There and Back Again

Pondering: When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator. (Mohandas Gandhi)

Today didn’t start out right at all.

It started last night, really when we got news that there had been a landslide early in the day and so therefore the White Pass trail has been rendered un-passable! A major blow to our vacation because this was to be the highlight of the trip. My sister and I were devastated. We went down to get information on alternate excursions only to find the Atrium filled with people trying to do the exact same thing. It was 8:30 p.m. and along with the frustration, we were getting hungry and tired. A crewmember saved us from the misery when he informed us that if we were canceling our excursion, we need not lineup as our accounts will automatically be reimbursed. Myra and I decided to forego the excursion and retired to a lackluster buffet dinner.

This morning, we both wake up wondering what we are going to do in Skagway if we were not going on an excursion. Mind you, we were going to be docked in Skagway until 9 PM – the longest stop of this trip. The view from our balcony didn’t give us a sense that there was a world in Skagway apart from the White Pass Rail. So I rushed to the Shore Excursion Desk hoping to salvage the day and was told to book excursions directly with the booking agents outside. I rushed back to the room – it was 7:30 AM – and noticed an envelope posted on our door. Inside were tickets to our revised on-shore excursion. It departs at 8:20 AM.

My sister and I got showered and dressed immediately, leaving our stateroom at 8:20 AM and hoping the busses would still be there. We got there in time only to learn that the cruise ship has overbooked the revised Yukon Territory trip and after much confusion, got seats to a bus that was reserved, I think, for German passengers. Instantly, our tour guide had to narrate the tour in both German and English.

We were driving around Skagway and the town looked really charming. Since we have until 9PM in Skagway, we promised ourselves that we would make time to walk around town when we return from the excursion. The tour continued and pretty soon we were climbing up the White Pass summit. The tour guide promised us plenty of photo-worthy stops along the way and that on our way to the Yukon Territory, we will have driven past a rainforest (Tongass National Forest), the alps (White Pass), the arctic (Fraser, BC) and then the desert (Yukon Territory). I was excited despite the disappointment that I was on a bus instead of the famous White Pass train.

That’s when my sister kindly informed me that my camera had no batteries. The night before I remember charging the batteries but indeed, I had no recollection of putting the battery into the camera. Shit! I was disappointed all over again so that the on-again, off-again German translations began to annoy me. To make matters worse, I was hungry and it didn’t look like our photo-worthy stops included visits to a coffee shop. Double shit!

But as it is with all bad news and bad days, they pass and things get better. In the end, all was well. The views were spectacular and the weather cooperated. Lake Bennett was jaw-dropping beautiful. The Yukon Territory was truly a blast from the past. It was like the set of Little House on the Prairie. I got to see the sleigh dogs (Huskies) though missed the opportunity to play with the puppies.

And best of all, the mother of all wonderful experiences, one that truly wiped out memories of the awful morning and the missed opportunity to go on board the White Pass Rail, the highlight of this entire trip, believe it or not – were the bears, big, beautiful, powerful bears! There were four of them, Mama Bear was the biggest one and then there were three cubs, one of which is what they call a spirit bear, AKA Kermode Bear – cream colored due to a recessive gene trait and very rarely sighted. Its color gives it a ghostlike appearance, which is why they play an important role in Native American/Canadian Indian folklore. Black, brown, big or small they are beautiful creatures, bears. My heart jumped at the site and I couldn’t take my eyes off of them.

I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the long drive and the Alaskan trip in general. I have memories and images of beauty to last me a lifetime. Trips like this make me realize what a wonderful world it truly is!