Blogtober, Day 20

 Today I spent many hours outside in my back garden.  I pulled a couple of buckets of feral borage, a few dandelions and some unknown plants from the vegetable garden.  Sadly, the tomato plants have died, so I began cutting them down.  Not much is left except for kale, parsley, rosemary and lemon balm.

And two zinnia blooms.

Alaska, Day Nine

 On your last day in a lovely Alaskan town, what do you do?  You go for a hike!  (Isn't that normal?  Doesn't everyone do that?)

A word about the hiking sticks we used.  Evidently, people find the sticks in the woods and fix them up as hiking sticks and leave them at trail heads for whoever needs a pole for their hike.  We found these two sticks and used them as we hiked.  Then at the end of trail, we left them where we found them for the next hikers to use.

Truthfully, if we had known just how steep and rugged this trail was, we might not have done this hike.

Can you see the cruise ships down in the harbor?  Yes, we were that high up the mountain.

But it was worth it to be able to hike around this beautiful serene lake.

Even the spider web was beautiful.

After we descended back into Skagway, we wandered around the streets a bit and then joined a couple from Israel that we had met on the ferry on the way up to Skagway for a delicious dinner of fish and chips and a couple of hours of great conversation.   All in all, it was a good day.

Blogtober, Day Eighteen

 Today's post is short and not about Alaska (come back tomorrow for that).

I finished a Pickles Plain Vest with the left over pink yarn from the blanket I made last week.  Yes, it is for the same little girl who is due to arrive in the world within a month (maybe just a couple of weeks).

Details:  size US 9 needles.  Yarn is Baby Bee from Hobby Lobby.  I used two strands to make the yarn thick enough for the pattern.  Size one.  It's a quick and easy knit.

Alaska, Day Eight-E

 When we left Bennett, we quickly crossed over the border into Yukon Territory.  Another new province for us!

Close up of the sign

Carcross (originally named Caribou Crossing) was our final destination on the train.  It was the end of the Chilkoot Trail of the Yukon Gold Rush.  The current population is about 300 people and is an important cultural hub for the Tlingit people.

Arriving in Carcross...

We finally saw a moose!

He was very tame, so Eleanor requested a photo with him.

St. Savior's Church was located at the edge of the Carcross community.  The sign (if you can read it) gives some historical information.

Then it was time to board the bus that would take us back down the highway to Skagway.  There was some concern about whether we would be able to navigate the highway because there had been a landslide that had closed the road.  Fortunately, by the time we arrived at the location of the slide, one lane had been cleared and opened for traffic.

We inched past (kudos to our wonderful bus driver).  Then we made a quick stop at Tagish Lake just for the view.

After we climbed back in the bus, our driver reminded us to have our passports ready as we would soon be crossing back into Alaska, US.

I won't fill this post up with more photos of the incredible beauty of this area.  Just look back at the previous photos and that's what we experienced yet again.

Except this amazing waterfall that started at the top of the mountain and flowed all the way down to the river in the gorge.

Our two hour bus ride brought us back to Skagway.  We were ready for dinner!  We chose Skagway Brewing Company, restaurant directly across the street from our hotel.  Great choice!  It was delicious!

Alaska, Day Eight-D

 And Blogtober, Day 16.

We arrived in Bennett, British Columbia just after we ate our complimentary lunch.

A bit of history about the town of Bennett, which is located on the shores of Lake Bennett.  Today it is a ghost town.  But during the Klondike Gold Rush (1897-1899) there were more than a thousand buildings there.  In 1900, the White Pass and Yukon Railroad was built and passed directly by Bennett.

Not my photo.  Credit to Nils Oberg.

The railway station is still there and a few other buildings.  But that's all.  We had about a half hour to wander around and hike to a few places.

Lake Bennett and an old boat

Always totem poles

Hiking up to St. Andrews Church

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church is one of the few remaining buildings in Bennett.  This church wasn't just a place for worship services.  It also was the gathering place for almost all of the social events.

I don't know if you can read the sign.  It gives more information.

We made it back to the train in time for departure (just barely).

Eleanor was ready to keep going to our next destination-- Carcross!