Day 7: Skagway

We had a great adventure on this day. We woke early and handed the kids off to Marchelle. We were already docked in Skagway. We dressed in our warmest clothes and packed extra socks and gloves. (Okay, I forgot my gloves. I'm sorry Michael. I know your hands were cold since you gave me yours.) Then we ran off the ship. Part of the reason for our rush was that the time had changed AGAIN. Time keeps changing when you go west and it keeps getting earlier.
Anyway, we ran off the boat and met Steve and Melissa on the dock along with our excursion leader. We were about to go on the one big excursion we had planned and it was supposed to be a wonderful one. We were so excited. The title of the excursion was "Glacier Point Wilderness Safari".
We got in a really fast boat that literally glided across the top of the water as we raced for Glacier Point. We drank coffee they brewed on board and even saw whales during our forty five minute voyage.

When we arrived we landed directly on the glacier created beach which consisted of small smooth pebbles. The beach came of a beautiful meadow filled with wildflowers. Parked on the road cutting through the meadow was a very retro school bus that they called a "safari vehicle". We crawled board and drove up to the trailhead along an old logging road that took us through some deep forest.

When we arrived we donned extra coats and traded our shoes in for waterproof boots. We walked a quarter mile down a trail until the forest opened up onto a breathtaking view of the Davidson Glacier.

We walked a bit more to the edge of a river where we boarded a 31 foot canoe. (It also had a motor, thank goodness.) We broke up into groups of eight to fit into the different canoes and then paddled up the river into a glacial lake where we floated among icebergs and came all the way to the face of a glacier. We reached down and fished small pieces of floating ice from the water and ate it. It was the sweetest, coldest, cleanest piece of ice I've ever had. We saw bald eagles flying over head and watched the clouds change the color of the water.

After retracing our steps back to the meadow, we had a few extra minutes to kill before the boat arrived. Our guides encouraged us to traipse into the meadow and help ourselves to the hundreds of sweet wild strawberries growing every where. They were tiny and delicious and I couldn't get enough of them. I filled my hat and hands and finally ran out of time. Mmmmm.


When we returned to the ship, we spent a quiet afternoon with our boys in the fun zone while Marchelle and the rest of our crew went on a train ride that we had done on our last Alaska cruise.
When everyone arrived we had a happy hour in our room with a bottle of wine and watched helicopters take off from our balcony. Then we had a nice dinner and crawled into bed. It was an amazing day.