I very rarely say something is a must do. Really, how do I know you will enjoy spreading margarine over your body and jumping in a pile of leaves? However, the White Pass & Yukon train is one thing you should experience. Wanda and I rode this on our first visit to Skagway. Today we have an Avis car rented for the drive to Emerald Lake.
I woke up at 6 this morning. I was surprised we were already docked. I was even more surprised when I opened the curtains to see a dock worker about ten yards outside the window.
Wanda left me a note at 5:30, she is out walking the ship. I grabbed my jeans and a shirt, closed the curtains and got dressed. I have body chemistry that requires caffeine within thirty minutes of waking, so off to the International Cafe for a latte' I went.
Last night we had plans to meet the gang for dinner at 6. Wanda and I both fell asleep around 3 and woke up at 5:40 so we hustled out to our meeting spot.
Princess has two choices for dining times. Traditional, which means the same time, 5:45 or 8:00, same table mates, same wait staff. Or Anytime, which means show up between 5:30 and 10 PM with your party. We do Anytime, it's always worked well.
Ted, Catherine, Andi, Wil, and Debbie who joined us for a glass of wine, made our way to a table for eight. Oh, we left two guys in Juneau last night. Every cruise someone, somewhere, gets left behind.
At dinner Ted ordered a glass of wine. When it was delivered he handed a punch card to the waiter. I asked him what it was, thinking maybe it was part of a drink package, like my coffee card. So, Ted says “You don’t get anything for this card. When it’s full you get to enter a free drawing for a prize.” I heard, when it’s full you get a free withdrawal for a prize. Like, maybe you can go to Sonoma Hospital for alcohol withdrawal and treatment. I have pretty poor hearing, but he is worse. Both of us are stubborn, so no hearing aid. We're sitting directly opposite one another at a table for 8, a big table, practically yelling. Neither one can hear or understand the other. We had an interesting conversation. I'm sure half the dining room heard it.
Dinner was, not great. I had an artichoke dip thing that was mealy and bland. And surf and turf, three shrimp and a fillet that tasted like liver. Actually, I've never eaten liver, it tasted what I imagine liver would be.
Whenever I write about something that's not good I feel the need to apologize in a sense. Maybe it was me? Please do not jump on the "cruising is going down hill bandwagon." The very good far outweighed the not so good.
Did I mention we bought a pound and a half of Alaskan Fudge yesterday?
Back to Skagway, we were cleared to go ashore at 7 AM. Avis was a short walk, it opened at 8.
We got to the rental office around 8:15. I made the reservation months ago. We had a short wait for paperwork then got the keys to a new Subaru Outback. As we were walking out of the office the employee that gave us the keys said, "When you bring back the car be sure to write the mileage down and before you leave the lot note any damage." Neither of us had a pen so I asked her for one. "We don't give out pens because we never get them back," she said.
IT'S A PEN !!!! I'm spending $118.00 bucks plus tax for your car and you can't give me a frickin' two cent pen? Hell, I bet if they bought bulk the pens would be a penny.
I'm usually an easy going guy but this really, really bothered me. Here I was starting out on a beautiful drive and I was pissed off because of the pen.
Wanda made this drive with Debbie and Jeff in May of 2007. She was looking forward to seeing what the difference would be now, in September. I decided to drive so she could enjoy the ride.
And enjoy the ride she did, and, so did I. It was beautiful. Emerald Lake was about 110 miles. There is one town along the way called Carcross. It's a nice place to stop for a souvenir, or better, ice cream.
After stopping at Emerald Lake I drove back to Skagway. It was now around 1 PM and we both were very hungry. Neither of us ate breakfast this morning. I should have turned part of the driving over to Wanda but I was stubborn. So now I was getting cranky and grouchy.
We had to stop at the one station in Skagway for the $4.77 gallon gas. Now I was cranky and grouchy and muttering about a car that was $150 bucks for five hours. I know, I know, you can't put a price tag on an experience like that, but the Outback was almost as much as a 'Vegas Escort. (and I don't mean the car).
We dropped off the car and I still had no pen. I memorized the mileage, took the paperwork into the office and we decided to do some shopping. By this time there were four cruise ships docked in Skagway. Somewhere between five and seven thousand people were all trying to find Ulu Knives and large salad forks shaped like bear claws for under five dollars. Wanda told her boss she would get socks for him. So, we started walking, away from the ship, looking for warm socks with brown bears or eagles on them (for under five dollars).
After thirty minutes of feeling like spawning salmon swimming upstream (like the Alaska reference?) we gave up and walked back to the ship.
We had a nice day. Tonight we are thinking about going to the other specialty restaurant, Sabatini's. Tomorrow is our day in Glacier Bay National Park. The whole ship is looking forward to it.
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