June 21 - July 2

 June 21-July 2

     We left Tyler, Amanda and the girls in Juneau for their flight back home on the 20th and it was definitely quieter on the boat when we returned to Taku - we will really miss having them onboard! We met up with the group at Taku and the headed over to Smugglers Cove near Auke Bay for a night before we went into Auke Bay on the 23rd. We are picking up Josh, Kimberly and Nora on the 25th so we used the couple days in Auke Bay to get laundry done and restock our supplies.  We rented a UHaul box truck since it is much cheaper than renting a car ($19.95!). We went to Downtown Juneau and had lunch at Deckhand Daves for Fish Tacos and they were good- then on to Costco, Fred Meyer and Safeway to restock!  Right after we returned the box truck we got a call from Don and Glen.  Don needed a new freezer - trying to secure his they hit the Freon line and broke his so they wanted us to pick up a new one. After several calls it was decided that Steve would go by bus to Home Depot and pick up the one Don ordered and then come back to the boat in a cab. We picked up Josh, Kimberly and Nora and headed to William Henry Bay on the way up Lynn Canal where we met up with 6 of the boats for our trek to Skagway. Tom and Chris on Miners Debt stayed in the Juneau area to pick up our Niece and Nephew Aimee and Mike along with Leslie and Greg on Butterduck who met up with family off a cruise ship in Juneau.  They were not planning on doing the trip to Skagway and it ended up being a good thing as Tom ended up in the hospital with Kidney Stones that required surgery - UGH!!! (he is better now!).

     Josh, Kimberly and Nora picked the right week to be here as the weather was fantastic again and the trip up Lynn Canal was the most beautiful of all the things we have seen in Alaska thru the years of coming here.  Steve and I are so glad we decided to go the 90 miles to Skagway and we could not have had better weather.  The pictures do not do it justice - we were all amazed at the beauty of the trip!

     We spent the 2nd night at Taiya Inlet which is close to Haines and we took Nellie over to explore Haines.  What a cute town in an absolutely beautiful setting.  We found out that all 6 boats will be able to get into the marina in Skagway which is fantastic - makes it much easier for our train excursion and seeing the town. We spent 2 nights in Skagway and what a great town.  We originally were going on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad on Saturday morning but they had space available for all 22 of us to go on the afternoon of the 28th which was a good thing since the weather was fantastic and the viability on the train route was great. There is so much history in Skagway with the town being one of the two routes to the Klondike Gold Rush that occurred when gold was found in 1896. The other route was the Chilkoot Pass but while it was shorter it was much steeper, rougher and rugged. The narrow gauge railroad from Skagway to White Pass was built in 1899 and completed in 1900 with 35,000 men working on the project. It was a product of British financing, American Engineering and Canadian contracting and the tour was great.  We also got to see the museums in Skagway that talk about the history of the gold rush and like all good tourist towns in Alaska there were 4 cruise ships that came in while we were there.  The good news is they usually start around 10 and leave by 4 so we had the town to ourselves the rest of the time. Lots of stores and places to eat and drink and we really enjoyed our visit to Skagway.

    We left Skagway on the 29 and headed back to Juneau stopping at Sullivan Island and Benjamin Island before returning to Auke Bay on the 1st. We crabbed on the way down and got 1 pot with 9 crab - unfortunately no keepers - we had several King Crabs which non residents can't keep, tanner crab and a few dungeness crabs that were female.  We saw more whales on the way back to Auke Bay.

    Josh, Kimberly, Nora and I went into downtown Juneau to look around and also eat at Deckhand Daves again - Josh and Kimberly loved it the first time they came to Juneau in 2021 so they really wanted to go again!  We had one last evening in Juneau with them and then they headed to the airport in the morning of July 2 and we headed to Swanson Harbor to meet up with all the Roche Harbor Boats again - just in time for Taco Tuesday on the Nelsea.

     We had a great trip with Josh, Kimberly and Nora and again the boat got quiet after they left for home.

June 12 - June 20

 June 12 - June 20

  We picked up Tyler, Amanda, Evelyn, Alexis and Zoey in Petersburg for a week on the boat and the weather turned fantastic.  We had a wonderful time going from Petersburg to Cleveland Passage where we had the opportunity to go fishing for Halibut and were rewarded with 4! Tyler caught his first halibut and learned to fillet it and we had a great fresh halibut dinner that night. From Cleveland we went to Last Chance Harbor. We had to cross the Frederick sound and the scenery was spectacular but water a bit rough. The girls got to see whales, eagles, seals and glaciers the way and we finally met up with Magic Moment! We went to shore in the new Nellie which is perfect. The girls collected shells and rocks on the beach and we up pulled up a sea snail that Evelyn named Shelly. She really really really wanted to keep Shelly as a pet and after a day was convinced that if she wanted Shelly to live she need to put her back in the water - an emotional event for sure! They also found a rock covered in Barnacles which was appropriately named Barnacle!

   From Cleveland we moved on to Tracy Arm Bay to start the glacier viewing part of the trip. On the 18th we had a great weather day and went up Tracy Arm to South and North Sawyer Glaciers in Nellie.  We saw eagles, floating icebergs, waterfalls and many many seals with their new pups which was a highlight for the girls.  Steve pulled Nellie up to a waterfall and Evelyn and Alexis had so much fun being sprayed with water from the falls. We were able to get really close to the glacier in Nellie and got the opportunity to see an iceberg flip over in front of us!

    We left Tracy Arm Cove headed for Taku Herbor which is a great stop with the kids since there is a side tie dock and the remains of a 1904 Salmon Cannery. The kids had fun exploring the beach and even helped Steve find another Renton brick for his collection. We found one when we were there years ago so we knew they had bricks from different areas on the beach.  This was our last stop on the big boat - we took the kids to Juneau in Nellie the morning of the 20th for their flight back home. It is about 20 miles from Taku to Juneau and the water and weather were great!  Sad to see them leave - we had a great time on the boat. For Fathers Day Evelyn gave Steve a lego set that is a Sailboat and they spent their last afternoon together building the Sailboat - the first lego set Steve has ever built (no idea how he got out of building them with the boys!).