Skagway & the Yukon

Our Skagway day was much anticipated. We booked an all day excursion to go up into the Yukon. It made multiple stops, and all of them were absolutely stunning. On our first stop, we actually got to make snowballs. Luke was very excited about this and it was one of his hopes for this trip. He has no recollection of playing in the snow when we lived in Maryland. It definitely felt surreal to see so much snow, and to be so cold, in June.

Much of our excursion took place in Canada, so we had to go through Canadian Customs. The border patrol walked through the bus and looked at all our passports. On the way home, the American counterparts looked at our bus drivers passport, asked if all passengers were on a cruise and asked if he picked up any hitchhikers. Not sure if Canada is more secure, USA is more trusting, or some combination. 

One of our stops was the Yukon Suspension Bridge. We took tons and tons of pictures.

Not as big as the Capilano, but still fun.

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. So beautiful.

We learned a lot about the gold rush and what the Canadians did to keep the peace in the Yukon.

Thomas and Jack both thought this was hilarious. Not sure why :)

Over the course of the day, we saw some great wildlife. Some of us actually saw a moose, which, according to our tour guide is very rare. Luke was the one who spotted him and yelled out moose! the whole bus was very excited. Unfortunately, Anna and Kara were sitting on the wrong side to see her, but the rest of us did. Anna and Kara did later see a bear on their side, so I think it made up for not seeing the moose. All of us saw a porcupine and rabbits. 

The tour included lunch and we stopped in a tourist trap area (Wild Adventure Yukon). But, it was pretty fun. We had our lunch and then walked around the various buildings. It even had a small petting zoo with llamas, goats, etc. One of the coolest parts was they had tons of sled dogs that would pull people in a motorized cart. It was a little expensive, so we did not participate, but it was fun watching the dogs. They got extremely excited when it was time for them to do a run. I saw one dog literally jumping, trying to get his harness down in the hopes that he would be chosen to pull the cart. 

We also got to pet future sled dogs.

After lunch, we had two more stops, the first was at Emerald Lake, which was beautiful. Then we went to a little town, which was just OK. After that, we made the drive back to Skagway. 

Emerald Lake lived up to its name.

When we got back on the ship, we went straight to dinner. Thomas, Kevin, Luke, Jack and I went to Alfredo's for pizza. It was amazing. Kara went off to the teen club. After dinner, Jack, Luke and I went to the evening show. It was a comedian and an amazing singer (not at the same time). Thomas went to the gym. Anna had another early night (Thomas and I sat with her at the buffet after we had our dinner). Three days in a row of excursions was a lot and most of us went to bed early. Kara stayed out until 1am at the teen club. I am not sure exactly what they do. I know there is a teens only hot tub and karaoke, video games, etc. We gave her rules and we are trusting that she is following them. The smaller ship and the Alaska itinerary feel safer than our Caribbean cruises on the mega ships. I know that the kids are enjoying the extra freedom we are giving them.