Alaska (summary 3)

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Alaska Summary 3

Greetings again from Alaska (via Michigan, via Myrtle Beach SC, via home where I am at this writing )
When I stopped last time, we were in Whittier AK about to board the ship Island Princess. We had boarded about 6 p.m. on Monday August 18th and after locating our stateroom, went to eat. Eating seems to be what cruises are best known for as there are two restaurants that cater to people on board, plus two restaurants that are specialty (which cost extra), two food areas that have pizza, sandwiches, burgers, etc. and one buffet restaurant that was open 24 hours. We ate at the first seating (6 p.m.) and were put with a Mother and Daughter from Winnipeg Canada. The Mother is a retired Professor in Biology and the Daughter is a Professor in medical research and they both were very interesting to dine and converse with. They speak French and translated a couple menu items for me, which I ate and loved. It’s funny how you meet someone, then out of all the 2000 people on board, you see this person time and again. That was the case with Veronica and her Mother Susanne. Also Angie and her family. (They are from Taiwan and we met them on the train and continually ran into them on the ship.) We also talked to several people due to Shirley’s arm being in a sling. There were three other ladies in the same situation. It seems everyone has a story of a bad shoulder. Well, back to the cruise. We left Whittier late, but when I awoke the next morning I looked outside and saw a large glacier about ¼ mile away. I woke Shirley and the journey of beautiful mountains and glaciers meeting each other had begun. We were in College Fjord. The ship sailed through Prince William Sound and out into the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Waves got to Shirley by Tuesday evening, so after dinner we sat in the casino for a couple hours while she got adjusted to the movement. Poor girl now had to fight the pain of her shoulder plus the nausea of the ship’s movement. (Jim and Don, you remember those days on board ship? Not fun.) Wednesday brought calmer water and entrance into Glacier Bay National Park. We didn’t see large floating chunks of ice, but we did see some magnificent glaciers and scenery. The weather was gorgeous and about 70 degrees, but being on the water and around glaciers, a light jacket was still needed. As we left Glacier Bay, it was time for bed and to awake on Thursday in Skagway. Skagway was my favorite town, perhaps because we wandered around it instead of taking a side excursion. I had read some history of the town which also helped. (Plus I was looking forward to seeing the town where Jim’s son had worked for so long and ride the train that he worked on.) Well the beautiful weather we had been experiencing decided to leave us in Skagway. It was cloudy with drizzling rain. The ladies went one way shopping and Mike & I went another exploring. The town of 800 residents is nestled between a mountain and the sea and was the gateway to the Klondike gold rush. One of the main characters of the town was Jeff “Soapy” Smith. He was a con artist that came from Colorado to literally take control of Skagway in 1898. Nothing could be done without the approval of him and his gang. He died in a gunfight with another criminal that wanted control. The townspeople turned out in mass for the other man and only 3 people attended Smith’s funeral. They are buried about 60 feet apart in a little cemetery outside of town. The other man, Reid, has a large monument erected in his honor for killing Smith and Smith has a single tombstone on a rather non-descript grave just outside the cemetery boundaries. (The people didn’t want to tarnish the cemetery by burying Smith in it.) To this day, the town has been or is being refurbished, except for the Jeff Smith Parlor. It is in a rundown condition in town. In our wanderings, we found a play about Smith’s life and saw it then because it was so cloudy and rainy, Mike and I took a van up the mountain instead of the train. It was so cloudy that there was no view, so we were glad we had not paid for the train ride ahead of time. One of the amazing things Mike and I learned was the manner of life in the days of the gold rush. Two thousand pounds of supplies were required, carried up steep mountain sides under very harsh weather conditions. Men left their jobs all across the West to go to Alaska to hunt for gold. Only to find the claims were staked and they had to work for someone else. As the day wound down, we wound our way back to the ship to clean up and have another 5 course dinner. 😊 The ship left port and headed for Juneau.
It is currently storming here in Jackson, so I'll close for now.
Bill

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