was a once in a lifetime thing. He said that one of us must have been living right!
I took about 200 pictures of the whales so I had a really hard time narrowing it down for the blog!
The baby whales loved flipping their tales and splashing the water. 
Have I said that it was amazing? The whales were so close to the boat. 
This was one of the really big adult males. 
We just sat out there for about an hour watching them put on a show for us. It was so much better than Sea World with Shamu!
Even the kids were amazed. 
This one was heading right for us
They were just everywhere...
After about an hour they started to head off to the ocean. I guess they were tired of showing off. It was just absolutely amazing!!! We started to head back. We stopped by where the sea lions hang out. 
On the way back in we stopped and watched several humpback whales. They are humongous. 
So beautiful and graceful in the water. 
I don't have words to describe how amazing it was!!! It was a once in a lifetime experience. Needless to say there were no refunds. We even saw a bald eagle as we were heading back into dock. Great way to finish an awesome tour.
After getting off the boat we headed into town. We got pizza at one of my parent's favorite Italian restaurants.
We visited the Alaska state capital building. We hope to get pictures of the kids in front of all of the captail buildings in the US. They got Alaska marked off their list early.
Being silly with the bear statue!
Juneau was just gorgeous. There were huge mountains all around with snow and waterfalls. It looked like a postcard all around. Amazing!!!!
We really enjoyed walking around the town. They had some really cute shops with great local crafts.
We finally got our first full group picture. This was our Auburn day. We were all dressed up in our Auburn finest!
We got back on board ship. My parents were nice enough to watch the kids for us so we could go out to celebrate our anniversary.
We tried out the Samba Grill. It was one of the new restaurants on the ship. It was a Brazilian steakhouse. The food was excellent. We stuffed ourselves on some amazing meats. It was great to just get to sit by the window and watch us sail out of Juneau. A pretty great anniversary if you ask me.
Our cabin stewardess left us a cute anniversary towel sculputre!
AMAZING day!!!
After getting off the boat we headed into town. We got pizza at one of my parent's favorite Italian restaurants. 
We visited the Alaska state capital building. We hope to get pictures of the kids in front of all of the captail buildings in the US. They got Alaska marked off their list early. 
Being silly with the bear statue!
Juneau was just gorgeous. There were huge mountains all around with snow and waterfalls. It looked like a postcard all around. Amazing!!!!
We really enjoyed walking around the town. They had some really cute shops with great local crafts. 
We finally got our first full group picture. This was our Auburn day. We were all dressed up in our Auburn finest!
We got back on board ship. My parents were nice enough to watch the kids for us so we could go out to celebrate our anniversary. 
We tried out the Samba Grill. It was one of the new restaurants on the ship. It was a Brazilian steakhouse. The food was excellent. We stuffed ourselves on some amazing meats. It was great to just get to sit by the window and watch us sail out of Juneau. A pretty great anniversary if you ask me. 
Our cabin stewardess left us a cute anniversary towel sculputre!
AMAZING day!!! 
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