A visitor!

Beth and Steve navigating a flooded part of the trail to Point Bridget.

Our friend Beth came to visit!  She got into to town Wednesday night and headed back to Charleston today.  I think she'll need a vacation from her vacation to recover...we barely took time to sleep, running all over to see the fun sights in an around Juneau!  

A very patient Western Toad on the Point Bridget Trail.

Within two hours of getting here, we took her up to the Mendenhall glacier and saw some bears feeding on the salmon run.  Thursday we hiked out to Point Bridget and ate a picnic lunch on the beach.  We didn't see whales, but did see several toads (a first for us!) and some otter prints in the sand.

Yep, still lots of icebergs in Tracy Arm.

Friday we took the all-day trip to the Tracy Arm Fjord.  It's absolutely a must-do in Juneau.  It was a gorgeous day and we saw dozens of seals on the ice and some pretty big pieces of the Sawyer glacier calving into the water.

A curious seal in front of South Sawyer glacier.

Saturday we got up really early and caught the ferry to Skagway for the weekend.  It leaves at 7 am and gets into Skagway at 1:30 pm.  Unfortunately, it rained pretty much all the way there and most of the rest of the day. 

Downtown Skagway on a deserted Sunday morning before the solo cruise ship of the day offloaded.

We spent Saturday afternoon exploring the town, with is pretty much all encompassed within Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park.  Some of the shops and museums were good, but some of the shops carried the same junk you see in every tourist town in SE Alaska.

That's one big, wet dog.  Skagway, AK.

Sunday it was much nicer out and we walked out to the Gold Rush Cemetery, which holds some 130 graves, mostly from prospectors and gold rushers who died in the two years of the Klondike Gold Rush, 1898-1899.

Ferry heading down Lynn Canal towards Juneau.

And finally, for the ferry ride home was actually enough outside to see the mountains and scenery!  It's not as stunningly beautiful as Tracy Arm, but it is very scenic.

Eldred Rock lighthouse in Lynn Canal.

Approaching sunset, Lynn Canal.

All in all, we had a great time with Beth in town!  And now classes start next week, Steve's new job starts tomorrow, and it's back to reality.  I'm not ready for summer to be over!