Skagway to our first Canadian check-in..

After cruising past one fabulous glaciers and bit berg ice fields, we arrived at Skagway, Alaska at 7am his morning. Paul had arranged a rental car, so we fought the oldies to get off the boat quickly, so we could jump in our car and head away...

Skagway is a frontier town of the Klondike gold rush days, and has been modelled along these lines in tthe buildings.

After a quick drive around town, we headed north to do the 110 miles to Whitehorse - the capital of the Canadian province of the Yukon Territory. The weather was fog and drizzle, as usual, but once we crossed the White Pass, the rain dried up, and the sun made some valiant attempts to come out to play.

Emerald Lake was quite astonishing, being literally emerald in colour. This was due to the floor of the lake being white calcite. It was truly beautiful, with the dark green spruce framing the lake.

Low clouds hung on the nearby mountains, which was eerily beautiful, and the lakes were very still, providing a perfect mirror image of the vista.

As we entered the Canadian province, we were very excited to return to the metric system, if only for a few ours. Not being familiar with miles and pounds since 1976, I was a bit rusty, so it was good to know the "right" distance.

Whitehorse is a bustling town, obviously the biggest in the area. We very excitedly found a Tim Horton, and had a very nice coffee. I confess I am sick to death of filtered coffee with "half & half", so until now we have sought out Starbucks when we could. Today, in Canada, we found Tim Horton, as I remembered Kate and Ben's recommendation. It did not disappoint.

We returned to Skagway to do a little shopping, before returning to the ship for an early departure at 4:30 pm. It was raining of course, and I expect it will also be used winning omorrow when we arrive in Ketchikan.Read more