Blogs from Skagway, Alaska, United States, North America - page 4

Geo: 59.4583, -135.314 We had a leisurely start after getting breakfast and fuel before we hit the road at 8 am. It was another beautiful day with clear skies and 55 degrees as we headed out of Teslin in the Yukon. After an hour we picked up the Carcross Loop Hwy 8, heading south to Tagish. We followed the 62 mile Tagish Lake along a spectacular range of mountains, finally arriving at the junction of the Klondike Hwy 2. We stopped for coffee at the Caribou Crossing Sled Dog Camp and wildlife Museum. It was too early for most of the usual activities, where they pretty much cater to the charter buses of tourists coming upmfrom the cruise ships out of Skagway. We did get to photograph some mountain goats high on a hill at the ... read more

Writing this while in the Glacier Smoothie and Espresso Cafe in Skagway. Kids have each got a 20oz smoothie and reading comics while mum and dad have a cup of coffee. Caitlin has gone for a thing called the Zinger which has strawberries, raspberries and lemonade and is very tasty. Reuben opted for a thing called the Cabin Fever which contains peanut butter, chocolate and banana. Sounds interesting, tastes disgusting, but obviously not to a 10 year olds less than selective pallet. Now retrospectively, awoke at 7am and quietly lifted the curtain whilst sleeping beauty slumbered on. Found myself eye to eye with a concrete piling and our porthole (is it a porthole when its square and doesn't open) at the top staring out over the wharf. We had docked at Skagway. Needed to wait for ... read more

Day 4- Monday - Sept 3, 2012 Skagway We docked in Skagway today on day 4. We took the White Pass & Yukon Railroad train ride to the Canadian border. It was a fun trip riding the old train up to the Canadian border and back again. After we got dropped off in Skagway, near the ship, we headed to the town. It's a quaint little historic town. We had lunch at the Bonanza Restaurant and I had a fantastic chocolate martini. It was so good I had to ask the bartender for the recipe. Also found a cute little quilt shop where I bought a pattern for a puffin quilt to make, in the future. The ship docked not too far from town. It's an easy walk or you can board a shuttle bus for ... read more

The town of Skagway is a quaint town with friendly locals and an interesting history. I'm discovering that prostitution was very popular in Alaska since every port has a historical brothel tour. Guess those gold miners needed something to do. Here are some quick Skagway Facts: There are 923 people living in Skagway during the summer peak the town dwindles down to 200 people who live in town year-round. Business are open 5 months out of the year so locals who live her year around have to earn enough to last until tourist season begins in June. The nearest hospital is in Juneau. Most citizens of the town are born in Canada so they have dual citizenship. However, most women will choose to fly down to Portland or Seattle to have their children. There is one ... read more

18th July ’12 Haines and Skagway We had decadent breakfast in bed this morning! It also served as our wake up call for our first port and the chance to get off the ship. We were moored at Haines but this also served for the town of Skagway where most of the excursions went from. Thanks to research by Howard before joining the ship we were able to do our own version of the ship’s Whitepass Summit Scenic Railway with shopping time in Skagway trip and so save ourselves $100. We were even on the same ferry and train as the people from our ship, although they had priority boarding the ferry and the first 4 train carriages. We had checked with the ship’s Travel Guide where to catch the fast ferry from so we got ... read more