Skagway Ferry from Haines, AK

August 10^th, Sunday

   Rain, rain go away…or stay here in Haines while we ferry into Skagway.  (does that rhyme? It does in my head!)

  Posting a few pics of us driving onto the ferry and getting situated on board.  Lin says the seas will be rough with all the rain…so I will be wearing my fancy electrical stimulus band, so as not to throw up.  You don’t want a pic of that!!  

The “packing” us in to the ferry was interesting.  Feel like sardines in getting on the ferry, but they got all the vehicles in and we are safe and sound.   

 

The pics are foggy, that’s not my camera, its the real fog here and rain going across the inlet.

The inside of the ferry is lovely.  I could travel like this, the chairs are comfy...the views are nice, cafe on board and no one "patting" you down and taking your shoes off. 

  

Only an hour over to Skagway then the opposite to get us back off. It’s like, “start your engines”…but they are very good about getting everyone off, no matter the size of RV or vehicle. 

 Decided to drive around a bit after dropping the RV off in the park, stopped at the Visitor Center, then took a long drive out to Dyes township, a ghost town, but interesting.  Found a shop we almost stopped at??  Not sure what kind of “bodily needs” we might find in there, so we decided to pass that one up.  
 

 saw this? Not sure they are?  Anyone? 

Headed out to the Weir, its where they count the salmon as they swim upstream.  Yes, there is actually someone there counting the fish!! How boring is your job that you can’t think, “thank goodness I don’t have to count salmon swimming upstream?” Did get to a quilt store, of course! 

  Waited for the bear to show up, no show tonight, we waited for 2 hours til 10:30pm, so heading back to the RV to rest.

August 11, Monday

   Raining again this am, but not as hard as yesterday, so we walk the streets of Skagway.  An old frontier, gold rush town.  The visitor center is a wealth of information on the town, several movies on the Klondike gold rush and the Chilkoot trail that started in Dyea, which is a ghost town now.

  Skagway, started from the Klondike gold rush of 1897, when boatloads of stampeders started showing up.  By 1899, the stampede was over, and the new railway from Skagway to Whitehorse, caused the demise of Dyea and the Chilkoot trail, the famous pictures of thousands of stampeders walking up the snow covered mountain pass.   Skagway struggled in population but the port and railway has lead to its success.  Now there are over 6000 people a day landing on the ferries to see the town, spend lots of money and get back on the cruise ships or ferries.

   You know it’s economy is based on the gold rush still as every other store downtown is a jewelry store and we got sucked into it!!  Lin got me another necklace and earrings, white quartz with copper running thru them in the shape of a whale’s tail.  Beautiful and that will be birthday gift!!

    Drove again to the Weir to seek out the bear, raining but we can see eagles, lots of salmon and the guy counting them again, but no bear even though we wait for 4 hours for him to come out.