Day #4 Skagway

Skagway is located in a narrow glaciated valley at the head of the Taiya valley inlet.  It is in the Alaska panhandle 90 miles northwest of the capital city, Juneau.

It is known for gold miners looking to strike it rich in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

But first things first. Fitness center stair master and Lotus Spa. It would be more relaxing in the quiet zone on the thermal beds if others didn't talk 100 miles an hour  like they just had 10 cups of monster coffee. Geez.  Did she not read the sign? 

Okay, now on to the first excursion. The White Pass &Yukon Route Railroad. 

It's called the "Scenic Railway of the World" linking Skagway with Yukon, Canada.

It's about 40 miles round trip and goes up to almost 3,000 foot elevation. 

When you get to the top you have to switch from the left side to the right side so equal viewing opportunities for everyone. How do you do it? You have to lift the back of the seat up and flip it to the other side so you aren't sitting backwards. It goes past an old, historical cemetery a little too fast.  I would definitely like to see that next time. ( See what I did there?)

It is a beautiful ride up with great views everywhere and nail biting ledges looking down but the only thing I guess that I didn't like is going back down is the same thing as going up.

So I tried to spend most of my time outside between the cars taking pictures because there you won't have the glare of the window and whatever those purple flowers were smelled unbelievable. 

  

Downtown Skagway

After that we walked into Skagway which is 1/4 mile from the pier or about a 10 minute walk.

It's like you are stepping back in time walking on the wooden sidewalks and you almost expect to see women dressed in petticoat dresses and men in top hats with pocket watches coming out of the western style storefronts.  It's known for the "Red Onion Saloon" which was a brothel back in the day. When we walked by it was a full house and I think they charged $10.00 or so for a 20 minute tour upstairs or in the back. We didn't have much time as we had to get back to the ship so took a few pics and picked up a couple souveniers and headed back.  We don't see the teens so much now that they have discovered the teens club. 

So we come back to eat dinner in the dining room with some friends and then head over to the entertainment for the night which was singing and dancing "a la Las Vegas Style". 

I go to bed and the kids don't come back till midnight. Something isn't quite right here.