We left Skagway on Friday. We flew in a small plane from Skagway to Juneau. This photo was taken from the plane. We flew at about 3500 feet through the mountains. It was beautiful!

Saying goodbye to Ashley, Skagway and all our new friends was really difficult. It was a great vacation and we are looking forward to returning.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and viewing the photo albums as much as I have enjoyed recording our vacation.

Liarsville - Thursday, June 15

The company that Ashley works for has a Salmon bake at a place called Liarsville which is very close to Skagway. The salmon bake consists of a delicious meal of grilled salmon, rice, baked beans, and pasta salad. The grilled salmon was the best I have ever had. It was grilled over a wood fire and there was an optional sauce made with brown sugar. Then after the meal we saw a nice show with the actors in period costumes from the gold rush era. They sang songs and recited Robert Service poetry. The show was funny and we really enjoyed it. The young lady with Rick is Chrystal. She really made the experience fun. If you ever go to Skagway, consider the salmon bake! The food was delicious and the show was fun!

The Fjord Express

On Wednesday Rick and I took a tour with a company called the Fjord Express. We got on a catamaran (see the photo album for pictures) in Skagway, sailed to Haines to pick up a few more passengers and made our way to Juneau. On the way we saw waterfalls, lots of whales, sea lions, porpoises and Bald Eages. It was a beautiful trip! When we got to Juneau we transfered to a motor coach and after a short tour of Juneau, we had a couple of free hours to explore the capital city of Alaska. Then we re-boarded the motor coach and went out to the Mendenhall Glacier. We had about an hour to visit the visitor's center and view the glacier. There is a beautiful lake at the base of the glacier and when ice bergs calve off the glacier they float around in the lake until they melt. After the glacier the bus took us back to the boat and we returned to Skagway. On the return trip we saw more whales and eagles, a beautiful lighthouse and many more eagles. Thank you Captain Glen and crew member Gail for a wonderful trip!

Weather and Mosquitos

Just a short note about the weather. It has been around 50-55 degrees for most of our time here but on Saturday (helicopter day) it was 78 degrees, which tied the record for that day. The sun was shining all day and it was actually sort of hot. I got a little too much sun. Yesterday drizzled all day and today is the same. A little cool and drizzly.
I have only seen one mosquito. I was warned about them. I heard that they are huge and plentiful. But I think it might be a little too early for them. Plus it's really windy in Skagway. Skagway means "windy place" in the native language.
Today we are going on a couple of short hikes and I am making vegetable soup for Ashley and her co-workers. I loaded a new album last night so check it out. There are now two and I think I will have another one tomorrow.

Helicopter ride!

Yesterday Rick and I took a helicopter ride to the Chilkat glacier. It was an unbelievable experience. Thank you Paul Conti for encouraging me to take this excursion!
When you look up at the mountains from the town of Skagway they are beautiful and huge. But when you get up to about 9,000 feet in a helicopter and you look around you realize that those few little mountains that you can see from the ground are just a couple of the hundreds of snow-capped peaks in the Chilkat range. After about a 25 minute ride to the glacier, we landed on the glacier itself. I learned about how glaciers are formed and how they move. We drank water from the glacier and hiked for about 45 minutes before loading back in to the helicopters for our return to Skagway. On the return flight the pilot took us in close to a few of the mountains to show us snow slides and other glaciers in different stages of their lives. We were gone a little over two hours and it was unbelievably exciting.

There are photos of the helicopter ride in the photo albums.

We also went for a hike to a gold-rush era cemetery. The cemetery was interesting but there was a beautiful glacial waterfall near the cemetery that was the highlight of the hike. There are more photos of the waterfall in the photo albums.

Rick and I walked over 10 miles yesterday! Hiking is the preferred mode of transportation partly because everything is so close, partly because many of the best sights are not reachable by car, and partly because we didn't rent a car.

Skagway Day 2

Today we took an off road jeep tour. Only a small part of the tour was off-road but that was the best part! Paul, Helga would have crawled right up that mountain road but the terrain was a little rough for our Jeeps. We saw beautiful terrain in British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. It was a little cloudy on the way out but on the way back the sky cleared and we had beautiful views. We saw two bears, a lynx, mountain goats and various birds and little critters. We did not see any eagles. Notice the link on the left that says "Photo Albums"? Click on it for photos of yesterday's flight from Juneau and today's Jeep tour.

SKAGWAY!

Oh man oh man oh man.
I am speechless. Where should I start?
Ok first of all, no one say anything about the cold in Alaska because I had to scrape my windows before I left Averill Park! So we got on our first flight at 6am and at 6:15pm we were getting on our fourth and last plane of the day. The last flight was Juneau to Skagway. The Juneau airport is two gates plus the little planes. It makes Albany airport look huge. The plane was a 6 passenger including the pilot. Rick got to sit in the co-pilots seat and I sat in the second row. We flew at an altitude of 2280 feet. We flew between the mountains and we followed the Lynn canal all the way to Skagway. I lost perspective because the mountains were so huge and sometimes we were flying below the tops of them. When the flight was over I said, "that was great, let's do it again!"
I can't load pictures today because the wireless at the hotel is down. Grrrrrr
But tomorrow I will go to the wireless cafe if I have to.
I wish you were all here!

One Week!

I can't believe it! We are leaving in one week. One week from this moment I will be on a plane bound for Seattle. I can't wait! I don't have anything else to say. I just wanted to check in.

Ashley's Photo

Here is a picture that is from Ashley's photos. She has public alblums on Picassa. I think I will set up an account there and put the link on my blog home page. Then we can download our pictures every day on our trip and you can see them. I will ask Ashley if I can post the link for her photos here. There are some great photos and you can really get a feel for Alaska's inner passage and, more specifically, Skagway.

Two Weeks and counting down!

Rick and I are really excited! We are making lists and considering all the excursion options. We have a file full of maps, reservations and notes. I ordered a new suitcase and our ride to the airport has been secured. We are ready to go and excited does not begin to cover it.

For me, the next two weeks are going to fly by. Before you know it, the trip will be over, I will be back home and the new memories will have a spot on my Hall of Fame list of favorite vacations. The photos will be e-mailed to everyone I know, this blog will be full of our adventures and musings and life will go on as before. Except my memories will be a little fuller and, for at least a little while, there might be a little extra spring in my step.

It's all part of the anticipation....

New Links

I have added a few new links over the last couple of days. The first is the Skagway webcam. Rick and I are addicted! This morning we have watched 3 cruise ships come in to the harbor. Yesterday Ashley sat at the picnic table behind the caboose so we could see her. Too cool. I also added a link to the cruise ship schedule. It shows how many cruise ships are in town on any given day and also the number of total people on the ships. The town of Skagway has a winter population of a little over 800 but in the summer there can be over 10,000 additional people in town from the cruise ships. We are thinking that we will plan on taking tours out of town on the days with the most cruise ship traffic.

Three weeks and counting down

Planning a trip is as much fun as the trip itself. What if you woke up one day and your spouse said to you, "pack your bags, I have tickets to Tahiti, we leave in two hours". I would not say no but I would miss the anticipation. The planning and decision-making create an environment of increasingly delicious anticipation . Which hotel would be best? Which excursions should we take? How much free time is too much? Should we hike or take the train? Do we need a rental car? Each decision brings us closer to the big event until finally, when I think I am going to bust, the big day arrives. The planning and anticipation are replaced with the reality of the experience. The build-up is always worth the trip.

Do you agree?

Photo Test

This is a test, I wanted to try a post with a photo. My husband Rick is on the left, followed by my daughter, Ashley, my mother-in-law Lee, me (Melanie) and my son Andy. Ashley graduated with her degree in religious studies. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful graduation ceremony.

It was a great Mom moment.

In the Beginning......

In February, our daughter Ashley decided to accept a job in Skagway working for a tourist company. We live in upstate New York so Alaska sounds very exotic and it is the epitome of far, far, away. It sounded like a great adventure. We were excited for her and we almost immediately decided that we would visit her.

We read everything we could find about Alaska; tour books, National Geographic books, fiction, you name it. We decided to make our trip early in the season, June 7-16th, 2007. Our flights and hotels were booked in short order. It will take four flights to get to our final destination. Albany NY to Detroit, Detroit to Seattle, Seattle to Juneau and finally Juneau to Skagway. When I booked the last flight from Juneau to Skagway, I had to tell them how much we each weigh. I love to fly on small planes so I am not apprehensive about that, but I really didn't want to tell them how much I weigh. So, I added 40 pounds to Rick's weight and subtracted 40 pounds from my weight. (Just kidding! I was honest!)

We continue to research and make plans. Ashley left for the great Northwest last Monday and she is having a blast! She flew into Juneau, spent a couple of days and then took a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride to Skagway. She met a few people on the ferry that are also working in Skagway for the summer.

I am planning to write in this blog once a week or so between now and June 7. I hope to write each evening while on our trip. I don't know much about blogging or web sites but I am hoping I can add photos.

Stay tuned!!!