Guess what? It’s raining! LOL Yeah, it’s getting either comical or pathetic at this point. I know, I know. We’re in a rain forest. It rains more than it doesn’t. But still! I can take drizzle, but this was RAIN! First on our list today (after our room service breakfast yet again) was one of the most famous train rides in Alaska. Well I wouldn’t really know. Since it was, wait what’s that word? Oh yeah, raining … since it was raining you couldn’t see squat. Most of the shots I got I took from the “vintage passenger coach” through the window. What does that tell you? You know, I won’t say it again. I could tell it would’ve been incredible if the clouds weren’t blanketing the mountains, but we really didn’t get to see much. Also, the train climbed almost 3,000 feet so at times it felt like you wanted to get out and push it to help. I swear I think I can walk faster than it crawled at some points.

When we got back to town, we walked around a bit and did some shopping. Up until this point we had hardly shopped at all. By now it was only spitting rain and was bearable so we took advantage of it and found quite a few souvenirs for the yewts. We spotted “Bonanza” across the street and decided it looked like a good place for lunch. It felt good to settle in and watch the world go by with a beer and burger for a change. We had eaten a lot of seafood by now. We left in time to hike back to the ship and put our loot away, then head back down to the pier for our Chilkoot Trail hike and float trip.

John was our lucky guide and there were six of us signed up. Actually there were eight, but two didn’t show up (they were probably smarter than the rest of us, or they just didn’t want to get wet). Eventually John made the executive decision to leave and start without them. We all crawled into the van for our ten-mile drive to the trailhead. The Chilkoot trail is one of the most famous trails taken during the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska. John has tried a couple of times to complete the 33-mile trail that ends in Canada. It normally takes 3-5 days to hike. We were quite out of breath during the first ¼ mile or so. The description says it’s a moderate hike. Um, it would be strenuous in my book. But we made it and while inside the forest we couldn’t feel the rain. It felt like it was longer than two miles but supposedly that’s how far we hiked before hitting the “float” part of the trip.

OMG, you should’ve seen us. OK get a visual. I already had the following on: thermals, jeans, a turtleneck, a sweatshirt and rain jacket. He offered us rain ponchos so I took one of those thinking it would help protect my camera (yeah right for all those amazing scenic shots I was gonna get). THEN he give us wading boots to exchange for our hiking boots. THEN he gives us a life jacket to don. ROTFLMAO. Really? I made a picture that’s for sure. But … LOL … it was raining too hard to get my camera out to capture it! Needless to say we didn’t see much in the way of scenic views or wildlife. Wait! We did see a couple of sea gulls! Yaaah!!

At the end of the float, there was hot chocolate or tea and cookies waiting for us while we got our hiking boots back on and they put all the life jackets away and hauled the raft to the truck. Do I need to tell you how good that hot shower felt?

Between our schedule and the time difference there weren’t many opportunities to call Cari. This afternoon it worked so I called even before I got in the shower. As always, it was good to hear her voice, share some of what we had seen and done and find out what was going on in her life. We talked for a while before I handed the phone to Bob, and then hopped in the shower to get ready for dinner. When I got out I went to play some music through iTunes on my computer and that reminded me I had wanted to tell Cari about Bob “listening to my man” on the treadmill. I had to call her back. Of course it made both of us laugh. I knew she’d appreciate hearing about that.

We sat with Bill and Pat (from New Zealand) at dinner tonight. They were sitting at the table next to us at dinner our first night on the ship. They said they’re addicted to cruising and were lots of fun to talk to and hear all about their journeys on other trips. As usual dinnertime flew by and we were actually late to the show. It was Boogie time from the 60’s – or something like that. We enjoyed it better than “Simply Ballroom” but the show we were really looking forward to was the “Newlyweds, Not So Newlyweds” game at 10:30pm in the Cosmos.

Even though we were exhausted we sucked it up and made our way to the 10th deck to the Cosmos lounge and grabbed a seat. They were still asking couples to sign up to choose from. Thank goodness they didn’t come by us. Bob would have died! The four couples they ended up choosing had been married from three weeks to 55 years. Some of the questions and answers were:

What’s the first thing your husband touches when he wakes up in the morning? “Himself.” “ He’s from Minnesota, so the twins.” “My butt.”

Song that best describes your honeymoon night – “All Night Long,” “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” “All By Myself,” “Mission Impossible.”

Bra size and color – apparently the average husband doesn’t have a clue as to what size bra his wife wears.

If a parrot lived in your bedroom what’s the phrase or sound he would hear and repeat the most over the time you’ve been married?

“Oh Yeah!” The wife of 55 years said, “Uh Uh Uh” and Ian about died.

The couple married 55 years got all but one answer right and they were very honest in their answers. It was well worth staying up later for and we wished we hadn’t planned so much for the ports so we would’ve had more energy for all the fun things that went on at night on the ship. Oh well, live and learn. We’ll know better next time.