We woke up to the ship not moving. Nothing. No forward momentum at all. Crisis? Nah. We just made really good time and we were already in port in Skagway. so we had a casual breakfast and then figured out how to get off the ship. A kindly security officer led us to the right place.
And at the “right place” I met my long-lost, coulda-been brother from England. He was a regular morning person. Everything he said he enjoyed doing in the mornings ... Chris pointed to me as well. We finally hugged and KayLynn snapped a picture of us.
Speaking of morning people, I did my utmost best to transform Sheri into one of us. I sang the good morning song. Failing to sufficiently motivate her with that one, I switched to that all-time favorite classic, “I’m a Nut.” That one did draw a smile, especially after she thought I was through ... three times.
We headed off the boat to meet our bus driver. On the way Cary and I saw a baby seal playing in the harbor. What fun. What a morning creature, Sheri.
Our driver Heidi drove us (imagine that) over to the train station. She then picked up up in Canada and drove us back to Skagway. What a job. Our train car guy was named Nathan. He was from Friendswood, Texas. Imagine that, a nice homegrown Texan kid in the wilds of Alaska. We saw a big old black bear from the train just before we crossed over into British Columbia, Canada. And then came the Yukon. Silver mines, but no gold, although the gold rush had to come through the area. Emerald Lake, but no emeralds. Just green stripes in the water. Weird. We stopped for lunch in Canada and had barbeque. Kind of strange. Not Texan, for sure. While there we met and adopted Yukonicus P. Mountie. He’s a Canadian moose in the Royal Canadian Mounties. Didn’t know they admitted animals.
We made a stop in Carcross, Yukon. There we grabbed an ice cream cone and watched the local fire training academy do hose training. The students were all girls in their 20’s and 30’s. Their academy has done this weeklong event for five years and they have an amazing retention rate for students staying involved in their local VFD’s.
We learned a few Canadian words. Mene in Tagish. Weeaax in Tlingit. The Lakes in English. Also learned that they filmed a movie set in the arctic in British Columbia because it looks alike in the winter. Cold and bleak.
We drove over a place where several fault lines come together. They have built a cantilevered bridge over the spot. That means it is anchored to the rock on one end and hangs from cables at the other, so it will move around with the earthquakes. Fascinating. Then we stopped at a nice waterfall and took some romantic pictures.
Final stop was in Skagway again. We walked around town a bit and got the National Parks book stamped.
Last night was dinner in the frou-frou restaurant on board ship courtesy of our travel agent. Steak and lobster. Also other stuff that I couldn’t pronounce.
After we ate we went to the back of the ship to watch the crew release the ropes tying us to port. We stayed on deck to watch Skagway disappear into the distance. Long day. Another tomorrow. Here we go.
Luke 1:37 says, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Father, thank you for fun people like Heidi the bus driver and my new brother from England. They are just as amazing as the other creations surrounding us. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment