Skagway

A beautiful sunny day in Skagway. About 19 degrees and perfect for an explore. Only 4 boats in town today - the two Princesses dogging our heels northward, and The Disney Wonder complete with Mickey Mouse ears which must be heading south.

Went ashore after breakfast and wandered around the town with the crowd. Pretty much the same formula - 50% of the shops would be selling precious stones, jewelry or tourist souvenirs, and there would be a hundred tour companies spruking their wares, but if you overlook all of that it's a pretty nice place. Kind of like a wild west town - wooden shop fronts and wooden plank footpaths, and a fair bit of care has been put into keeping it all in good condition.

Skagway is built on a small flat delta where the rivers descend the mountains and flow into the sea, so its a tiny landlocked area. The airport runway runs next to one of the town's five streets. Don't think that Skagway is connected by road to anywhere else, so you can imagine what it was like being so isolated here a few generations ago.

After the obligatory inspection of the town, and a coffee to fuel us, we headed off on the suggested walking trail to Lower Dewey Lake. Only about 1km away from the boat, but pretty much straight up the mountain on a zigzag trail from the pier till you reached the shore. Then it was a good walking trail for the 4km around the lake itself. The scenery was beautiful, and with only a dozen of us venturing around the lake, it was nice to leave almost everybody else to their shopping. Surely they must have bought all of the jewelry that they are going to by now.

After a couple of hours had seen us circumnavigate the water, we wandered back down the hill to the ship for a late lunch, and a sit on the deck where we could just soak up the sun and admire the view for a while.

Thought we'd better make the most of the our good weather, so we headed off the ship again mid afternoon and walked the other way around the shore to Yakutania Point and Smuggler's Cove, both of which were gorgeous in the sunshine.

Tonight's entertainment in the showroom was a comedy-magic routine by Jeff and his Magic Dog, followed by another lovely dinner in the dining room.