A Skagway day with visiting family
Cathy’s parents are visiting from Ontario for 5 weeks, so yesterday we did a “tourist” trip to Skagway. It was a superb day – sunny, 74 degrees (22°C) and calm in Skagway, with some great bonuses as you’ll see in the photos below.
We cleared US Customs and were down almost at the Black Lakes when I saw a bit of smoke in the valley so I pulled a U-turn and went back to Rocky Point despite the fact that nobody else in the car had seen anything 🙂 . A few minutes later, the WP&YR steam train appeared – the greenies probably have a fit when they see that smoke but I love steam trains!
If it wasn’t for Customs I would have followed the train back up the hill for a few miles.
We went to The Skagway Fish Company for halibut and chips, but they’re now off my recommended list. They’ve been going downhill steadily for the past 2 years, and yesterday’s meal was really substandard, so I’ll be looking elsewhere next trip. The quality was okay, but the fish portions are 1/3 the size they used to be and I left hungry. The standard of excellence is Klondike Rib & Salmon in Whitehorse – Skagway Fish Company is not even close to them anymore 🙁
Within 24 hours of arriving 2 weeks ago, Cathy’s Mom fell down the stairs between our upper and lower decks and broke an upper arm and the foot on the same side. Our activities have been severely cut back as a result, but they’re off to the hospital this morning to hopefully get a walking cast or something. It’d be nice to get the wheelchair back to the Red Cross, and the Skagway outing seems to have made a big difference in the desire to get mobile.
While we were sitting here, we met “mmemichele” from Montreal (she’s a regular on the CruiseCritic forum that I spend a lot of time at), and then Steve Suewing and his wife and son – Cathy and I met Steve when he managed the Skagway base for Promech Air. Small world.
The gorgeous Seven Seas Mariner, one of the most luxurious ships on the Alaska run. While you can get a cabin on many ships for as low as $500 for a 7-day cruise, the cabins on the 700-passenger Mariner (which are all balcony suites) start at $3,300.
Seeing whales at Skagway is a rare occurrence, but yesterday there were 3 humpbacks visible out past Yakutania Point. We spent a while watching them from beside Temsco’s active helicopter touring base.
After having such good luck with whales we decided to see if we could do the same with bears at Dyea. It’s a beautiful drive, and I wanted to show them where my son and I will be hiking on Sunday (the Chilkoot Trail), but we didn’t see any bears. The old wharf pilings, though, are always a good inspiration to look back at what life was like at that spot 111 years ago.
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