Skagway, Alaska

Today, we got off the ship in Skagway, the most northern port of our trip. This was a really fun day, the only excursion we planned for this cruise. We got on a bus and drove 3 hours from Alaska across the International Date Line, into British Columbia, and then into Yukon territory. So many different terrains and sights, with an entertaining bus driver telling us stories of the Gold Rush and the areas we were driving through. We stopped for lunch at a tourist trap, but it was interesting, as they had an Alaskan wildlife taxidermy museum, and also had a lot of Alaskan huskies who train for the Iditarod by pulling tourists in big sleds. Lunch was good, bbq chicken, baked potato, slaw, and homemade donuts. Then we turned around and went halfway back down to Carcross, where we boarded a train to ride the rest of the way down to Skagway. The scenery was again stunning from a totally different vantage point. We were allowed to get on the little platform at the end of the rail car where the cars are linked together. It really added to the experience to be out there. Our conductor looked like he came straight from the Polar Express train! It was a full 8 hour day, we did have time to walk through the several blocks of "downtown" Skagway before returning to the ship. There was a really nice quilt shop there😉!Read more