Best of Skagway

***We didn't get a chance to upload new pictures today. Hopefully we will get a chance to do that in the next day or two. We took lots of good pictures today.

So last night after I posted the blog, I laid down to take a nap. I was so tired. Going on wildlife watching tours are tiring :) Soon after I woke up from my nap it was time for dinner. Dinner was slow!!! Our waiters have had some trouble getting their act together. We finally said something about it so hopefully when we go back tomorrow night it will be better. Tonight we are going to the specialty restaurant called The Pinnacle. Anyways, after dinner we went back to the spa for our nightly visit. No one was there in the thermal suite. It's really nice when no one is there….it's like a private little oasis. Afterwards, we changed and looked around at the shops and the russian bazar. Nothing was for sale that I needed so I didn't buy anything. We finally made our way to the showroom for the comedian show that was supposed to start at 9. We didn't make it until 9 because we got tired of waiting. So we just relaxed the rest of the evening.

This morning we woke up at our usual time of 6am. Room service was good and our order was right. The first 2 days our order was wrong. We pulled into Skagway shortly after we got up. There are two other ships here today. One is Carnival Spirit and the other is Island Princess. Anyways, once we got off the boat this morning, we had to go meet for our tour. Our tour was Best of Skagway. We first loaded the big tour bus and made our way up to the Summit where we would get on White Pass Railway. The scenery was just beautiful! It wasn't like anything I'd seen before….well actually it reminded me a lot of the beautiful scenery in Austria. So we rode up and got on the train. Then we rode the train back down. We had great seats. We had researched and knew that it was best to sit on the right side going down if we wanted to have the best view. We went through customs going up to the summit and we went through customs again on our way back into the US. We were in canada for a portion of our trip. When we first left the US, the canadian checkpoint wasn't until 12 miles later because of weather conditions in the winter. So basically that land doesn't belong to anyone and they call it "no mans land." So once we rode the train back into town, we got back on our bus and went to a place called Liarsville. We had some really good food on an all you can eat buffet. They served grilled salmon right off the grill. Then we went across in Liarsville to see a show they put on. They told us all the history behind Liarsville and about how they would pan for gold there and other stuff. They gave people the opportunity to pan for gold, but I opted not to because I've done it before and at this point I was ready to be back on the bus. Once we got back on the bus, we headed to the Red Onion Saloon which used to be a brothel(sp?) in town. We took a tour and learned all about the way they ran that brothel back in the day. After our tour of the Red Onion, we did some shopping before heading back to the ship. We were pretty tired. The walk back was a beating…….the wind was so strong that it was tough to make our way back. When we got back, we decided to ride the elevator back up…..I'm sure you could care less how we went up to our cabin, haha! We've been walking the stairs constantly so that we will stay active. We've done really good. Mom has been the one making me walk the stairs. Sometimes I'd rather ride the elevator, but she talks me in to walking the stairs. So tonight our agenda was a little different. We went to the spa early. We went around 5:30. There were people in there tonight….boooooo! We like to be the only ones in there because its nicer that way :) Oh well, we were nice and shared. After the spa, we came back, and took our time getting ready for dinner. We went to The Pinnacle and it was delicious. First of all, the service there was MUCH BETTER than the main dining room. It's a classier place to dine. Their menu consists of fancy appetizers and nice juicy steaks. They prepare some of what you order right in front of you. I got a seafood skewer of goodness and Mom got steak diane. Hers was a nice juicy steak with mushrooms on top. She let me taste it and it was really good. For dessert I got creme brulee and Mom ordered cheesecake but they were out of cheesecake so she had the chocolate lava cake and it was so good…..she let me taste that too :) So after a really nice dining experience, we stopped by the showroom but didn't stay, and then got some future cruising brochures. It's fun to look :) We had really nice weather today. It was pretty chilly this morning. The wind was the rough part. We took our heavy coats but only wore them for a short time (well I did, but I don't think Mom did). Then it warmed up and the sun came out. We have been so lucky with our great weather!!!

Tomorrow we are cruising through Glacier Bay. I'm REALLY looking forward to that. We will probably take it easy tomorrow. I think we will eat at The Pinnacle for breakfast tomorrow since we don't have to be anywhere in the morning. My neck is still really sore. I'm not sure what I did to it, but I wish it would get better. Skagway is such a neat place. Apparently a lot of college students come up here to work for the summer. Our bus driver guide was from washington state and just came up for the summer. What a fun summer job working in beautiful alaska! I'm charging the camera battery tonight and ready for beautiful Glacier Bay! :)