Chapter 33
Lazing

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Our lunch on board the Wonder was pretty forgettable. I think we just went to Beach Blanket Buffet, and this may have been the meal when they were offering Mexican fare, but I can’t remember for sure. What I do know is that our day in Skagway wasn’t even close to being over yet. On the contrary—we still had another Port Adventure planned! For now, however, we were just taking a quick break before heading back out onto land.

When we did disembark the ship again, the sun was starting to come out.

That fact didn’t make us any less cold, however.

We wandered back toward town and I snapped a picture of the “Welcome to Skagway” signs.

Now, since so much of the town’s history is directly related to the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, the train’s visitor center is a pretty prominent landmark. In front of the building, they have a retired engine, but this one is unique because it has a snow plow on the front of it. Back when the train was actually doing important jobs unrelated to tourism, they couldn’t shut down during the winter in spite of the massive snowfall that often blankets the mountains. Here is what they used to remove it all.

Back in town, we saw some familiar buildings once again.

We actually had a mission, which was to find the Starbucks in town. Tracy’s family members always collect the location-specific Starbucks gift cards and bring them back to everyone as souvenirs, and this was to be our only chance to potentially score Alaska cards during the cruise.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t actually a Starbucks location, but rather a cafe that simply brewed Starbucks coffee—which meant they didn’t have any gift cards. Rather than get a drink we could have gotten back home, we decided to try to find some local coffee instead. As it turned out, the railroad’s visitor center also had a cafe serving Alaskan coffee, so we got a drink to enjoy alongside all the train memorabilia.

While we sat, we had the bizarre experience of getting too warm for our layers because the sun was now shining brightly. We got to shed a few jackets while we enjoyed being outside.

As we’d walked back toward the ship for lunch, we noticed a walking path through some trees, so we decided to take a little stroll since we had time to kill.

The walk took us to the shores of this small body of water, which gorgeously reflected the trees and mountains around us.

Wandering back, we found ourselves on some railroad tracks (though I think these particular ones were decommissioned).

Circling back to the railroad’s visitor center, here was some commemorative signage.

We also had to pose with some of the old machinery.

Here was a model inside the lobby.

And now, we had officially experienced pretty much the entirety of Skagway’s tourist section, so we started walking back toward the ship one more time. Not to board, but because the dock was where we were meeting for our next excursion—which we had been looking forward to for months!

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