For reasons I don't fully understand and certainly can't explain, Skagway, Alaska is one of my favorite places. Somehow, I just took to it. I had no shore excursions planned for my day in Skagway. The big one to do was the train to Canada that the gold rush miners took. I didn't take that. I heard that it was great and people saw bears and other wild life and some saw sled dog puppies. I guess I will have to go to the zoo to see bears. So, I had a free day on shore.
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Looking from the ship toward the view from Skagway. How could one ever get tired of the view?
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We weren't the only cruise ship pulling into Skagway that Wednesday morning. That one was bigger than ours. I think it was the Bliss. We kept playing tag with it at various ports.
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This was my home, the Pearl.
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I walked off the ship and into Skagway. Because this was a long shore excursion town, we were in Skagway until the evening.
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Old rail cars were out on the tracks for examination.
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It was a little hike into town, but interesting.
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The town beckoned, not a stop light in town/
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Skagway is a town of about 600 year round residents. But the cruise ship people inflate that number in the summer, because people come to work in the stores.
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This was a town were the Alaska gold rush miners would get supplies before heading to the gold fields. Lots of hotels and bawdy houses in the olden days.
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Along the side of the mountain, businesses advertised their services back in the day.
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The railroad track to Canada.
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An old engine was displayed. Unfortunately, the Alaskan gold rush didn't last long and the railroad was constructed and abandoned within a few years.
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Lots of eateries and bars up and down the street today. Not too many hotels because most of us were on ships and weren't staying over night.
The storefronts looked like the wild west.
Flowers in September that were not bitten by the frost.
This is looking out the front of my favorite shop, the Rushin' Tailor, a quilt shop. I bought some fabric and ordered some when I got home. I ordered a quilt kit. It looks a bit complicated, but I am probably up to it.
Another view of the town with mountains and glaciers overhead.
And totem poles. I learned more about those later.
Wide streets and no traffic to speak of,
It was all just so interesting. Lots of shops. Sales because we were at almost the end of the Alaska cruise season.
And where but Alaska are there statues of ladies of the evening?
A park for Mollie.
And little tiny lobelias blooming.
I am not sure what these are. But the yellow with the blue made a pretty picture.
A Town below the mountains. I wonder how much snow they have now?
But those old timers built very interesting looking buildings that now sell tee shirts, jewelry, and other Alaska trinkets.
Looking back toward the cruise ship from the town.
A better picture of the totems.
I sat in this park for a while enjoying the Alaskan sunshine.
It would have been so easy to have built simple buildings without decoration, but they didn't. And it is preserved today.
They say bears come into town in the winter.. The forest began when the town ended, so I could see that.
The little side streets didn't go much of anywhere.
And the shore excursion people may have seen sled dog puppies, but I saw Alaskan dogs.
This place used to be a hotel. It sold tee shirts and other clothing these days.
Shops lined the streets, too many to see them all in a day.
I heard there were great crab legs in one of these places, Maybe this one? I didn't think of getting any.
For a little town, there were a lot of statues.
A better view of the train as I headed back to the ship.
Caboose.
The tracks. There were things to explore there that I didn't. Maybe next time I am in Skagway.
More curious than the train is the RV. How did it get here?
A train car.
And yet another statue.
Out of the town, but still a hike to the ship.
I wondered what these trees blooming red were, but I haven't discovered yet.
And down to the harbor.
And looking back at town.
There was a stream that was apparently part of encouraging Coho salmon.
I didn't see the fish from the bridge.
Besides cruises, the harbor was busy with all the stuff for the town. Everything came by ship.
Lots of containers of stuff.
I heard a strange noise on the other side of the creek. Some kind of animal call that I wasn't familiar with. See that little critter?
Baby otters.
And finally I reached the ship.
And had a late lunch at the eatery on the stern. That view.
This was a fjord, connected with the ocean. But smooth as glass.
See? Smooth.
The working port was next to us.
And so was a bigger ship.
And another ship beside us that was smaller. Thousands of people in port that day.
Something was swimming in the fjord. I imagined that it might be a sea lion or two.
But I couldn't see it clearly.
Just bumps in the water.
Without the lens bringing it closer. This is what my eyes saw.
And the side of the mountain at Skagway.
Looking at the harbor toward the town. If ever I can, I will go back there someday.
And waiting for me in my cabin was an elephant.
This is my cabin. Messy as I unpacked from the day. The mirrors make it look confusing.