Skagway - We're On Land!
Unlike the previous days adventures, today we were on land and it was a relatively short (3 hour) experience. And it was very unique.....in fact I told our hosts as we left that of the seven trips we've made to Alaska this one may have been the most "fun" we've ever experienced! We've stopped here on each and every one of them. Four times we've done the "Wilderness Exploration" which takes you by canoe to a glacier; once we did the train trip through White Pass; once we helicoptered to a glacier and hiked around; another time - one of the MOST AWESOME experiences - we helicoptered to a glacier and rode & drove a dog sled, wow.
Today we opted for a completely different experience as we booked a "Kitchen Science - Garden To Table" adventure. We tendered from the ship to the dock due to recent rockslides. Interestingly, we were told to allow 45 minutes for the process. And with an 8:15am start we were told to arrive on the dock by 8am. So we were up early and on the tender by 7:10am. On shore at 7:17am - yes, seven minutes. WOW - not the best advice/timing by the cruise ship so we hovered around the dock - without any cover or place to go indoors in 49 degree weather that was a very damp cold. Not a "fun" start - but certainly adds to the story of the day :) Eventually we were picked up by the nicest couple who run the Historic Skagway Inn which is a Bed & Breakfast that largely sustains itself and we were given an education on the history of the early settlers and how to survive in the wilderness. And then it was related to how much of this knowledge still shapes the food experience in modern day Skagway.
After arriving, the first part of our "lesson" was how this inn had initially been a bordello and so the ten rooms in the inn are not numbered but are named for the "ladies" who occupied them years ago - and the names are authentic as they found the court records of their frequent "violations" for their "practices" here. We then went outside for a lesson in their natural gardening before heading back inside to enjoy hot coffee or hot chocolate and a salmon spread on sourdough bread as we were taught through a demonstration on how to make sourdough bread. This was followed by an explanation of different acidities in foods and that that can mean/do and we each performed an experiment to illustrate this.
But the best "experiment/lesson" came at the conclusion as we made our very own Baked Alaska (and then ate it of course!).
We were back on the tender and headed to the ship a little after 11am to end our adventure for the day. Tomorrow we are headed to Juneau where we are very excited to have booked a seven-and-a-half hour adventure by catamaran to Sawyer Glacier. We did this once before in 2019 and it was very similar to the one we did two days ago to Hubbard Glacier as we navigated through the ice fields to get an up close look at the massive ice formation.
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