When planning our time in Juneau, I had to choose between visiting Mendenall Glacier (pictured above) and going on a whale watching excursion. My mother, who is more fond of wildlife than I ever thought she was, wanted to see whales, so I let her be the tie breaker.
Now, I thank her. It would've been nice to actually walk on a glacier, sure, but the alternative was well worth it.

We coasted into Juneau at about 2pm on day three of our journey.


After almost 2 full days of beautiful wilderness going by, it was almost disappointing to see civilization again.

We had to wade through a sea of people who were all trying to get off the boat at the same time. Our tour was scheduled to leave at 2:50, and we barely made it. So, after a bus ride through Juneau to Auke Bay (not to be confused with Auk Bay, with No e, which is near Anchorage), we hopped on a double-decker tour boat and headed out. I found myself a perch near the front right side where I could see forward and to the right. Of course the first whales we saw were to the left. But there would be plenty. I'd also heard there would be a good chance I'd see a Bald Eagle while in Alaska. I'd say "good chance" was an understatement. They were everywhere. I saw three on the bus ride to Auke Bay. There were three more flying around once we got there, and I was finally able to get my camera pointed at one.

They're not as big as I thought they were. Perhaps I only saw smaller ones.
The tour we signed up for guaranteed that we'd see whales, or we'd be refunded our money. I was almost hoping we wouldn't see any, because then it would have just been a free tour of this beautiful bay.



I kept catching glimpses of the Mendenhall Glacier on our way to the bay, but once on the bay, we saw some nice views of Antler and Eagle glaciers.








But, we did see whales, aplenty. Lots of Humpbacks.




This baby Humpback stole the show:

The guy in the blue shirt on that boat is pointing at the whale and saying "Holy Shit!" Probably.

Humpbacks weren't the only show in town, though. Sea Lions were hanging out not far away.


And we finished up the tour with a family of Orcas.



On our way back to the boat, we stopped to get a nice view of the Mendenhall Glacier. The opening photo of this post is a 3x3 composite of roughly the same view as the single frame below. One of the most beautiful views I've ever seen.