June 26, 2024

Today we were in port in Skagway by the time we came out of our room (which was around 7:00). The port in Skagway was affected by a rock slide so we had to be tendered in to the port on a lifeboat. We went to get a ticket for the tender before going to breakfast. When the staff member saw us walk up, she looked at Tammy’s flip flops and said in a disbelieving voice, “You’re ready to go ashore?” We didn’t understand that you just got a ticket when you were ready for the tender. It was funny. We went and ate breakfast while watching the tenders go back and forth. We quickly got ready and went to get our tender tickets shortly before 8. We got on the lifeboat quickly but had to wait for it to fill up.

We didn’t really have any plans for Skagway. We had heard about a few hiking trails so we decided to go hiking first in case the weather changed. It was a beautiful cool morning. We prefer to hike with other people in case of bears, so we saw a couple heading toward the trail and decided to join them. We soon realized they were walking very slowly so we went on ahead. We were trying to figure out which path to take when a woman about our age came up. She had a fancy GPS watch and so we asked her which way to go. She said she was hiking to the upper lake at the top of the mountain so we decided to hike together. Her name was Stephanie and she travels and hikes all over the world by herself. She was glad to have people to hike with, too. We shared stories as we hiked. It was quite a strenuous hike, mainly because it was very steep. We were mostly hiking near a river that ran down the mountain so it was very beautiful. 

We gained about 3,000 feet of elevation and reached snow. When we got to the top, the lake had several little cabins around it that people could camp in. The mosquitoes were terrible near the lake. Tammy set up her phone on timer so we could get a picture of the three of us. She got several funny shots of me shooing the mosquitoes away while she was testing out the location of her phone.

We quickly headed back down the mountain. I fell several times because it was so steep and slippery. Stephanie was very kind to share one of her hiking poles with me which helped a lot. It took us about 2.5 hours to hike up the mountain and a little over an hour and a half to hike down. Our watches all told us we hiked different amounts ranging from 5-7 miles.

We decided to eat a snack and walk around Skagway. We ate energy bars and apples on a bench and then went to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park visitor center. We saw an old locomotive that had a snowplow attachment on the front. 

It started to sprinkle so we put on our rain gear and walked a few of the streets before saying goodbye to Stephanie and heading back to our ship. 

We went and had a late lunch in the Lido Market (including an ice cream cone for me). We played trivia at 4 and then went back to our room to get ready for dinner. We wanted to eat in the main dining room once while we were on the ship and it was a casual night. It was also the night of the “Orange Party” which is an event that Holland America does on every cruise. Since the cruise line is Dutch, they celebrate that heritage by having everyone wear orange. They told people not to worry if they didn’t bring any orange because they could just wear their life vests! We both wore our orange Denali sweatshirts with jeans and black flats. We were definitely more casual than most in the dining room, but at least we had on orange. We had a menu and a waiter. They brought us bread and we got to order an appetizer (Caesar salad), main course (stuffed pepper), and dessert (peach cobbler). It was very elegant, but we really preferred the Lido Market.

We went to the Officers vs. the Guests trivia night in the Rolling Stone lounge. Our favorite entertainment director, Carlos, was the emcee. He made it really fun and there was music and little celebrations after each question. A group of officers actually won, but Carlos said the rules are that the guests always win so they chose the group of guests with the highest score to have a dance-off to determine the winner. Carlos danced with this old lady. It was really funny. The officers declined to compete with her so her team won. 

The actual Orange Party started at 9:30 so we didn’t stay for that. They had lots of special orange drinks just for that night. We went back to our room to get ready for bed because we had an early morning the next day. I set a record on my watch for the amount of elevation I climbed today.