During the night, our ship pulled into the Town of Skagway.  Skagway is a popular port of call for the cruise ship lines. After leaving our luggage outside our stateroom door, we headed to breakfast. Afterwards, we met our Tour Journey Host, Leah Lipka, for the land portion of our excursion (Leah calls it the adventure part of our journey).  Our bus  driver took us for a tour of Skagway which was  a small hamlet until 1896, when gold was discovered and the Klondile gold rush changed everything increasing the population. After dropping Skip and I at the Westmark Hotel, we were taken to get our helicopter tour to the glacier.

  After being outfitted with boots and vests, we are then taken to the helicopters. This is one of the few times in your life, you have to give your weight, so they can balance out the helicopter. After getting in and putting on the earphones, off we go!!!  Our pilot heads out over the waterfront, viewing the high peaks over the Chilkat Glacier, and cascading waterfalls before landing one of the glaciers. Guides are there to help up walk around and view the cravasses, discuss the damage due to climate change, and enjoy a piece of glacier ice while taking in the views!
  On the return flight, we fly into a valley before following the coastline back to heliport. This is totally breathtaking beauty!  

  After we got back into Skagway, we headed to Bonanza Grill for late lunch. Fun place - part of the walls are covered in dollar bills. Both had hamburgers - and they were delicious!!!

Walked around town and did some shopping.
  When we went out for dinner around 7:00 p.m. most of the shops had closed down. Went to the Red Onion.  Our waitress informed us they were out of all greens (would have shipped some up from my garden), so pizza sounded good to us!!! It was around 9:00 p.m. and looked like daylight - also temps were in the 70's.
   After a good night's sleep and breakfast at the hotel, we were heading off to go dog sledding - We were picked up and taken to Skagway Sled Dog and Musher camp. Our van takes up to base camp in Dyea. On arrival we climb into a Unimog up to the top of the mountain (approx 800 ft per guide).

At top we disembark and head to various sleds. Our driver Marybeth, guides us through beautiful terrain. She talks about the dogs and their training.

After petting her dogs, we are back on Unimog and heading back down the mountain to base camp where we listen to a seminar on the 1,100 mile Iditarod Race,

and then get to handle the future stars of the camp - puppies!

Absolutely adorable. We were all trying to figure how to sneak one home!!!! Awesome experience!!!