Blogs from Skagway, Alaska, United States, North America - page 2

Just past the halfway point of this cruise, we felt entitled to sleeping in. With the blackout drape closed no daylight filters in from the morning sun. As I write this, it is already the next day, and I just had one of those Ground Hog Day moments as the elevator carpeting reminded me that it is still “Thursday”, the same day that we arrived in Skagway. It’s déjà vu all over again. I urged Sharon to go to the dining room for breakfast because I wanted the spinach/mushroom eggs benedict. Sharon was fine having French Toast. I picked up the “Times Digest” upon entering the dining room, a paper that provides a synopsis of what’s going on in the world, and there are often flavors for different nationalities (such as a Canadian edition), mainly to ... read more

Up at 3:45am, 50deg. Worked on catching up on blog. Breakfast, & then moved RVs to ferry line for scheduled 3:30 pm ferry to Haines, AK later today. Strolled thru Skagway, shopped, had lunch & then mailed package with gifts to Naples. Celebrity Cruise ship in town, so shops were somewhat crowded. Skagway is a quaint town and owes its birth to the Klondike Gold Rush. It boomed as thousands of gold seekers arrived to follow the White Pass and Chilkoot trails to the Yukon goldfields. In July 1897 the first boatloads of stampeders bound for the Klondike landed at Skagway. I think they're still coming but they are only getting as far as the top of the main street where busses from the cruise lines drop its passengers so they have to walk the 1/2 ... read more

4 Sep 2016: Imagine this: The year is 1896 and you are a Tlingit native on Skaguay (Trans, Where the wind blow hard) inlet collecting fish oil, ivory, shells and dried fish to trade with the Athabascans in the interior for their furs and meat. Suddenly, ships appear on the horizon and sail right into the deep water harbor where you are preparing your trade goods. Hundreds, then thousands of men disembark, shoulder you aside and begin building shops, saloons, hardware stores, wharves, stables, brothels and dumping tons of supplies where you used to prepare your fish. They call themselves "Stampeders" and they are here to get to the gold fields in the Yukon, 1200 miles away. 1200 miles away and you come here? How does that make any sense? Nevertheless, they're here and put you ... read more

Skagway 29 July 2016 Skagway was made up of a seven-block corridor along Broadway Street, featuring historic false-front shops and restaurants, wooden footpaths, locals in period costumes and restored buildings, many of which are part of the National Park Service-managed Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Beginning in 1897, Skagway and nearby ghost town of Dyea was the starting place for more than 40,000 gold-rush stampeders who headed to the Yukon primarily by way of the Chilkoot Trail. The main points of interest in and around Skagway was the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway which we went on, the Red Onion Saloon which we visited and the town in general. We loved the town as it was so quaint and well restored and geared for tourists….and many of them. We did the funniest tour, the ... read more

This morning we had our 3rdexcursion day in a row – Skagway Alaska. However today is different in that the Sieberts are going on a bus/train tour into the Yukon and we are heading the opposite direction for a Wilderness Adventure. Our group did not need to assemble on the dock until 9:30, so we were able to sleep in for a while before going up to get breakfast. We had another big buffet breakfast and still had plenty of time before our excursion. We decided to go to town to look at some of the stores so we left the ship about 8:45. It turns out that the stores are not as near the pier as we thought they were. Apparently the pier has moved since we were last here eleven years ago. The first ... read more