Holland America Cruisetour - Tour Day 2

August 20, 2012

     Monday morning started off rough as we had to get up early again. I figured this would be ok since there was a Starbucks just down from the hotel so at least I could start my morning with a chai latte for the bus. Wrong. Apparently, Monday was Discovery Day in the Yukon Territory. Everything was closed to commemorate the first gold discovery. Lovely.
     Monday was spent on the road. We covered a lot of the Yukon Territory and the ride was not nearly as scenic as the ride from Fraser to Whitehorse. Chris and Marc, again, did a good job of planning stops every 1 ½ to 2 hours. Our first stop was in a 1 road town called Carcross. There was a church, a visitor’s center, a general store, a train depot, and a bakery. That’s it. The town has maybe 200 residents. The bakers should be fairly wealthy since the tour directors rave about their cinnamon rolls. The line was out the door when I finally made it to the bakery. Of course, I bought a cinnamon roll. It was huge and delicious!

        Since we had so long on the bus, I caught up on some writing and reading and we finally had a chance to really chat with other people in our group. Roy and I were the only people from the Southeast. A lot of people hail from California. There were a few from Australia, Canada, Texas, and the Northeast. Unlike my trip to Scotland with CIE Tours, I’m pretty sure I was the only AAA travel agent on the trip. Majority of the people were home based agents.

 

 

 

     We stopped for lunch at a little campsite on the Yukon River. The meal was served by our tour concierge and motorcoach driver. We continued on the road and stopped mid-afternoon at Moose Creek Lodge. Moose Creek was a quirky lodge with a gift shop, snacks, chickens, a game of horseshoe you could play, and a mosquito statue depicting the “state bird”. There was a map on the wall for guests to place a pin on their hometown and I am proud to say I was the first person to put a pin on Wilmington, North Carolina! Since our motorcoach driver is a regular at Moose Creek Lodge, he had created a ritual of feeding the birds Ritz Crackers and they would eat from his hand. He made me try it and the first time a bird flew toward me I flinched and the bird flew away but I tried again and the bird actually landed on my hand and ate the cracker!

      We finally made it to Dawson City mid-afternoon. Have you ever been to Dawson City? We were told it is a lot of people’s favorite stop on cruisetours. The town has 1 paved road which goes along the Yukon River. The town was the first capital of the Yukon. Today it’s a ghost town of the former gold rush city.