2009-8-19 Skagway

Wednesday morning we awoke to another overcast, cool day, but now we were docked in Skagway. After a leisurely breakfast in the buffet area, we gathered our coats, passports, and ship cards and were on our way. The walk into town was very short.

I had anxiously anticipated this day for quite awhile. I made reservations for an Avis car way back in January. There is another local car rental place here, but I understand they rent older vehicles (but for a lot less money) so I thought I'd stick to a national chain. That was almost a huge mistake. We did have 2 full size cars reserved, but I had read that they had larger vehicles if you call the Skagway office directly. So I called about a week before the cruise and they assured me that 7 people would comfortably fit in the Highlander. So they changed the reservation for me. We arrived at the rental office before 9 am. There were people in front of us having problems with their reservations so we were there quite awhile. The manager was on the phone constantly yelling at people that they were past their 1 hour reservation pick up time and their car was given away. But I had made the pick up time for 8:30, so thought we would be fine. When our turn finally came, we were told they didn't have a car for us. What!? But you have a valid reservation for us! I think they wanted to use the time thing on us, but when she looked at the clock, she could see we were within the 1 hour pick up time. Then we were told the previous renters haven't returned "our" vehicle. So I asked for any car, not just a Hylander. Still they said no. I asked them to call the other car rental place, but they only had pick ups. At a loss of what to do, we finally left the office. But then we saw 3 or 4 Hylander type vehicles in their parking lot, so back into the office we went. We were told they all had maintenance problems. Ken took over from there and asked about the maintenance issues. He managed to keep a cool head and persuaded them to rent one of them to us. The one we got had a faulty tire warning light illuminated, but he figured if there was a spare we should be ok. So for our $194 daily rate, we were off in our mechanically faulty rental vehicle. Note for future rentals---7 adults don't fit in a Hylander comfortably! We only had 6 in our party since Uncle Joe again stayed behind, but it was still crowded. The 3rd seat (jump seat in the far back) was comfortable enough for 1, but you needed to be a bit of a contortionist to get in and out of it. Being the youngest senior, I volunteered to sit in the back. Not quite the way I had envisioned this trip going, but hopefully someone other than me enjoyed it. I did finally work out a system for getting in and out of the back by the time we were ready to turn in the car. I did really well with that until we were back in Skagway where I managed to whack my shin quite hard. The lump and bruise lasted quite a long time.

After a stop at the grocery store for some L-lysine (should have seen the x-ray technician checking those out upon our return!), bandaids and some sodas, we were on our way----to locate some public restrooms. It was probably closer to 11 by the time we finally left Skagway and headed toward the Yukon.

Here was one of the many waterfalls we saw along the way.

Here is some of the colorful folliage along the way.

At Fraser, we stopped to take a few pictures and use the restrooms again. The Canadian officials chased us down when we turned into the train station area without going through customs first. After being directed through the check point, we did a U-turn and went back to the train station. Heading into Canada was the reason we needed to bring our passports.

This is a picture of the lake near the White Pass Railroad station at Frasier. I had taken the train ride on the excursion into the Yukon with my Dad 2 years ago and highly recommend it, too---at least on a sunny day.

Another picture of the lake at Fraser and the trees that look like they're growing upside down.

As we drove farther into Canada, the skies started to lighten up. I understand that's common. It turned out to be a beautiful day in the Yukon even though it was cool and rainy in Skagway.

Here's the obligatory stop by the Yukon sign.

Lots more wildflowers growing along the pull-offs.

We followed this lake in the Yukon for about 10 miles.

We stopped at the little town of Carcross and got our passports stamped and hit the restrooms again (seems to be a pattern here). This building is the train station for the White Pass railroad at Carcross and a visitors' center. Other then this building, there's a little ice cream/snack shop across the street, a lake behind the building, a church not to far away, and a post office down the block. Not much else there.

Our turn around point for this trip was Emerald Lake. We took pictures, then jumped back in the car and headed back towards Skagway. I had gotten "Murray's Guide to the South Klondike Highway" off the internet and acted as tour guide to anyone who cared to listen.

Along the way back we stopped at a few more places.

Even found a beach---rocky, but interesting. Looked like a great place to try fishing.

Before heading back into Alaska, we stopped for pictures by that sign, too. Not sure what Ken is doing to Carol here!?

The Murray's guide pointed out an overlook of the city so we went to check it out. With it's booming population of about 860, it's not much of a town. But the cruise tourist business does increase the number of people to about 900,000 during the summer months.

Back in town we did more shopping. Then we dropped Carolyn and Jane off near the docks so they could make it to their Murder Mystery dinner on the Pearl. (They seemed to have mixed emotions about that dinner. They said by the time everyone figured out what they were doing it was over.) After dropping them off, the 4 of us left decided to try out a pizza/greek place there in town (Northern Lights Pizza on 3rd street). Their pizza was very good!

Then we returned the car---still with the warning light on, but no flat tires, and walked back to the ship.

This was probably the port I looked forward to the most.  So glad it ended up going as planned---sort of.   Would have liked to have done the White Pass Railroad again, but we were trying to keep the budget down.

2007 Alaska cruise

2007 Aug. 24-31 (7 nt) Alaska Cruise--Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas: Juneau, Skagway, Prince Rupert, Tracy Arm

For as long as I can remember, Dad had 2 dream vacations that he wanted to take---one was to go on an Alaska cruise and the other was to go to Ireland. Unfortunately, he never got to do the Ireland trip, but after his first round of chemo, I immediately booked him and me an Alaska cruise. By then he was fighting metastatic prostate cancer and recovered from colon cancer surgery and chemo for colon cancer. By the looks of him, he appeared to be doing well. If he wasn't, he never let on. But within a week of our return, he was in the hospital fighting for his life and on dialysis for blocked kidney tubes due to his prostate cancer. Stints were able to be put into his kidney tubes and he did recover from that, but the cancer treatments were beginning to stop working now. My best friend and great traveling buddy was on his last great vacation with me, but I didn't know it at the time.  I will cherish this dream vacation with my Dad always.

8-24-07 Embarkation day

 

8-25-07 sea day and around the RC Vision of the Seas

8-26-07  Juneau

 

8-27-07 Skagway 

 

8-28-07 Tracy Arm 

 

8-29-07 Prince Rupert 

 

8-30-07 inside passage

 

We woke up back in Seattle and joined the crowds waiting to debark. The parking garage across the street from the port was convenient. We were on the road within an hour and heading back to Oregon. It truely was a spectacular trip.

 

8-27-07 Skagway

 I was really impressed with Juneau and didn't think it could be beat. Then we got to Skagway the next day and I was even more impressed! The port of Skagway is a popular stop for cruise ships, and the tourist trade is a big part of the business of Skagway. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city was 862. However, the population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal with more than 900,000 visitors. In 1896, the Klondike gold rush started and Skagway was a stepping stone into the Yukon Territory.

 I was awestruck by the towering mountains.  Even on the 10th floor of the cruise ship, the mountains right next to the port towered over us.

 Looking down at some of the passengers waiting for their excursion.

 We did another expensive cruise ship sponsored tour in Skagway. This one was a 7 hour bus tour/White Pass Train tour that went up into the Yukon.  The first part of our tour was by bus.  Along the way we saw many amazing sights!---Such as this waterfall.

 looking back on the road and bridge.

 We rode past many lakes and rivers. The scenery was unbelievable beautiful!

 As soon as we would pass one amazing view, we were treated to another.

 And another!

 And another!

 Even a couple mountain goats.

 we finally reached Cariboo Crossing trading post where there was a bar b q lunch set up for us. The bar b q was ok, but the fried doughnuts were the best!  There was also a little museum there with lots of stuffed animals of the Yukon.

 Also in this trading post were activities such as dog sled rides (for a fee). I thought these were some pretty skinny looking sled dogs.

 After lunch, our tour bus took us a little further into the Yukon.

 Up to Emerald Lake.  The colors of this lake were stunning. I sure wouldn't mind having that log house to the right of the picture (at least during the summer months!)

 Another stop on our tour was Carcross. This was a short stop where we visited an icecream parlor and walked around the streets a bit.

 Loved this view of this church in Carcross.

 Then we continued on our way

 looking back on the sign to the entrance into the Yukon.

 a map of where we went----Skagway-Whitehourse and back

 Coming back down the Alaskan highway to Skagway we stopped at the train station for the White Pass Railroad (right by the border of the Yukon and British Columbia). This is from the parking lot there. We took the train back down to Skagway.

 Built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, this narrow gauge railroad is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. From sea level it climbs nearly 3000 feet in just 20 miles and features steep grades of up to 3.9%. Again the views were unbelievable!

 It made a stop along the way to pick up some hikers.

 Back in Skagway, we still had time to check out the town a bit. We saw there was a brewery there and went and tried their beer and spiced nut snacks. Both were excellent. We were able to catch the local bus there.

 On the way back, we stopped in town and shopped some of the gift shops. I even bought myself a set of tlingit indians matryoshka dolls.

 From town, we walked back to the ship.

 The mountains made the ships look small in comparison!

 While in Skagway, some locals had mentioned that it was suppose to be a perfect night for catching the northern lights. I had read that we weren't going far enough north to see them, so was excited about having the chance to witness them. So about midnight, we wandered through the deserted ship to the lido deck and watched and waited. There was also a total eclipse of the moon going on that night.

 About 1 am, we and about 3 other people were on the deck and watching the northern lights dance across the sky. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. It only lasted about 20 all too short minutes. The next night I had asked some of the ship employees if they'd ever seen them and they didn't even know what I was talking about.

 the photos don't do them justice!

As wonderful as I thought the day was, I wonder now if the jostling of the bus and train was bothering Dad.  shortly after the cruise we found out his cancer was advancing and had metastasized to his bladder.  I noticed he had really slowed down on his photo taking.  I figured something was going on, but didn't want to say anything.