We pulled into Skagway today at 7:00am. Our tour met at 8:00am and we hadn’t had any caffeine yet, so we were sleepy as we piled onto the White Pass railroad train. In fact, we were sleepy for a lot of the trip, especially on the way back. But the ride was just as amazing as it was the first time - I would probably do it a third time if I ever go back to Alaska. The views are just outstanding. I don’t theink there are any scenes in the continental U.S. that are so beautiful, with the possible exception of the Grand Canyon.

After we returned to downtown Skagway, we got some lunch and then split up - A went shopping and I went caching. The first one I tried for was a virtual that was easy to get, and the next one I attempted was downtown. After about an hour looking around in the cold and the rain, I gave up. I found a very likely spot but it just wasn’t there. There was another one about a mile away, but after walking a quarter-mile in the nasty weather, I gave up on that one as well.

I had a couple of hours before our afternoon tour, so I wandered through a few shops and the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park’s visitor center. There was an exhibit there about Jack London, which inspired me to go buy a $5 copy of Call of the Wild at the locally owned bookstore.

Our afternoon tour was very cute, it started wtih a show at Liarsville, where we also panned for gold - it had been planted, of course. We then went back to downtown Skagway and the Red Onion Saloon, where we had a tour of the brothel rooms upstairs. I thought the whole tour was a rather good deal at $40, but one woman said she was going to get her money back because it was overpriced and she didn’t like it. I was tempted to say “good luck with that” but I didn’t.