Monday, June 13, 2011

This morning wasn't so bad.  We had to have our bags out by 7:45 am and then we loaded onto the bus around 8:15 am.  We only went a short distance because we were going on a boat ride down the Yukon River there in Dawson City.  The boat ride was about 3 hours or so.  We also got a meal.  We had a choice of some kind of burrito or a bagel with egg and bacon.  I chose the bagel and it was good however I wasn't very hungry because they gave it to us around 10:00 am and it hadn't been long since I had eaten breakfast. 

After the boat ride we had to get on a ferry which took us to the Top of the World Highway.  At some point we turned off onto the Taylor Highway.  This is where we went across the border into Alaska.  The border patrol agent came onto the bus and collected all our passports.  The passengers that were from countries other than the USA or Canada had to go inside and fill out paperwork if this was the first time they had come into the USA during this trip.  A few people had come into San Francisco so they didn't have to do that.  We have quite a few people from New Zealand and Australia that had to go inside.  It didn't take long though.  After they finished with our bus we drove to an overlook and got out and had our pictures made in the rain.  We had to wait for the second bus to get through the border because we had to travel together.  This part of the highway is so narrow and winding in parts that we had to have a pilot to lead the 2 buses through.  There was another route that we were originally supposed to take but part of the road had gotten washed out or something and they are just now TESTING it for traffic so Holland America didn't want to send their buses that way so we went the other way instead.  We got to go through Chicken, Alaska and got out for a break.  We were only there about 20 minutes so didn't get to look around much.

We are now in Tok, Alaska.  We are staying at the Westmark Inn in Tok.  This Inn is owned by Holland America just like the other Westmark Inns that we have stayed at.  The Inn is clean but sort of odd.  I feel like I am at camp.  We did get a room on the ground floor which is good because they don't have elevators.  We also didn't get just one bed -- we got 3 beds!  The bathroom is so small you can't even hardly turn around in it.  They have the toilet paper on a holder that is in the middle of the bathroom.  I feel sure that when we go in there to take a shower that we will have to move the toilet paper out of the bathroom.

One good thing here is the restaurant.  We just finished eating dinner and we had Mexican food.  It had to be some of the best Mexican food I have ever had.  I had nachos and Krista had enchiladas.  It also came with chips and salsa.  Krista also had a margarita which she said was very good.

Tomorrow morning we will be leaving at 7:45 am.  We are going to stop at North Pole and see Santa Claus.  This is not a scheduled stop on our tour but our bus driver is going to work it in for us.

One thing I forgot.  This is the first day of Love week at this hotel and everything is decorated like it is Valentines Day.  They even picked out a couple on our bus to be the Love Couple.  They got their picture taken and got some free gifts.........