On Thursday, Dawn started coming  down with a cold, but she was able to medicate herself thoroughly. The four of us had planned to take the same day trip from Skagway, Alaska, called White Pass Summit Rail and Bus Excursion. Skagway was an important port during the Klondike Gold Rush. The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration of 100,000 prospectors in 1896 who left three years later after finding no gold.

We discovered that Dawn and Bunny were on the 7:30 AM Skagway trip, while Nick and  I were on the 8:30 AM one. We checked and learned that there were no openings on either excursion so we had to go ahead separately.

Transportation  by bus was first on our agenda.  Our tour director/driver, who was from Cork, Ireland,  was wonderful! He stopped many times to enable us to take photos of the fantastic scenery. He shared stories of his many experiences and his life’s learnings.

After the bus trip, we  waited at the train depot to switch to a train.  Someone tapped Nick on the shoulder. It was Dawn. She and Bunny had the train part of the excursion first, and they were going to switch to the bus at the train depot.

We had to take our passports with us, because part of the train trip went into the Canadian Yukon. There were so many magnificent sights from the train!

When we departed from the train in Skagway, we wanted to walk through the town. We found that several other cruise ships had docked in Skagway, so the town was getting quite crowded. There were very few eateries, and those that were there had long lines to get a table.

We popped into a few shops looking for souvenirs. I was about to give up when I saw a pair of earrings that I thought Carla might like. Pleased with my purchase, we began to walk back to our ship, but the pathway to the ship had been blocked off. We walked through  the town’s crowded streets and reached a bus, but the driver said that our ship was not on her route. We walked on and met  several other people who were trying to find the way back to our ship. After walking through some boatyards, we found the right bus. We got back to our ship.

Dawn, Bunny and I  compared the statuses of our colds when we met for dinner. I chose chicken, but then I saw that Beef Wellington was offered, so I had some of that, too. We returned to our staterooms for more meds and more sleep.

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