Juneau & Skagway

Alaska is GRAND in every sense of the word. We’re having a wonderful time….eating wayyyyyyy too much and not getting a whole lot of rest because there is too much to do. Today we are in Skagway…a town of 800 that has 4 HUGE ships docked in their harbor (it’s actually the end of a fjord) …so their population for the day could be as many as 8000 people. We took a train ride this morning up to White Pass & into the Yukon Route….some of the photos are taken from inside the train looking out through the windows, and there are some strange reflections on the photos. (These are not UFOs or strange clouds) Once off the train we headed directly for Starbucks for a GOOD cup of coffee. That might be the one true downfall of these ships…their coffee is lousy. After the much needed caffeine jolt, we shopped in town and are now back in the cabin resting….well, he is, anyway.

Yesterday was an amazing day for me. My tour was about 5 hours long…called a photo safari. Unfortunately my long lens was not working, and being pig-headed I kept thinking it would be ‘fine’. It wasn’t. Most of the pics came out lousy, but that is ok….I had a wonderful time just the same. I saw humpback whales and eagles and sea lions laying in the sun. I also saw the Mendenhall Glacier and got to hike in the rain forest near the glacier. Mark unfortunately didn’t have as much fun on his tour. He had wanted to kayak near the glacier, but they only had a view of it…many miles away. He did see some eagles though. In Juneau, eagles as common as gulls are at home….well ALMOST. I would have had a great shot of one had my long lens been working correctly…instead I have a big blurr.

Tomorrow is Sitka….no tours planned…just hopefully shopping for those Russian nesting dolls. We’ve seen many, but I have been holding out hoping that since Sitka is an old Russian town, maybe they will have the best selection. So far we’ve seen dolls starting at $5 and going up to $450….and some I didn’t even ask about. After the shopping we’re going to try to walk through their National Historic Park which is also called ‘Totem Park’…..bet we’ll see some totem poles!

We fly home a week from today….it sure has been an amazing & wonderful adventure so far!

(sorry....photos would not load....will try later. I've used 20 min just trying to upload with no luck. At .33 a minute....will try later. )