First Port Day: Skagway

After so many days of continental breakfast in the room, we decided to go to Horizon Court for the buffet breakfast. This was our first port day since we got on the ship in Whittier. After breakfast we headed back downstairs to our room to shower and get ready to disembark for the day. We had already pre-booked our tour for the day (or should I say "few hours" - it was only for about 2.5 hours).

We had to scan our cards as we disembarked the ship. That's how they tracked how many people had gotten off the ship and how many missed the ship I guess. Everyone including children had a card of their own. And of course, you scanned your own card. The ship had arrived early that morning but the gangway only opened at 10.30am. So at around that time, we headed to Deck 5 and got off the ship. While waiting for our tour bus we took some pictures:

Of course just as we were going to look for our excursion group, you decided that you needed to wee wee. Ok, daddy brought you to the toilet while Ah Kong and Ah Ma went to look for the correct bus. We almost missed them as Ah Kong and Ah Ma got onto the bus and forgot to wait somewhere where we would see them! We finally got onto the bus which was a small one (like the mini buses in Penang) and soon we were on our way to the Skagway town then to the Klondike Highway. We had been reminded to bring our passports as the bus would be bringing us across the border to Canada.

The journey started with us driving through the town of Skagway where the bus driver told us a little about the town and the population and even where to go for lunch or a drink. And very soon we left the town and were on the highway. It was a pleasant drive going uphill with a magnificent scenery and we even caught glimpses of the White Pass & Yukon train. We took one stop and got this beautiful scenery shot:

Lonely and long highway

Then we continued on our journey. There were even people going on a cycling tour on the highway. How tiring! As you can see it was a hilly highway. Then the bus driver mentioned that he felt something was wrong with his bus! Oh no.. so he pulled over and tried to radio for help. Thank goodness the mechanic for the bus company was nearby and checked and confirmed that the bus was spoilt. So we stopped and waited while they tried to radio for another bus for us. Finally another passing bus helped to radio for help. In the meantime, we waited and enjoyed the scenery.

We had stopped nearby a beautiful waterfall and we all got down to take some pictures and some of the passengers even took a drink from the waterfall. We got tired and went back to the bus to sit for a while when the other passengers in the bus spotted a grizzly bear crossing the road. Everyone got excited but the bear which was not bothered about the audience it had gathered, just continued to cross the road and disappeared.

That was when "it" happened. You decided that you needed to poo poo! Yup, in the middle of the highway with NO toilets. I tired to convince you to wait a while but you insisted that you had to go... IMMEDIATELY. Oh-kay.. now what? I asked the bus driver where you could do a "big one" and he kindly brought us downstream from where the water from the waterfall was flowing to a clearing and told me you could do your business there and to please put the tissue paper under a stone.

I didn't think you could do your business there... but I guess you really had to go then and there, so you had no problem doing your business there. When you were done, you even asked me there you could wash your hands! So you washed in the little stream and then went back to the bus and a short while later another bus came to pick us and we went on our way.

We went on towards the border and then we spotted some buses stopped along the side. And guess what they were looking at? A baby grizzly bear having a snack:

The scenery on the way to the border/summit:
We drove past the border and did not stop at customs. We continued until we reached the summit which had an amazing scenery:
Before we left, we used the outhouses which were similar to the ones in Denali National Park only this was smaller and didn't even have the hand sanitizer and er.. I reckon stank even more! We took another stop before reaching the US Customs and had this picture taken:

It took a while as we waited for our turn to clear the US customs and we were soon on our way back to Skagway and the bus driver was telling us about the gold rush in Skagway a long time ago. The bus driver dropped us in town for us to have our lunch. We crossed the road from where we were dropped and went here for lunch.

The Skagway Brewing Co. was one of the places recommended by our bus driver. It must be good as it was so full of customers. We finally got a table big enough for the 5 of us and then we ordered our food and drinks. First came the drinks:
Obviously the left are Ah Kong and daddy's drinks and you also had your drink... milk, a must have for you this whole trip. Finally our lunch came and no pictures as we were too hungry!

We walked around the little town (it was only ONE main road) then did little shopping (a lot of the shops were giving BIG discounts as it was the end of the season). After that we stopped at the train station to look around and even take a picture on a train carriage before taking a short scenic walk back to the ship.

After dinner, we wanted to catch "Alexander the Illusionist" but as we were a little late after dinner, we could not get a seat. There were a lot of empty seats but they were reserved for friends (who never turned up!). Anyway, we gave up any hopes of getting a seat and ended up going back to our room to retire for the day.