Juneau was far and away the best stop of the entire cruise, and has some of the best picture I took the entire trip, so I’m going to break Juneau up in to two days: Mendenhall Glacier and then Whale watching. The excursions were run by Gastineau Guiding, and I want to make a point to name them, because everyone involved with the tour was absolutely fabulous. I would recommend them in a heartbeat to anyone wanting to tour Mendenhall Glacier and go whale watching.

The entire day was amazing, and makes Juneau one of the places I definitely want to return to (the other, of course, being Denali National Park. Just for convenience.)

If you were not aware of the fact, Juneau is the capital of Alaska. It is also completely unreachable by car. You can only access it by boat or by plane. There have been various drive to move the capital, however, when I asked Tania about it, she said that since everything went online, it doesn’t matter where the capital is, as long as someone can email the representatives or watch sessions remotely. And i do believe she is right.

In case it isn’t clear immediately, we had amazingly, stunningly, beautiful weather in Juneau. So first up: Mendenhall Glacier.

No rain, clear skies, and perfect temperatures. (60s F)

I saw tons and tons of fascinating plants while hiking, including lots of moss and lichen.

And lots and lots of gorgeous flowers and trees.

All of which was fabulous, and very impressive, until we stepped into a tiny clearing at the edge of the lake and I had my breath taken away at the sight.

Yeah, I’ve finally started going through all the flower pr0n I took on vacation. Still haven’t looked at the pictures from Stanley Park Rose Garden, but I’ve gone though the flower pictures I took in Alaska.

Arctic Poppy Papaver nudicaule

Blue Poppy Meconopsis betonicifolia

Alpine Forget-Me-Not Myosotis alpestris

Still trying to figure out what this one is.

Primrose Primula

Of course there are more pictures! Just click through!

Day lilies! I love day lilies!

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Here are my results. I’d like to note that I actually went up to someone and asked them if I could take their picture. HA!

I also got incredibly lucky, because it was pouring down rain right until I left work, at which point it got all sunny.

Brick
Purple flower(s)
Purple clothing
Something else purple
Still water
Chaos

Brick (taken with Canon Powershot SD1300):

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I get to actually enjoy the day lilies this year–even more so since it wasn’t 90 F today!

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Got a new lens for my camera, and it came today, so of course I had to test it out. I got a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens (yeah, I totally copied and pasted that) which was well rated for the price.

It’s stupid hot outside, and I hate the heat, so I stood on the porch, in the shade, and shot across the driveway and yard. Here are two of the resulting pictures–uncropped, just processed from RAW to jpg with light balance corrections.

Here’s this evenings sunset. Not at all spectacular, but I’m just playing around.

Lemon Lily in the evening light. This one turned out significantly better than the others.

Thyme. For some reason I have a hard time taking pictures of groups of things.

This is another low maintenance rose bush that is absolutely thriving. And it smells good to.

The first year, the centers of these coreopsis were bright red, but the centers are slowly fading over the years. Ah well.

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Broom

We had a huge broom at the back of the house, but when we put in the parking space for Grandmom, the soil drainage changed, and it died. This is the replacement, which I hope will thrive, eventually.

Lilac

I’m glad this is at the bottom of the hill, because it is extremely strong smelling.

The weather has been lousy every evening when I’ve come home. But at least it wasn’t raining Wed afternoon.

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Here it is–in reverse order.

There were taken along the Mon Rail Trail.

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Cherry Blossoms:

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