Today's port of call was Skagway, the gateway to the Klondike and the Gold Rush of 1898. And it is one of our favorite stops on this Alaska run. It is one of the smallest towns with 1250 hardy folks, with that number increasing to 2500 in the summer months to accommodate the visitors from cruise ships and RV travelers. The cruise ships alone have brought 1.2 million guests in 2023 alone. Skagway is also known for their beautiful gardens full of flowers and healthy produce. One of the biggest draws has to be the White Pass Yukon Route scenic railway. It was built for the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898 for the miners, and continues to this day taking tourists to see the panoramic mountains, glaciers, gorges, waterfalls, tunnels, trestles, alpine lakes, and several historic sites. This narrow-gauge railroad has comfortable vintage rail cars, all with different names of lakes, rivers, or animals. We have taken this tour to the Yukon and enjoyed it.
The history here portrays a colorful past that includes the discovery of gold and the following rush of miners that arrived by the thousands. The population increased to 10,000 residents back in the late 1800's. Some unsavory characters were among the lot and they filled the 80 saloons in town. There were quick fingers of gamblers and thieves and ruthless gangs stealing from the prospectors. And who can forget the painted ladies of the Red Onion Saloon? It was quite an authentic town back in those days.
There were several shore excursions here today, but we ran out of time to document them. However, we will be back next week, and list the options and their prices. That is if the TV will be working properly. Something is drastically wrong with their equipment because even the in house TV is in operational.
We were not alone in the port today as the Ruby Princess and the Norwegian Joy were docked here as well. The Zaandam had the best dock at Broadway, while the NCL ship was at Ore Dock with a long walk, and the Ruby Princess was at Railroad Dock. That is where the most recent landslide occurred, and the guests are not allowed to walk off of the ship there. They were required to take a shuttle to town. We were docked there once and had to be tendered to shore away from the landslide, which was not even a 5 minute ride to the small boat harbor.
We left the ship around 11am, after the first crew drill of this cruise was held. It lasted ½ hour. And by the way, we sent out the first bag of laundry today. It was back all nice and clean and folded by 5pm. There was a sweet note thanking us for using their service. No….we thank them for such great service.
The first thing you notice when leaving the ship are the trees. They include cottonwoods, pines, hemlocks, Sitka spruce ,firs, birches, and mountain ash with small red berries clusters. These have become invasive. Wildflowers include columbine, goatsbeard, yarrow, fireweed, mosses, monkshood, cotton grass, lupines, and geraniums. Passing the fairly newly built restrooms and expansive park grounds, we headed for the Pullen Creek to see if the salmon were on their migration upstream. We could smell them before we saw them. The bottom of the shallow creek was littered with decaying bodies as the live fish struggled to make their way upstream. These salmon were either king, coho, or silvers and are at the end of their lifecycles where they spawn their eggs then die. The science of this migration is fascinating as well as mysterious. We do hope to see more of the same when we reach Ketchikan in a few days.
The trains had picked up many passengers and were on their way towards the border of Canada. There were crossing guards at every street that the tracks crossed over, which is necessary these days especially considering that so many folks are glued to their cell phones and are not aware of passing cars, buses, or even trains. We saw one such lady that walked right in front of an RV today and would have been hit if it were not for the nice lady behind her who pulled her back.
Deciding to stay in town this visit, we made our way up to the Moore House, Museum, and the red light district of the old days. There were some benches near this area, so we stopped and had a nice conversation with two ladies from the Ruby Princess. We must have spent a ½ hour comparing ship experiences and a little bit of everything newsworthy with all of our travels. They were most curious about us being on the smaller ship, since the Ruby had about double the guests (3000) compared to the Zaandam (1400). They were on an 11 day round trip from San Francisco and appeared to be heading back soon. We wished each other well and continued on our journey just as a walking tour of town filled the benches where we were.
Passing several souvenir shops, we eventually found a small pharmacy that was closed on weekends. Really? The ladies had suggested we go to the food market to find over-the-counter drugs, but we somehow missed it. Pizza was on our minds, so we headed to the Station Bar & Grill to find they were quite busy. They handed us a beeper, and it buzzed in 10 minutes. However it was for two seats at the bar, so we waited for a booth instead. That worked since one was available in less than 5 minutes. We ordered one draft beer, one diet Coke and a Hawaiian pizza. It was every bit as good as we remembered. We forgot how large they were, so we ended up bringing back 3 slices to eat tomorrow while cruising in Glacier Bay. We do have a refrigerator, so it will be just fine.
Usually we split a fry bread at the Doughboy store, but we figured that could be next week. A final stop at the Arctic Brotherhood Hall (1899) provided us with brochures and maps for research back on the ship. This is an interesting building since the façade had 8883 pieces of driftwood on the front of the building dating back to the 1900's. In 2005, this rotten wood was removed and 40% of it was replaced, leaving 5300 original pieces of this driftwood to be used again. Pretty cool.
We heard through the grapevine that an annual event occurred here last night. It was called the Klondike Road Relay, a 110-mile relay race that began last night and continued through the evening. The runners in teams of 10 made their way along the Klondike Highway to Whitehorse, Yukon where it ended on noon today. Runners from all over the world come here to participate. Interesting.
Back on the ship by 5:30pm, we relaxed on our freshly cleaned veranda for a while, watching the parade of NCL folks walk back to their vessel. They would leave around 7pm. We were off to dinner by 7:30pm and that's when the Ruby Princess left the fjord. Once again, we were last to exit by 9pm. Dinner was simple and good tonight. One of us ordered the onion soup, while the other had the Caesar salad. Mains were parmesan-coated chicken breast and a plate of rigatoni with chicken meatballs. Served very hot of course. We had a visit from Maître-d Hakim who brought Neil, the head chef along with him. We have enjoyed Neil's cooking for the last several world cruises. However, we thought he was returning to the Volendam in January, but he said, no, he was getting married instead. We wished him well, and we are not sure who will be taking his place.
The World Stage Repertory Company took the honors for the entertainment this evening with "Crossroads". It was half over by the time we finished dinner, but that's normal for us.
Tomorrow we will be in Glacier Bay, and we sure hope the beautiful weather we had today follows us tomorrow.
Bill & Mary Ann
