Skagway, Alaska

Skagway was our second port of call in Alaska. Quite a beautiful township, full of quaint old beautifully restored buildings. In fact it looked a lot like a movie set. Lots of touristy shops and many, many jewelry stores. It seems that the precious stone in vogue at the moment is Tanzonite. It is a clear deep blue stone from Tanzanier. Precious because it is in very limited supply and in fact is very beautiful. The deeper the blue, the more precious it is. Ask to see Nadine's ring and matching studs.

There were many tours available but the one we chose was the White Pass summit railway. We were a day in port, took the train in the morning and walked around town in the afternoon. In a creek on the walk into town were dozens of dead salmon apparently washed down from the creek source after they had spawned and then died. The smell was interesting.

Skagway was the starting point for would be miners who were attempting to join the famous Klondike gold rush in the 1890's. The railway was built to get them over the mountains on the long journey to the Yukon Territory.