Travel Blog

Sue:

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I know my disgusting booger blog has been up for too long, but we didn't have internet access on the ferry, so what can ya do? Let's just erase that guy from our minds, and get on with things.

Our last day in Skagway, which was Monday, was the absolute most beautiful day ever. Skies were crystal clear, the sun was out and nary a raindrop fell. Phil and I think it did it on purpose just to remind us how gorgeous Skagway can be since we don't plan on going back next year. It almost worked.

(Yes, this picture was taken from the Malaspina ferry, so it's out of order with the rest of them, but check out this view of Skagway!)

We said all our last goodbyes to folks, hooked up the rig and headed down to the docks to line up for the ferry. Sherry, Stacey and Noah came down to say bon voyage and brought beer and nachos!

(See the empty plate of nachos to Noah's right? Yum, yum.)

The ramp down to cargo hold where our RV was going to be for the trip seemed crazily narrow to me, but Phil had no problems with it, and didn't even break a sweat when he had to back the rig into its spot.

The crew of the ferry was awesome, and helped us every step of the way. I guess they've done this about a billion times before, and we were in and parked in no time.

When we first planned to take the ferry, we were going to rough it out on the deck in a tent and sleeping bags.

But luckily towards the end of the season, when it was cold and rainy and even I was shivering, we came to our senses and realized we weren't in our 20s anymore, and Phil called and snagged us the very last stateroom they had available.

And even though we would have been okay on deck for the first night (just absolutely wonderful weather), we were glad for the room when we passed Sitka and the weather was more like fall in Alaska. Plus it was nice to have a place to escape when the public part of public transportation (old lady perfume, whistlers, hummers and religious zealots) started to annoy.

I'll have more posts on the actual trip and what we saw in days to come. And as for our thumbs up or down on the ferry, it's a mixed bag. As with everything else in life, there were pros and cons to taking the ferry rather than driving the Alaskan highway through Canada. It was nice not to worry about driving and being able to sit back and relax, but we don't like having to adhere to someone else's schedule. In a nutshell, we would recommend taking the marine highway if you have to get to or from Alaska when there's bad weather in Canada to contend with, but if that's not a factor, RV'ers would most likely prefer (and your pocketbooks will be better off, that's for sure) to drive. And Phil's planning on writing more about both the Alaskan highway and the marine highway later, so I think I'll leave it at that for now.