In case you missed it, I just started a new guest trip report. Deann recently sailed on the July 9, 2018 9 night Alaska itinerary and was kind enough to share her adventures with us. You can start this trip report from the beginning right here.
Day : 7 – Skagway
Sunday, July 15
The forecast for this day was 52 and cloudy, but it ended up being rainy and windy too. Also, the wind chill dropped the temperature about 8-10 degrees – yes, even during the end of July in Alaska. But again, we were dressed for it. As we came down the gangway at 8:00 AM we were met with rain in the face. We jumped on the Smart bus, the only public transportation in Skagway. For $5.00 you got a hand stamp to jump on and off all day long. Then, we headed into town.
We got off at the first stop and walked about a block to the Klondike Gold Rush National Park headquarters at 2nd street. I had looked on the National Park Service web site and reserved tickets for the free walking tours that the Rangers give throughout the day. They give out tickets for these tours until they run out, but to ensure that we got some (especially at the height of the season), I reserved ours in advance online. We turned in our vouchers for 3 of the 4 tours offered that day (they are offered several times throughout the day) and got our tour tickets.
Our first tour was “Letters from Skagway”, which led us throughout the town to points of interest. Many had places to sit while listening, but all were wet because of the rain that morning. It was very interesting to hear first hand accounts of life (written in letters) during the gold rush in Skagway. Many a prospector did not fare well, as this bronze statue shows.
We ended up at the Moore house and by this time it had stopped raining. The benches under the trees were dry, so we took a rest while the tour talk finished. In hindsight, I would have put more time between our tours. We had walked about 7 blocks into town from the headquarters, and our next tour was to start in 10 minutes. So, we hurried back to the headquarters for the next one. We knew a back alley shortcut, and luckily the rain stopped.
The second tour was “Ladies of Skagway”. From the headquarters we made our way to the Mascot Saloon where we learned that “proper” ladies came in the back entrance.
The talk was about all the different jobs women had, percentage girls, pie bakers, laundress, seamstress, and of course fallen angels. Our walk took us to the “cribs” of the fallen angles and finally again to the Moore house, which was now open.
When our tour ended, we went inside. There we learned about the mothers and families that pioneered Skagway and how they lived.
Now it was near noon, so we walked back to the main street and found the blue and white bus stop to take the Smart bus back to the ship for lunch. This time the gangway was steeper getting onto the ship, as the tide had started to come in. After lunch, we hopped on the Smart bus again and took in the movie at the Park Headquarters, as well as the museum where we saw this Mickey comic.
We stamped our park passports and checked out the National Park bookstore. With our tour tickets we got 10% off our purchase. We skipped our third tour, “Buffalo Soldiers”, as we had seen it on the the trip last year. It is about how the Buffalo Soldiers lived in Skagway and were used as the police force during the gold rush. They had a fourth tour called “Soapy the Con Man of Skagway”, but we had seen that one before as well. So, you see you can do a lot of free things in Skagway if you don’t want to spend extra on port adventures.
We took a few more pictures of the historic buildings, and heard one of the Rangers say that Skagway means “thunder wind”. Well that was true today – it was very windy! We caught the Smart bus and headed back to the ship to warm up and take a nap before dinner.
We were back in Animator’s Palate for the show where we get to draw cartoon characters to be shown on the screens. We had lots of fun, and the food was great as always.
The next day we would be visiting Endicott Arm (it was supposed to be Tracy Arm, but it was too icy). It was going to be a very early morning the next day beginning at 4:30AM (yes, it is day light then!) so we hit the hay early.
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Up next: Day 8 – Endicott Arm
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