DAY 5 - SKAGWAY
THURSDAY

Thursday morning we woke up to Skagway.
The words "charming" and "nestled" came to mind.

But first, my personal trainer,
Michael Schwarzeneggar coaches us through
some squats . . .

. . . and walking lunges . . .

. . . and calf raises.
I almost don't mind exercising in this environment!

Then off to Skagway. The actual spelling is Skaguay,
but when the reporters first reported on it they wrote what
they heard which was Skagway. Both spellings are used.

Skagway. It looks like an old western town to me.
It was very warm. I think Dad was in charge of the
weather again, like he's always been. Sometimes
he can be an over-achiever, if you know what I mean.
The shops hardly knew how to deal with the warm weather.
Even though this port is further north than Ketchikan
and Juneau it's usually drier here due to the shape
of the mountains.

This unique little building is covered with thousands
of pieces of driftwood. Our tour guide/bus driver has
his office here.

Our excursion was called "To the Summit."
We were bussed to the summit of a mountain here
stopping to look at mountains, waterfalls, etc.
The summit is where the border of Alaska and Canada is,
but interestingly, that's not where they check your passports.
It gets INCREDIBLY windy, up to 100 mph at the summit
so the US passport checkpoint is a little down the mountain on
our side and Canada's is down a ways on the other side.
With high winds and 60 feet of snow, trees and plants at
the summit do not grow to normal height.
The trees are short but proportionate. They
don't grow another ring each year, they are just
sort of suspended in time.

We're two miles into Canada here, our turn-around
point. The stories, history and information that
continuously spewed forth from our bus driver's
mouth was fascinating. I enjoyed that more than
the view! I'm wearing Clint's favorite pants that didn't
have enough fabric to go all the way down. We have
a name for these -- capris.

Susan & Blair, along with the Sarah & Ron went to the
summit on a separate excursion from ours.

This little stream doesn't look like much but right here it splits
into two streams. The one on the left travels 60 miles to the
Pacific Ocean. The one on the right travels 2,200 miles to
the Bering Sea. Wow. I looked on a map and I think the right
one joins up with the Yukon River.

Noone can resist taking a picture next to this sign as you drive back from
Canada into Alaska. "Welcome to Alaska--and the Gateway to the Klondike."
Wherever you see snow there is ice underneath, otherwise
it would be melted by this time of year--late June.

Here is a noisy, man-made waterfall of
glacier water that's clean enough to drink!

L&M and Mr. Totem Pole.

Anyone need a job mushing dogs?

This is a snowplow on the front of a train.
If I remember correctly, it flings the snow from the
railroad tracks 150 feet in every direction.

Jen bought this 18" x 20" quilt-type bear
wall-hanging kit in Skagway and made it.

Coming back to the ship we saw these guys
with a super long paint roller. When the anchor and
it's chain come out the paint gets rubbed off of the
boat. It will rust if not repainted.

Mom, the Pimentels and we went to hear a man recite
Robert Service poetry. Robert Service is the author of
"The Cremation of Sam McGee," Dad's favorite poem.
He was animated and fun. The man on the floor was a
volunteer from the audience to read Sam McGee's lines.
He really got into it, falling on the floor at the part where
he died. If Dad were there he would have
volunteered, for sure!

Dinner time. If you can't decide between the prime rib
and the crab legs--order them both!

It was wonderful to eat next to an exceptional
view at every meal. Can anyone identify this
Brotherhood member?

This was our other favorite waiter, Alberto.
It seems the majority of the waiters were from Romania.
Constantin said Alberto was his brother. Do you
think that was true? I wasn't sure.

Susan got these beautiful Russian nesting dolls
where each doll has one scene of a story painted on it.
She and Blair have always been interested in Russian
history but their interest was enhanced as they learned
more about it from their son-in-law, Val. Val served
a Russian-speaking mission in the Ukraine and was later
employed in Russia. He has many stories!

Michael and Laurel on deck, leaning back into the wind.
We are making our usual lap around the deck to
see what everything looks like before going to bed.

An almost slumber party here with Sarah, Linda, Patty spoiling
us once again with backrubs and foot rubs, and Laurel (in the mirror).
Did anyone give Patty a shoulder rub? I meant to and didn't--doh!

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