Thursday, July 9, 2009

Thursday Afternoon Tire Swing 7/9/09

Keeping with the drink theme, I thought I would find a very unique drink for today’s blog. There really is a drink called a "Tire Swing". Here is the scoop! Mix Amaretto, OJ, 151 Rum, crushed ice and blend. Pour it in a mason jar and find an old tire next to a lake or river and sit back and relax. Sounds like my kind of drink! Let our travels begin. A place exists in Alaska where the past lives on, where the cries of "gold in the Yukon" still echo from steep canyon walls, where the sounds of bar room pianos and boomtown crowds ring out in the night. A place where the romance and excitement of yesteryear linger around every street corner, every bend in the trail. That place is Skagway! One strange note about Skagway that you will not believe. Skagway makes it into the Guinness Book of World Records for Most People Tossing Eggs: 1162 on July 4th, 2008. That is a lot of eggs and must of been fun. We awake in Skagway and check out the scenery from our balcony. It is misty and a little chilly. We could not see too much except a lot of rocks on a hill that had most of the names and dates of the ships and their arrivals painted on them. It was cool! We head off to catch some breakfast and fuel up for our 7 hour adventure today. We are going to take the White Pass train into Canada. We really did not know what to expect, but we were really excited as this was our first shore excursion during our cruise. We disembark from the ship and walked down the pier until we spotted our tour company that we had signed up with. They check us off the list and we board the train for our adventure with our group. It was a pretty old set of trains and I am not going to lie, but I was a little nervous. I checked my Cruisitude at the front door so I was good to go. Our journey started off through some of the town and before no time we were headed down the track into the woods and were blessed to see some of the most amazing scenery that we have ever seen. We traveled by so many waterfalls and steep cliffs. There were old tunnels and some very old bridges that the White Pass trains used to travel over. Those bridges were spectacular to look at, but how in the heck did those trains not fall off of the tracks? Those must of been some very brave train drivers and the train conductors must of had some unruly passengers to deal with. Our train journey of 3 plus hours ended in Canada. You had to take your passport on this trip and they collected our passports to verify who we were and then they allowed us off the train for the next portion of our trip. Some people would either take the train or a motor coach back to Skagway. Our journey would continue into Canada. We were lucky and made our shore excursions with Shore Trips. This allowed us to travel via motor coach with a much smaller group of people. We only had four other couples with our group. If you use the cruise lines shore excursions you are in very large groups and cannot ask the bus driver to stop every time you want to take a photo of something. In our case we could stop whenever anyone requested. We are now headed into the Yukon where we will view Emerald Lake and visit the very quaint town of Carcross. As we head to Emerald Lake we stop at several other lakes and with the mist and fog we were again blessed with some very awesome photo opportunities. We work our way past more beautiful scenery as we arrive at Emerald Lake. I am not sure how to explain this lake besides it is incredible. It almost looks like you are in the Caribbean. The water is Emerald in color and we were just in awe of this lake. The photos I am taking do not do this great lake justice. You just will have to see this lake in person. It is finally lunch time and we arrive at Caribou Crossing. This is a cross between barbeque joint, gift shop, museum and a Husky race team kennel. I know it sounds really touristy, but it was not. The barbeque was very good. Yes, I am from Texas and I know barbeque, so don't laugh. The chef must of been from Texas. The Alaska Amber was excellent as well. The museum was very informative bringing us the history of the Yukon and the knowledg of the animals that were in this region. Janet had been waiting all day to get to this point of our trip. She could not wait until she got to be up front and personal with some real Alaskan Huskies. These dogs were incredible. Not only did we get to see them in action, we got to go in the kennel and actually pet some of these amazing dogs. Even though they were waiting their turn to get hooked up and dash through the woods pulling their sleigh, they were still very gentle and loving. This is something that Janet and I will never forget. As our time winds down at Caribou Crossing we get ready to head to Carcross. On our way to Carcross we stop to view the desert. I said that correctly. Carcross is also home of the smallest desert in the world. There were snow mobiles cruising across the sand. It was truly unbelievable. We make our way to the town of Carcross. Carcross, originally known as Caribou Crossing, is an unincorporated community in the Territory of Yukon, Canada and is located on Bennett Lake and Nares Lake. It has a population of 431 (June 2008) and is home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. This was the first nation in the Yukon Territory in Canada. Many of its citizens now live in Whitehorse. There were many shops and the little post office was amazing. We travel back towards Skagway and pass again through the Canada/US border again. It is passport time again. We stop at a few more waterfalls and finally make it back into Skagway. It is still misty and a little foggy when we arrive at the pier. It is time to get rid of our damp clothes and grab a glass of wine. What a remarkable day this has been. Skagway and the areas around here are a must visit while you are cruising Alaska. I will end this part of our trip here. We head to Juneau next. Oh my, do I hear the sound of whales? This once in a lifetime trip has been incredible so far. Until we cross paths again, Happy Travlin' and make sure you Travel Your Way! One more thing! What is your Cruisitude?

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