Skagway - 240/365

It was Skagway day, today! 

What an amazing little town it is! It's sandwiched at the base of two huge mountains. It was a little foggy and misty this morning, which made it even more beautiful. 

 Everyone was doing different excursions today, so Nana, Papa, Jim, Reagan and I were on our own. Today was our helicopter ride to a glacier and we were PUMPED! 

The helicopter pad was just steps from the ship. In fact, they were the first things we noticed when we peeked at Skagway from our balcony. It was literally RIGHT there! 

We walked on over to the helicopter pad, got all checked in and watched our safety video. Everyone has to wear these bright orange vests over their clothes and wear special boots. The boots actually slip right over your tennis shoes and velcro closed. They are super fashionable! Reagan's boots were just regular snow boots. Finally, it was time to load the chopper. Reagan and I got to ride in the front with the pilot. It was SO COOL! You have to wear these huge headphones, so you can talk to the pilot and muffle the noise.

After a few seconds, the helicopter started to shake and the next thing we knew, we were in the air! It was amazing! There were four choppers in total on the way to the glacier, each holding 4-6 people. We were the third chopper. Our pilot was a little quiet. He was nice, but not overly friendly. He pointed out some interesting stuff on the 20 minute ride, but didn't really elaborate on much. We got to see the town of Haines and many beautiful waterfalls. 

As we rounded the mountain to the glacier, it was just jaw dropping. The sheer size was amazing. We started to lower and you could make out people standing on the glacier. We noticed a little tent and about 25 or so people waiting. We hopped off, those people jumped on, and away they went. The whole process took less than 5 minutes and the choppers were gone. So, there we were, with 3 tour guides and twenty strangers, in Alaska, standing on a glacier. It was amazing!!! 

It was a little windy and chilly, but not freezing. Jim and I, didn't have any gloves and were fine. Reagan was a little apprehensive, but she did great! We each got these little poles with a point on the end to help us maneuver around the ice. Walking around was stunning! The HUGE crevasses that have formed were amazing. Our tour guide threw a HUGE rock down in one of the holes; I bet it was a good 10 seconds before you could hear it hit the bottom! Absolutely amazing! 

There were waterfalls down in some of the crevasses, too! A lot of people think, the water is the glacier melting, but it's actually water run off from the mountains surrounding it. It makes it's way through the glacier since it has no where else to go. They also said, it takes about 100 inches of snow to make one inch of glacier. Crazy! 

We got to explore for around 45 minutes, before the choppers came back for us. You heard them "coming around the mountain" and they were on the ice in seconds. 

After the glacier, we were going to spend some time exploring Skagway. We were docked 7:00-5:00, so we had a ton of time. Ray and Jen, were still on their bike tour, so we met Ed and Pam.

Skagway only has about 800 all-year residents and it's 4 blocks by 25. Amazing! There is NOTHING there, NOTHING! I would go bonkers living there, but it definitely fascinating to see. 

We explored a little, then Ed and Papa headed back to the ship. Nana, Pam, Jim, Reagan and I, decided to hop a little bus to the Klondike Gold Panning and Dredge Tour. This was so fun! We got a little demo on how to do it, then we were off! Reagan had a ball dipping her pan in the water and was quite wet by the end! Jim, Reagan and I, ended up getting $31.00 worth of gold out of our three pans. We purchased a little clear pendant, you can wear on a necklace, as a way to display the gold flakes. It's so pretty! It was a fun little side trip that we pretty much stumbled on! 

After our gold panning, we went to meet Ray and Jen at a little pub for some snacks and BEERS! YAY! We had a couple different dippy's and shared stories of our day. 

We finally had to head back to the ship. All aboard was 5:00 and the line to get on was super long! Some of the employees were starting to look a little nervous, since they have a strict depature schedule. We finally got on and headed up to the room. Jim and I, Nana and Papa, Chips and Kathy and Raymond and Jennifer all had balconies right in a row, which was fun. We were going to stand out there and watch the "sail away." We weren't leaving and weren't leaving, when suddenly, over the PA system, they started calling a few people. Here, one person had not re-boarded the ship!!! We watched as a couple cars came and went and watched two people literally RUN down the sidewalk to the ship. After about 45 minutes of waiting and calling, the ship left Skagway with one less passenger. No one knows what happened to him/her. Good luck getting home from Skagway though!

Once we got cleaned up for dinner, Jim, Reagan and I went to a Sponge Bob meet and greet and had dinner at Azura. After dinner, we played a little golf, shuffle board and did a little dancing. We had a great time on our little date night with Reagan! 

This evening, was the Chocolate Buffet! Absolutely amazing! The whole room is just different chocolate desserts with beautiful ice sculptures and chocolate animals! We found Ed and Pam on the back deck, so we chilled out with them for awhile! It was an amazing way to end the day! 

The photo of the day is all of us on the glacier! Good times! 

 The next is us at our gold panning adventure...

Reagan golfing.....

                The final one is a HUGE cake of the ship at the chocolate buffet.