Day 4
This morning we awoke in Skaguay, more commonly called Skagway these days. It’s in a beautiful setting at the end of a long fjord. We had heard of how touristy the town was, and yes, it is, but we still liked it because it still has an architectural sense left from the gold rush days (and is at least less touristy than Juneau). There are, however, oodles of diamond and jewelry stores just like we saw in St Thomas, Virgin Islands, that are apparently owned by the cruise lines. Ugh.
Skagway
There is also a nice museum in town and some national park exhibits. You hear the constant sound of helicopters taking off and landing for tours to glaciers and who knows what all. Again, four ships in town and many tour buses heading off to many activities.
We opted again for town and managed to find some very nice galleries, but even better than that, Sockeye Cycling was open and we were able to visit this Alaska cycling and tour company that always visits the Bike Expo in Seattle. Every time at the Expo we drool over their brochures and their jerseys. We are coming home with two new jerseys and pairs of cycling socks. Mike is a happy man. Next time in Alaska, we’ll have to plan more time so we can do one of their multi-day trips.
Sockeye Cycling
We frequently find ourselves talking with the local folks in the art shops, often because they notice Mike’s beautiful salmon bracelet and we get into a conversation about how we’re from Seattle. It never fails that the locals have all lived in the Seattle area at some point, and often grew up around there. So we are welcomed as neighbors and it’s really a lot of fun. One guy at Sockeye Cycling has an aunt who runs a chocolate shop in Anacortes. We met her, of course, when we spent a weekend in Anacortes a few weeks ago since we would obviously visit a chocolate shop in town. It was very fun to find that common connection.
Battling crows and ravens
We did make a stop in the local IGA grocery store just to see what you can get. Many things weren’t too much more than home, but the selection was extremely limited. One thing I noticed was that the cooler sections that should hold cheese were completely empty. None at all. And the prices listed even if it had existed were very high. No access to Central Market here!
It’s mind boggling to look up at the end of the valley here and realize that this is where the White Pass and nearby Chilkoot Pass are located, with Lake Bennett on the other side of the passes. Thousands of gold seekers either trekked over the White Pass with pack horses of trudged up the Chilkoot Pass laden with many loads of supplies for the trek into the Yukon. Each prospector was required to bring 2000 pounds of supplies up the pass before the Mounties would allow them to enter Canada. They could carry about 100 pounds per load. Each trip was a 17 mile slog up the pass that was too steep for horses and was covered with snow and ice. And yet we’ve all seen the picture with thousands of men doing just that.
Skagway hills and sky- kind of like home
Lunch time came and we heard from a local that the place we had eyed earlier, Skagway Brewing, had some of the best lunch in town. It had a line waiting when we had originally gone by, but she said EVERY place in town would be slammed for lunch. So we headed back to the brewery and got on the list and while the wait was 30 minutes, we weren’t sorry we did. Fresh halibut fish and chips and local brews. Very nice. But a large enough lunch that we will probably skip the dining room and just get some snacks from the buffet. Yes, you read that right! We are skipping the multi-course dining room tonight. But no fear, we found some great looking chocolates in Skagway in case we feel faint later.
Outside Skagway Brewing
Internet access has been interesting. The first night blogging we were at sea and the shipboard internet worked fairly well, though slower than land based. Last night leaving Juneau it was TERRIBLE. We spent about 20 minutes (at around $.50 a minute) accomplishing almost nothing. Right now we are working back on ship while still docked here in Skagway and it seems to be working OK again. We have learned that when we get a chance, to do as much as possible while in town on land based internet – usually from a coffee shop. Skagway actually has wifi covering the town, which is great. It runs $3 for an hour, or $7 for 24 hours. We got a fair amount done while in a coffee shop here earlier today, including uploading many of our pictures, one of the most bandwidth intensive tasks.
More Skagway birds
How do the locals view tourists? For many here there is a lot of resentment/hostility towards tourists, who are most often haole (Caucasian), Japanese, and — increasingly — Chinese. But they bring the $$$ to fuel the economy. The economy here is wedded to tourism, which is bad because when people cut back one of the first things cut is vacations.
PS: Hawaii is the only state in the union where cacao is grown. Just sayin’ ….
I talked to a number of shop people asking specifically how they felt about the hoards of tourists, especially since these towns can be increased many-fold in size when two, three, or even four cruise ships pull into town. I asked if they are relieved when the ships all finally leave. Every single person said they actually enjoy having the tourists in town because they are fun to talk to. I’m sure there are many locals who stay clear of town when the ships hit, but I think in Alaska it can be a very different situation from Hawaii. Like Hawaii, many of their livelihoods depend on the tourist business, but in Alaska the season is quite short. Ships start in May and are done by September. After they are gone these towns are dark and empty in comparison. There are even a number of people who just live in the towns during the summer because winter is so gruesome.
I would add that the shops we went in were generally the less touristy, more the better art galleries and such. I suspect that the people working the real tourist shops are seasonal workers. I was amused at one of the big tourist shops we saw in every port, called Alaska Mining Company. I imagined that the company slogan must be “Mining Tourists For Gold”.