Skagway

Wednesday, July 30

Today we are in Skagway.  Thom and I started our day by sleeping in, so I'll start with Mom, Dad, and Drew's morning.

Here is Brian:
Kathy, Drew and I started our morning with the White Pass Railroad Train ride.  The train was waiting for us outside the dock area and we got right on the train.  It was a very scenic ride, even though it was overcast and rained part of the time.  The original train was built over 100 years ago but stopped being used commercially in the 80's.  It became a tourist ride in the late 80's and 20 locomotives make numerous trips each day.  The train "turned around" at the British Columbia border and made a much faster trip back to Skagway.  Numerous waterfalls and steep mountains were the highlights of the trip.

Back to Becca:
After waking up, Thom and I got hot chocolate and a latte on the ship before eating lunch. After lunch of a cheeseburger and pizza we headed to shore.  It just so happened that Mom, Dad, and Drew were getting off their train at the moment that we were getting off the boat so we met up with them.  We then proceeded to walk around Skagway. It is a very pretty town. Has an "old" feel.  There are many jewelry stores.  We kind of skipped many stores because we are finding they have a lot of the same souvenirs as the other ports.

When we were at the Harley Davidson store, the clerk told us of a waterfall that was a short walk away, so we decided to go to that.  It was about a mile and a half away.  To get to it you had to go through the Gold Rush Cemetery.  Then we climbed another 10 minutes or so to the waterfall. It was absolutely stunning.  It was very big. We were able to climb up next to it for some photos.  The rocks were a little slippery, but not too bad.  We both made it down safely.

We were then able to catch the Smart Bus back to town so we didn't have to walk overly far.  We then walked the other side of the street before heading back to the ship.

The town of Skagway is beautiful. It is my favorite of the ports.  The scenery is absolutely gorgeous and the town is quaint.

I forgot to mention that yesterday Mom, Dad, and I listened to Libby Riddles the first woman to win the Iditarod speak.  She talked about how much she loved her dogs and some of the difficult things she went though on the race.  The first day of the race, her dogs ran away from her and drug her 4 miles though the snow! She has a children's book that is her biography so I bought that for my class. I thought they would like to hear about her and I could use it in our biography unit. Also she signed it!

Thom is now working out on the ship, while I am at an Internet cafe on land.  Mom and Dad are walking around the town. I'm not sure if I will be able to post the next few days due to lack of internet on the ship, but hopefully look for a post on Saturday night.

PS. I love the 4th picture down.