And so we enter the weeks of “last”…last salmon bake, last Tracy’s crab shack, or in today’s case…last Skagway.
It’s only one tiny little street, mostly tourist shops and jewelry stores, and one IGA grocery store whose shelves get more and more bare as the season gets on – but I like Skagway. They have amazing cupcakes and good ice cream, and there’s no other show in the world quite like the ages old “Days of ‘98” (it’s mostly true!).
But all good things must come to and end, and just Days of ’98 is wrapping up it’s several hundredth season (no I’m not exaggerating), we’re wrapping up our calls here for the rest of the season. Leaving the little town tucked in the valley to the locals and the wildlife. We’re one of the last ships to call here, and it was nice to have the town basically to ourselves. This time of year the ports start feeling less like tourist traps and more like real places. The wooden sidewalks have enough space to walk on, and the Red Onion Saloon actually has seats avaialble at the bar.
Having been meaning to do it for weeks now, and not having another chance, we called up the Old Time Photo Studio in town and spent a giggly twenty or so minutes dressing up in gold-rush costumes for the camera. Some of the pictures even turned out, others require a fair bit of editing, but that’s so not the point of doing something like that. It had been brought to my notice that I didn’t really have any photos from this contract so far, so maybe this will go a small ways towards starting to fix that.
We made our way through the ever present misty rain to the Skagway Brewery for lunch (mmm…popcorn shrimp) and then just wandered, we ultimately ended up in the Red Onion, to say goodbye to one of the bartenders who has become good friends with Amras over the course of two seasons. She actually seemed genuinely sad to see us go…end of season can get a bit teary eyed sometimes.
We said farewell to the cast of the Days of ’98 show, and Amras even gifted them a bottle of champagne.
Took a quick run through the local IGA to pick up supplies – the Trans-Pacific is, after all, waiting for us in just a week’s time.
Then there was just time to run back to the ship for work and rehearsal, then back out for dinner and then the mad dash back home to make it for all aboard (well, we were no where near being late, but we were cutting it fine for our respective work times).
And that was it, no more skagway…I do hope that whatever fell out of my pocket on the run back to the ship was just change…guess I might find out next year!