Alaska- Day 5- Skagway

Our last port was an old Gold Rush mining town called Skagway.  Because of it's historical nature, Skagway was Cory's favorite stop on the cruise.  We were in port all day so we again chose a longer excursion that allowed us to see several things in the area.  We started with a train ride, then visited a suspension bridge and ended with lunch at the Jewell Gardens.

 

The train ride is the most popular thing to do in Skagway.  The train ride takes you up the mountain and allows you to see parts of Alaska that you can't see any other way.  The scenery is beautiful- rushing streams in between the valleys, waterfalls, lakes created by glaciers many years ago, and huge mountains whose sharp peaks were rounded by the glaciers moving over them.  Everyone had encouraged us to take the train ride and I'm so glad we did.  My pictures don't come close to showing the beauty that we saw that morning.

After the train ride, we got on a charter bus and went to the Yukon Suspension Bridge.  The bridge crosses over the white-water rapids of the Tutshi River in Canada.

For those of you who know me, I've always had a fear of bridges, so walking across this suspension bridge was a huge deal for me.  I'm proud that I faced my fears and did it, but I will not be volunteering to do it again any time soon!

We rode the charter bus back down the mountain as our tour guide taught us a lot about the history of Skagway and the surrounding territories, especially during the Gold Rush in the late 1800s. 

After we crossed back into the US, she stopped and let us take a picture in front of the Alaska border sign.  Again, the views were quite impressive.

Our last stop on our excursion was Jewell Gardens, an organic flower and vegetable show garden in Skagway.  They also have the only public glassblowing studio in Southeast Alaska.

After lunch in their restaurant, we went on a tour of the gardens and then got to watch two guys who were glassblowing a pitcher.   We learned that since there is often 20+ hours of daylight in Alaska, plants grow much larger than they do down in the lower 48 states because there is so much more time for photosynthesis to take place.

This is the largest cabbage I've ever seen!

After our excursion was over, we still had several hours to kill before the ship departed.  Cory had heard about an old cemetery that was a 1/2 mile walk from town and wanted to go see it.  It was a long walk but we finally made it and saw not only the cemetery, but another beautiful waterfall that was close by.  Luckily, some nice strangers (who ended up being from Whitney, TX) saw us walking back into town and offered to give us a ride.  We were so thankful for the ride because we were both really tired at this point in the day.  We enjoyed talking with them (she works with a friend of ours from church- it's such a small world!) and ended up eating dinner with them on the ship later that evening.  

While we were sad that our last day off the boat was over, we truly felt like we got to see the beauty of Alaska while we were in Skagway.  Next up... Glacier Bay National Park!