Skagway, August 9

There was actually some sunshine outside this morning! We were docked at Skagway which is a tiny town approximately 10 blocks long by 4 blocks wide currently hosting three cruise ships including ourselves, a Princess ship and a Disney ship. Skagway has only about 800 full time residents plus lots more in the summer cruise season. Last year the high school senior class had a record number of graduates ... 15. There is one grocery store, and most people go to White Horse, Yukon Territory several hours' drive away for movies, restaurants and the nearest WalMart.

This afternoon I took a train tour up to the top of White Pass which was one of two routes (the other is the Chilkoot Trail which is even steeper) followed by the Gold Rush Stampeders who had to each get 2,000 pounds of provisions (supposedly a year's worth) up to the top before they were allowed to go on to the Klondike gold fields. This pass is 2,865 feet above the sea level at Skagway. The Gold Rush began in 1897, and work on the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad began in 1898. Using picks, shovels, 450 tons of black powder, and muscle power, the thing was accomplished in 2 years, 2 months and 2 days at a cost of $10 million and 35 lives out of the more than 35,000 men who worked on the project, some for only a day, some for longer. The steel cantilevered bridge shown here was then considered to be an engineering tour de force, but is no longer in use. The train now operates strictly as a tourist attraction, it is privately owned and hauls some 400,000 people to the top of the pass each year between May and September as the cruise ships arrive.

Anyway, the train trip was most spectacular. The train picked us up pretty close to the ship's dock, and there was even a special car with an electric lift for those of us with wheels. The weather was partly cloudy but didn't really rain on us, and the low clouds made the mountains more mysterious. The scenery is quite similar to the Norwegian fjords but with some of the surrounding mountains being taller. Lots of sheer cliffs and long waterfalls. Today there were many kinds of wildflowers in bloom along the tracks. One difference is the kinds of forest trees here, especially the Sitka Spruce and the Subalpine Firs which are very tall and unique looking.

My disappointment with this Holland America ship continues. For several days now I have noticed extremely slow service in the dining rooms. I don't know if this is because we are doing "Anytime Dining" instead of a definite sitting, or whether they are just running short staffed to save money. I am beginning to think that HAL is just milking the 7-day Alaska cash cow of neophyte cruisers for all it's worth. I do know that, out of the1,200 or 1,400 passengers, there are so few "Four Star Mariners" that the Captain's reception for them fits into one of the smaller lounges. (Note to self: think twice before booking another of the short, popular HAL cruises in the future.)