May 19
May 20-21
May 22
May 23
May 24
May 25-26
May 27
May 28
May 29
May 30
May 31-June 1
June 2-3
June 4
June 5
June 6-8
We ordered room service breakfast today, since we had an early tour and didn't feel like scrounging breakfast again. We asked for it to be delivered between 6:30 and 7. It arrived at 6:20.... We weren't out of bed yet. And he forgot the teabag...
We were already docked in Skagway by then. We actually had to close the drapes as we were on the dockside and people could possibly look in, something we haven't had to think about lately. (Usually, we'd leave the drapes open all night and the light streaming in around 5 would slowly wake us up.)
There were three other cruise ships in port at the same time! All three had been in Juneau when we were there yesterday.
We walked ashore a little after 8. The most popular tour in Skagway is taking the White Pass and Yukon Train over White Pass and back. We opted for the tour bus instead, as the itinerary was almost the same and he'd stop periodically to let us get off and take pictures. The train doesn't stop, I understand. The photo on the left shows the White Pass train boarding passengers.
Our tour bus wasn't there yet. He arrived shortly and we went on a tour that drove over White Pass just a little into Canada, stopping for several photo ops.
One of our first stops was at a pulloff overlooking Denver Valley. The miners route through this valley was so strewn with dead horses that it was nicknamed Dead Horse Trail. The miners would overload the horses then try to drive them over some very rough terrain. Most of the trail is not really passable by a horse with just a rider. When fully loaded with the miner's supplies, they would break down and tumble over the side. It got pretty smelly after a while...
The photo on the left above looks down Denver Valley. The photo on the right shows the road behind us, back to Skagway, with our bus.
Another stop overlooked Pitchfork Falls (photo to the left). However, the sheer size of this waterfall isn't really apparent until a few minutes later, when the White Pass train crosses over the waterfall (photo to the right).
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Our next overlook stop. The photo on the left shows the Moore Creek Bridge, a one sided suspension bridge. It's one of only a handful of bridges of this design in the world. The valley below it is an intersection of five fault lines, so the bridge has to be able to move with earth movement as needed! The driver didn't tell us this until after we had crossed the bridge... The center photo shows a large waterfall which flows under the Moore Creek Bridge. The photo on the right shows the view on down the valley from this overlook.
On to our next stop. This was just over the border into Canada. The photo on the left shows Tormented Valley. The center photo shows the snow bank along a small stream at the overlook for Tormented Valley. The photo on the right shows the road continuing across Tormented Valley and further into Canada. This was our turnaround spot.
As we returned to the US, the driver pointed out the waterfall in the photo on the left. It's International Falls. It crisscrosses the border as it descends and, due to a quirk of nature, splits at the bottom with some of it's waters flowing east through Canada and some flowing west to the Gulf of Alaska.
There's a pulloff just as we reentered the US with a big sign welcoming us to Alaska. Naturally, we had to stop and all get our pictures taken there...
There was a minor stop at the US border where the manifest was looked over and we were waved on through. Our last stop of the tour was at a overlook for Skagway. The photo on the left shows our view of the harbor from here. This shows the four cruise ships docked. Ours is the smaller one in the middle with its bow hidden by the tree.
Then it was back to town and the ship.
We ate lunch on board at the Pool Grill, then walked back into town to walk around a bit.
We stopped at several National Park Service buildings and took their walking trail. There was a lot of stuff about the 1898 gold rush. It was an interesting afternoon.
One of the exhibits in the museum showed a sample of the load the Canadian Mounties required each potential miner to have with them when they entered Canada. This was one ton of supplies per person, including enough food for a year. Those climbing the Chilkoot Trail had to carry this themselves (no horses or mules). That required many trips up the side of the mountain.
We went back aboard the ship a little before 4.
We had another really good meal, then bed.
Tuesday, May 26
All day today is spent at sea, crossing the Gulf of Alaska.
We had a very lazy day. Carl hit the gym for part of the morning. He says it's hard to go very fast on the treadmill with the ship rocking like this... 30 knot winds outside and a slight rolling all day. Not as bad as last Thursday, but still noticeable.
I ate lightly and stuck to the ginger ale. And never did have to take that second sea sick pill.