Tuesday 8/24

1:00 – Alaska time – I am at the Alaska Marine HWY ferry terminal, waiting for the ferry. I have about a forty minute wait before it pulls in and then I can put my luggage on a cart – maybe board and get some food. No place close by to fuel up.

The flight was great. I was middle seat with two small women on the sides. Those airline seats are small and close together so it was great not being crowded..

It is cloudy and gray here in Juneau. When the ferry gets in and I park some luggage in a safe place I will take a few pictures of the dock area and the Malaspina – the ferry I will ride to Skagway. The ferrys here are named after well know glaciers, but they are not ones that we will see here on the inside passage. The ferrys are different than the ones we have in the Puget Sound. They are like small cruise ships and the cars load from the side and drive around the ferry and line up so they can get out the door again.

(Dang – there's Internet here $5.00 an hr and if spend $20.00, you get an extra ½ hr. free.) I don't need I-net that bad.

It seems to be clearing up a bit now, the clouds are starting to break up and I can see some mountains.

There is a feeling of peacefulness and calmness over this area. I wonder if the locals feel it or if they feel they are stressed out. It is raining outside, the woman at the visitor center said the weather is better up north. Told her was going to Skagway and she said there is a lot to do there and that the weather should be better.

5:15 AK TIME
As I sat down to write this I glanced out the starboard windows of the forward lounge and saw a beautiful rainbow colored patch of light so I jumped up, grabbed my camera and headed outside to take pictures.

This is a beautiful ferry ride. I have been walking the deck for the last two hours for the exercise and the clouds are breaking up and the temperature is about the mid 50's, very pleasant for walking. The glaciers I we are passing, the fiords and islands – I saw one that looked like a submarine; it is called Sentinel Light House.

We are traveling up the Lynn Canal, it is not realy a canal, canals are man made, it is a fiord.  I wonder if this means that the Hood Canal is not a canal?  We will be stopping in Haines,AK with a 1 hour layover. We got into Haines late and all I saw was a ferry dock and a few buildings. So I guess Haines is further inland.

I arrived in Skagway around 9:30 – 10:30 pst and was picke up at the ferry by a shuttle from the B&B I am staying at. The Skagway Inn. It was built around the turn of the century and has had a checkered past; at one time it was a bordello. Everything here is quite expensive.
 
The B&B has requested that I not download or upload large files as they are charged by their usage.  So I can not upload photos at this time.  Maybe I can use the library when I get back from my trip.  or maybe I'll just upload one.