I need to get busy finishing this report. School starts in 2 weeks and preparations are starting to pick up. Thanks for your patience reading along, folks!
We were just about to start our dog sled ride where I left off last time. This is probably your bargain option if you can't afford the hundreds of dollars per person to do a traditional dog sled ride. Individually, the tickets for this 15 minute jaunt into the woods I believe were around $30 PP. You can take the same excursion we did without the dog sled ride added on; only 1 other family on our tour did it other than us. I don't know if there is an age rule for kids; I'm sure the website would state it if they have one. The ride was really bumpy, so young/very small kids might have a problem holding on. I would imagine, though, that kids would have a blast doing this. We sure did!
The ride was awesome and the dogs seemed to effortlessly pull us along. The trainer had amazing control of her dogs, and yeah, they may be real sled dogs but they're also real dogs. Which means, if they see a critter, they want to chase after it! The trainer had to re-direct them with unique commands to the lead dogs away from squirrels. About half-way through the ride, the trainer stopped the dogs at a pit stop with several plastic kiddy pools full of water. Immediately they dived into the pools, some of them lying down completely to cool off. We stayed a few minutes for them to rest and drink, before moving again.
Figuring there was no need to have my camera on and out anymore since I took many photos already of the same scenery, I put it away to save the battery. This would prove to be a mistake. We had just come back out to the stretch of dirt road leading back to the camp when all of a sudden, a black (though he was brown colored) bear ran across the track!!!
The dogs immediately went after it. So, imagine this for a moment. You are strapped to more than several dogs chasing a critter in the middle of wilderness. What's your first thought? Well, for myself (and my parents), it was OMG THE DOGS ARE GOING TO GET HURT! Then there was Skippy, the trainer's retired sled dog who had tagged along untethered with us. She immediately went after the bear, too. So add to our first thought: OMG SKIPPY NO!
Our trainer was just as surprised as we were, and urgently called to the lead dogs with "GI GI GI GI GI!!!" (which was her unique command she had trained the lead dogs to turn right--to go left, the command was "hot"). Not to mention her urgent commands to Skippy not to pursue the now-identified
baby bear, which had disappeared by then behind trees on the other side of the track. For a few long seconds, the dogs didn't seem to listen to their trainer until finally they stopped the chase and veered back on track. The bear was nowhere to be seen, Momma Bear was nowhere to be seen, and my second thought was that I didn't get a photo of the whole event. It wasn't until my third thought that it hit me that hey,
we could have been hurt!
Before you slam your fist down and proclaim complete abstinence from ever embarking on a dog sled ride through the woods less you're mauled by bears, the fact that it took me a while to realize we could have been harmed was testament to how much control the trainer had over her dogs. These were real sled dogs, as I've stated before, and therefore very highly trained and incredibly loyal to their owner.
Alas, all too quickly, the ride was over. We only had about 10 minutes left to explore the rest of the camp before we were due back to the bus. I desperately wanted to hold the puppies, while Mom wanted to look around the gift shop. Dad followed me to the puppies, where they were all piled in an exhausted heap from being tossed around so many tourists earlier. I did not want to disturb them. Meanwhile, a mother and son were holding a sleeping puppy, so I kinda hung around hoping they would move on and ask if I wanted a turn. NOPE. Didn't happen. Not that I blame the boy for wanting to keep the pup, but I was bummed that one of my goals of the trip didn't come true (goal: hold a puppy). Instead, I said hello to all of the resting dogs in the puppy area--at first I thought they were the mothers, but there were some boy dogs in there, too.
I went to find Mom, who had wandered into the taxidermy museum. By now, we only had a few minutes to get back to the bus, so after a quick glance around, we grabbed Dad and ran back on board. Well, we were exactly on time, but
everyone was already on the bus and we were welcomed with semi-irritated expressions. One passenger blared the horn, stating that Mike went to go find us. Geez, people, relax! You're on vacation!
The woman I mentioned earlier who had appeared to fall asleep in front of me before lunch was back asleep again, only her husband was now seated with her. That meant my family was split up, much to my mother's annoyance. Looking back, if the husband had explained the situation, I doubt we would have minded at all. Because for the remainder of the bus ride, the poor woman silently got sick non-stop. This was very alarming at first, though she did her best to conceal everything under a jacket. Particularly since I was so close to her, I was worried that if she were sick-sick, would it be contagious? The last thing I needed was a stomach bug on a cruise ship! But here's the strange part: her husband did not seem particularly alarmed or worried at all. In fact, he got off the bus at all the subsequent stops. Even more interesting: he had packed Ziploc bags for her, seemingly for this exact situation. It led me to think they knew this was going to happen, though the woman did not appear ill at all for the first part of the excursion. Why would you pack Ziploc bags on an excursion if not for a specific reason? So, was she car sick? And if so, why book a tour that involves being on a bus through winding mountain roads? If she
was sick with a virus or something and knew so beforehand, why did they leave the ship and not contact the ship doctor?
That aside, the remainder of the tour was incredible. Each vista was more amazing than the last, and we stopped pretty frequently. Unfortunately, there were no real wildlife sightings. We got super lucky with the bear. There were some mountain goats super high up to the point where they could only be seen with binoculars (there were some available on the bus), and there was one bald eagle. But the views more than made up for the lack of animals.
Passing customs back into Alaska was painless; we didn't have to show our passports as the agent working knew Mike really well. We were back in town by 3:30 and Mike offered to drop us in the middle of the shops. Most of us took advantage of this, and we wandered through the shops for about an hour or so. 2 of my favorite souvenirs we got in Skagway: moose pajama bottoms that have Alaska screen printed on them, and a photo album that holds 230 photos for less than $20.
Here was my goal for shopping on this trip: I wanted most of the things I bought to be made in Alaska, supporting real Alaskans. This proved to be a surprising challenge, especially if you're on a budget. Most of the shops were cruise ship owned that can also be found in the Caribbean. Some of the other shops were tourist chains allegedly owned by "Alaskan families." Almost everything for sale could be found at all of the ports, just sold under different store names.
We picked up some things for family and friends, then sought out the shuttle bus to take us back to the ship. Again, $2/PP if you don't want to walk. Were I with friends, I would've walked, but it was far for anyone with mobility issues. Back on the Wonder, we got ready for dinner. We were in Animator's Palate, which I was excited for. While the technology in there is definitely out of date, I found I preferred it much more over the Dream's version. You didn't have to compete to talk over the music/shouts of fish and turtles all the time. There was no real disappointment about not being close to a screen and miss that personal interaction. The cute show with Sorcerer Mickey between your dinner and dessert was perfect. So, here's what I chowed down on:
- I did not care for any of the appetizers, but I loved the soups, so I got 2 instead: baked potato and butternut squash -- both excellent
- Entree: Phyllo-Wrapped Salmon Fillet -- OK; I didn't particularly care for the wrap
- Dessert: Animator's Sweet Temptations -- Pretty good
Tonight was the hypnotist's family show, so Mom was excited to see it. Dad and I were a little disappointed that some of the same things he did with the adults the night before he was doing again, but there were enough differences that we didn't mind. It was hilarious! Especially when he hypnotized one guy to believe his shoe was baby Simba, and whenever he heard the mike tap, the guy was to take his shoe off and present it to the audience with a look of rapture. They played the Circle of Life song whenever this happened, and it just killed us with laughter! Mom and Dad were crying, they were laughing so hard.
Now that it's been almost 2 months (INSANE) since the trip, I'm having a harder time remembering things. I don't really recall what we did after the show, so let's just call it a night on Day 5.