*Lana's Daily Fun Fact*
In 1880, Joe Juneau and Richard Harris discovered gold "as large as beans" in the Silver Bow Basin (with the help of 3 Indian guides). By the end of World War II, more than $150 million in gold had been mined. Ironically, both Juneau and Harris did not get rich from their discoveries; in fact, Juneau died broke in the Canadian Yukon and a collection had to be taken up to send his body home for burial.

*Dave's Daily Fun Fact*
The capital of Alaska was not always named Juneau. It was first named Harrisburg (after Richard Harris), renamed to Rockwell, and then finally became Juneau. If I co-founded a city, you can bet the farm that I would never let my partner hog all the glory in naming it. What's wrong with "Harneau" or "Jurris" ? Personally, I would have split the city name with Harris. In fact, I would even have let his name come first: "Harlem". Now that's original.

Juneau! We woke up in the capital of Alaska, ready for our dog sledding tour and whale watching with Captain Larry (more on that later). Our first excursion of the day was a combination helicopter tour of Mendenhall Glacier/dog sledding by Temsco Helicopters, Inc. Like for any other high risk activity (eg. riding a bicycle down Mt Haleakala, marriage), we had to watch a safety video to make sure we wouldn't kill ourselves while walking around on the glacier or fall out of the helicopter. The 15-minute helicopter ride to Mendenhall Glacier was cramped, but the view was breathtaking. We landed in the middle of a dog camp surrounded by perfectly white, blinding snow. The dog sledding was pretty much the one excursion Lana was looking forward to the most, and it did not disappoint. We were teamed with a musher (we never caught her name but she was really cool) and a team of nine Alaskan huskies! Lana and I each took turns sitting in the sled and steering the back sled (your only responsibility was to make sure you hit the brake when the dogs slowed down so the sled wouldn't crush the musher's legs). Our two lead dogs were Hawkeye and Thumper. It was awesome to go up and down the snow-covered hills, especially along the bumps! We also got to hold a 10 week-old Alaskan husky puppy named Delta. She was warm and fuzzy, just like me when I don't shave. We took pictures with all the dogs, boarded the helicopter, and headed back to civilization.

We had a few hours to kill before whale watching so we decided to grab a quick bite to eat. I'm not sure if it's exclusive to Alaska, but the next time you're in the area, you've got to try a reindeer hot dog! It sounds gross, but it tastes just like a polish. Yum.

When choosing a whale-watching company, how could you pass up on one led by Captain Larry (technically it's Orca Enterprises)? We cruised along Auke Bay in a customized jet boat in search for whales. Our tour guide/naturalist kept us entertained with nifty facts and ocean jokes (he reminded us of one of my uncles). For some reason, I imagined Captain Larry using some high-tech sonar or radar system to locate the whales, but it seemed he was using instinct or some genetically-enhanced sense of smell. Whatever the case, it worked; in fact, other whale-watching tours contacted him by radio to find out his coordinates so they could see whales, too. We saw groups of whales feeding, their mouths breaking the surface then coming back into the water, as well as their tails splashing through! It was an awesome sight to behold. We were glad we went with Captain Larry, especially after we saw some of the other boats. One was packed with people, making it difficult for anyone to see anything. We weren't crowded at all and got some great pictures. On the way back, we saw endangered sea lions lounging on a buoy (for an endangered species, they don't appear too worried). Three cheers, Captain!

Back at the ship, we enjoyed another great dinner and went to bed excited about another event-filled day coming up.