Taking the Train

Having the in-laws out for a visit was a perfect excuse for us to take the train trip over to Skagway. We had been wanting to do this trip for a while, and now that we have done it, I think we will try to do it every couple of years! It was such a fantastic time and the boys loved it.

We took the White Pass Yukon Route train from Carcross, YT to Skagway, AK. To make our trip even easier, we took a bus from Whitehorse to Carcross and a bus from Skagway right the way back to Whitehorse. We spent one night in Skagway. And even though the trip is a bit on the pricey side (about $280 per adult which includes one meal and the bus sections) it was completely worth it. I am pretty sure this was the highlight of the visit for the in-laws.

Getting ready to leave from Carcross.
At any time during the trip, you can stand on the end of the train
to look around and take pictures.

There really aren't the words to describe the scenery:

Our short train!
Hunter repeatedly informed me that it was made up of one engine,
one freight car, and two coaches.

The weather cooperated perfectly for the duration of our adventure:

Even Cavan was excited with the train:

Until the rocking motion put him to sleep:

And asleep again. Poor kid couldn't keep his eyes open!

The train comes mighty close to some rock walls and over many sheer drop offs. The in-laws nearly had heart attacks and refused to come to our side of the train to look over the edge for the entire ride.

The in-laws enjoying the ride:

There was still lots of snow over the summit:

What a difference in the ecology from Yukon to Alaska.
The coastal forests are so lush!

We played tourist in Skagway. When we arrived Hunter saw the horse and buggy and begged for a ride. We told him maybe tomorrow in hopes he would forget. Nope. He was up at 5:30am and the first words out of his mouth were to inquire about the horse ride.

A rather excited boy telling me about the horse that is behind us:

I was overwhelmed by the amount of people in Skagway since I had read that it only has about 800 residents in the summer. The reason for the jam-packed streets were the cruise ships. There were four docked which we were told would amount to at least 9000 people. We had a riot talking to people off of the ships. One couple from Los Angeles talked to us for quite a while and sure seemed shocked at how we lived. While every tourist we talked to was friendly, I never heard anyone on the streets use expressions such as, "Excuse please" or "Can I come through here please?" and we were looked at a little oddly when we used them!

The ships were enormous!

Waiting to take our bus home.

This crazy kid has his tongue out all the time. Yes, sometimes it is for licking things like chairs, floors and people, but most of the time I think it is just out to help with his concentration.