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Sorry this blog and the pictures are a bit behind-my internet has really been unpredictable lately and we've been very busy. The following blog is actually from Thursday, June 18th.
To answer some questions about the cruise experience, the room is very small. Remember it's a boat, not a luxury hotel. It's very basic with a bed, small 3X3 bathroom and narrow hallways to your room. The food for the most part is very good, but somewhat repetitive. Some of the nicer places are very good and it's like going out to a fancy restaurant. It's nice to be stopped somewhere and have the opportunity to eat something different today. We always have the choice to have breakfast brought to our room, but honestly it is a very basic breakfast-cereal, yogurt, fruit and toast. If you want something more substantial, you have to go to the buffet area. Also, remember those old episodes of "The Love Boat" where you saw the portal window and the water looks like it's moving super-fast and it's obvious they're not on a boat but on a stage in Hollywood? Well, in the north seas it really doesn't look too different from that, that's the funny part!
Also, I am going to forego posting any video until either when I get home or when we get to Vancouver. My internet at sea is just too unpredictable and it may not work well enough for me to load video. Besides, to be honest my pictures really show the experience better than video.
Anyways, back to our adventures of the day. Today we stopped at Skagway. We started the day by taking the white pass mountain railroad up the mountain and by the trail everyone took up to the Yukon Territory during the gold rush. It's a 20 miles train ride and you go from sea level to 2,800 feet above sea level in those 20 miles. It's a beautiful ride but also somewhat daunting. You think of people on horses and such going through all this and it's amazing more people didn't die. Greed with the possibility of becoming rich is an incredible motivator, even then. This is also not a ride for someone who's really bothered by heights. There were times in which you look on one side of the train and you look down about 1,000 feet and there isn't much room between the train tracks and the drop off. You can also stand outside on the rail of the car while it's moving, which I thought was very cool, but then again somewhat scary as well. However, I got some great pictures and video!
Afterwards we came back to the ship, grabbed a sandwich and took a nap. We did not sleep very well or very long last night so we both really needed it. Then we headed into town. It's about ½ mile walk from the cruise ships to downtown. Skagway is almost exactly like Wall Drug in South Dakota. Some of the buildings looked identical to what I saw in a number of those old west towns. We went to a few of the touristy shops but didn't spend a lot of time there. Honestly, neither of us were too impressed with Skagway. Besides the railroad, Skagway is not very interesting or exciting. It's truly an old mining town and if not for the tourists, this town could very well be a ghost town by now.
On our way back we had something to eat at the Alaska Brewery Company. We both had the fried shrimp basket. I happened to notice on the walls there was a Chicago Bears banner and a Chicago White Sox pennant. I asked our waiter about it and the owners are originally from near 110th and Cicero on the south side of Chicago.
In the evening we just enjoyed some casino time and some live music. I went and listened to the string quartet for awhile. I know that they're trying to appeal to the masses, but I didn't particularly care for some of their selections. They played Brahms Hungarian dances numbers 5 and 6, and for those who know what I'm talking about, this is not among Brahms best stuff. Brahms wrote some incredible stuff, and of all things to play, that would not be in my top 10. They also played Handel's water music, which is a fine piece, but personally I don't like how it translates to a string quartet. It was written for a Baroque-style orchestra and when you take something like that and transcribe it for 4 musicians, it loses a lot. I guess I just miss the horn part too much being a wannabe horn player myself. Having said that, I did enjoy them and they were very good. But I digress.
Overall we were not impressed with Skagway and are glad to be leaving. If not for the history here, I have a feeling this would be ghost town. It virtually already is-there's only 800 people who live in Skagway. Tomorrow we're in the state capitol of Juneau, which should be nice.
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