Skagway & Haines

Bald Eagle Preserve Jet Boat Tour

June 11, 2007

My favorite part of this day was seeing so many Bald Eagles in their natural environment. Living in Northern Indiana the biggest bird we see is a Robin ~ well not really! But I have to say, that since we've been home, the birds do seem rather small in Indiana.

On our stop in Skagway, we planned a Jet Boat tour in Haines. Unfortunately, Megan work up ill that morning so she and Tim stayed on the ship. That was a total bummer! So Matt and I, along with Tim's parents, went on the tour anyway. After leaving the ship, we boarded a high-speed ferry to Haines which took about 30 minutes. The views were great. After our ferry ride, we boarded a school bus and took a 30 minute ride to the Eagle Perserve where we had a hot dog roast over a campfire. Matt loved that! Then they geared us up with warm coats, gloves, hats and blankets. Boy oh boy were we glad we took all the extra warm clothes. That boat went pretty fast and it was COLD! It took a bit of time, but we ended up seeing lots of Bald Eagles, trumpet swan, Alaskan Turns, and finally at the very end a moose with her two babies. It was a very nice tour and we enjoyed it, but I wouldn't need to do it twice.

We were very thankful that by the time we got back to the ship, Megan was feeling better and Tim hadn't caught anything. However, we then found out that we were all quartined in the cabin for the next 12 hours because of Megan's illness. No problem because we were exhaused from a very long day. We ordered room service and watched movies all night.