Day 40

I forgot to mention yesterday that we drove to Chilkat State Park at the end of Chilkat peninsula. There’s a campground there but I’m really glad we didn’t try to take the trailers down there; the road was dirt and very rough. The woman at the Visitor’s Center told us the road wash just a little “washboardy” - it was a lot “washboardy”. Two glaciers are visible from a viewpoint in the park. One of them (Davidson) has a lake at the base (or the Toe as the camp hostess called it) and people go on kayaking excursions to it. They get on a bus which is then driven onto a barge to make the trip through the channel. There are no roads to get there. Those are some pretty hardcore kayakers.

Another point of interest is Fort Seward, which was an army base until 1946. The fort’s buildings are now private homes and businesses. The homes on what was Officer’s Row have been restored and are really lovely. They kind of remind me of the homes around the Prescott VA Hospital.

We went to the harbor to see all the boats and to the dock where the cruise excursion boats arrive and depart. There are some old buildings near the fort which are Tlingit activity buildings. There were three old, old totem poles lying on the ground and the buildings had tribal symbols painted on them. They were kind of interesting.

Our next door neighbor is from Germany and Jan helped him fix his water hook-up; he’s going to repay him with a German beer. He’s very nice and it’s quite interesting to hear about his life in Germany. I had 3 years of German in high school so Jan thought maybe I could have a conversation with him – not.