Day 25 & 26 - Skagway & Glacier Bay National Park

We sailed overnight and arrived in Skagway in the morning. Nan was up early and woke me up to tell me we were passing another ship. It turned out we were just docking and two other ships were already in town. Our Model A group had a tour scheduled on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad. We took a motor coach ride to Frazer, BC that was supposed to be scenic and it was for part of the way, but the clouds were hanging low today and we didn’t see much from then on. In Frazer we boarded the train for the ride back to Skagway. The narrow gauge train dates back to the turn of the century and is just like the Edaville Railroad. Fortunately the clouds/fog lifted and we had a great ride over narrow trestles, through tunnels and beside some pretty deep ravines. All in all it made for quite a nice ride.

Skagway is a little town with lots of history. We had lunch in the Red Onion which was a brothel and bar back in its day. It’s still a bar (well, pub now) and the brothel is still the same price; $5 for 15 minutes, only now it's for a tour of the upstairs. The food was good and the ambiance was fun. With lunch out of the way it was time for some serious shopping. Nan and Barbara Tallone gave Gene and I a good work out carrying all their purchases. I have never seen so many jewelry stores in one area; I’m amazed that they can all stay in business. In any event, we managed to get back to the ship before it sailed so we could visit the next stop on our itinerary which was Glacier Bay National Park.

When we woke up in the morning we were entering the park and fortunately the weather was cooperating as the sun was shining brightly and things were looking good. The ship picked up staff from the NPS who acted as our guides. The day was spent cruising in the high points that the ship could visit, which covered most of the parks highlighted attractions. The mountains and glaciers were magnificent. The major attraction was the calving of the Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers. Grand Pacific is the largest in the park and disappears out of sight. Margerie is the most photo graphed as it puts on a spectacular display of thunderous noise and giant splashes as ice calves off the glacier and crashes to the water. Needless to say everyone wanted to stay longer to get more pictures. The park rangers did a great job of narrating the activities and sights while they were on board. Upon leaving we were also saw a great display of whales breaching as they were feeding. One time we counted as many as 6 spouts in an area then the whales would break the surface and crash down making a huge splash…what a sight. We all agreed that this was a special sight to witness and one we won’t soon forget.