We had two min highlights for our day yesterday. The first was our whale-watching and wildlife quest in the fiords around Juneau. We saw Stellar Sea-lions, many bald eagles, and the main attraction, the humpback whales. We actually saw around 8 different whales, but the most spectacular was a cow and calf. The calf had a bit of an Elvis personality and was breaching the water right off the front of our boat. For those that don't know, humpbacks are not like Shamu the killer whale. They don't normally breach, but this young fellow of about 8 months was showing off. He jumped completely out of the water 3 times! That quite a feat for a whale that weighs about 16 tons. The naturalist said that they are born weighing 2 tons, which would be the equivalent of a human giving birth to a three-year-old! Mom produces 100-150 gallons of milk per day, without eating! It was a sight to be held, and one we will not forget.
The second attraction was our nightly program on board the ship after we left port. His name was Sideshow Bert, and he sure made us laugh. He juggled 3 machetes, 3 flaming fire sticks, a medieval battle axe with an apple and a 12 pound bowling ball. He also got up on a rolling balance board and juggled, as well as on top of a unicycle. Being from Texas, and speaking some Spanish, we found his jokes humurous. He constantly referred to everything as "the una cycleta del muerte, or the flaming torches del muerte." Most of the crowd was up there in years, and I don't think they got the del muerte joke (it means of death.)
Today we are docked in Ketchikan, and are supposed to take a float plane up to the Misty Fiords National Park and land on a glacier-fed lake up there. It should be a show, as long as Stan doens't loose his cookies on the trip!
Tomorrow will be at sea, so we will probably not be able to post until we dock in Vancouver on Sunday.
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