Cruise part 2

After the glaciers, we went on to Juneau. We all got off and took a tram partway up the mountain. We all hiked around a little. Ryan and Darice hiked all the way down. Rebecca and I decided to hike further up the mountain. It was a good hike, and took us a couple of hours. We made it to Gastineau Peak, which is about 3 miles from the tram station.

This is Rebecca singing "the hills are alive" at the first peak we reached.

The views into the valley on the other side were really pretty.
Here Rebecca is at the top of Gastineau Peak. It got quite cold in the last stretch. We considered going on all the way to Mt. Roberts, but we had been told that the trail was not well maintained beyond Gastineau Peak. We started to try it, but then the weather got very cold and cloudy, and it was hard to see. We decided we didn't want to get lost, so we turned back.

In Sitka, Ryan, Darice, Andrew, Maren, Rebecca, and I went kayaking. The kayaks were sea kayaks, so they had steering pedals that controlled a rudder in the back. Sitka Bay is really pretty, and it was nice to get to see so much of it.
This is us just prior to taking off.

Our guide took us to a little bay where we picked up starfish (we put them back before we left).
Rebecca tried some kelp. Looks like it was tasty.

We also got to see a stellar sea lion up close. This picture isn't all that close, but when he popped up a few yards from our kayak, I was too zoomed in and didn't get a good picture.

We played a fair amount of ping-pong on the trip, so I thought I ought to include at least one picture of that.