jenseib Posted December 3, 2015 Author #701 Share Posted December 3, 2015 We decided we were ready to head off the ship and check in for our excursion. It was early but we had nothing else to do. skag102 by Jenseib, on Flickr We checked in and were told just to wait for a bit as our bus wasn’t here but they would call us once it arrived. So we sat on some slabs of concrete and looked out to see if we could see any wild life. skag103 by Jenseib, on Flickr Something was moving out there. skag104 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag105 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag106 by Jenseib, on Flickr Skip kept asking me what we were doing today and it was hard to explain. We were doing the Klondike Family Experience…which doesn’t really tell you much. Its description said panning for gold, trying out beer/root beer, sled dogs, puppies, lunch and a 40 below room. I thought it sounded good since it had a little bit of everything and it would include gold panning for Skip, puppies for Claire and food for me! Since Skip watches Gold Rush I thought he might like to pan for gold. He kept acting like this was not a good choice....but would still tolerate it. He was SO wrong!!!!! As we sat I saw something move out there. skag107 by Jenseib, on Flickr I thought it was an otter but it may have just been some branches floating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 3, 2015 Author #702 Share Posted December 3, 2015 I had Claire pose for me. skag108 by Jenseib, on Flickr You can see how high the tide can get. And it was MUCH higher when we returned later today. skag109 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag110 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag111 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag112 by Jenseib, on Flickr There was a seal out there doing some swimming. skag113 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 3, 2015 Author #703 Share Posted December 3, 2015 And we watched helicopters take off and land. skag114 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag115 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag116 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag117 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag118 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag119 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 3, 2015 Author #704 Share Posted December 3, 2015 skag120 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag121 by Jenseib, on Flickr I had Claire pose again with the ship in the background. skag122 by Jenseib, on Flickr We just wore sweatshirts today since it was so warm…Skip went without one though. skag123 by Jenseib, on Flickr We saw another bus arrive so we headed over to see if it was ours and it was. Goldbeard told us he would be our guide and he told us to get on the bus. Goldbeard had a reddish beard and Skip thought it was quite the coincidence that his parents named him Goldbeard. Hahahah. We sat on the bus and waited for the rest to board and I took pictures out the window. skag124 by Jenseib, on Flickr The crew must’ve been having a safety drill. skag125 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 3, 2015 Author #705 Share Posted December 3, 2015 skag126 by Jenseib, on Flickr And then we were off. skag127 by Jenseib, on Flickr Goldbeard told us about the town and what it was like living there. He like many others, is only there for the summer tourist season. He pointed out a few things, one being the only grocery store….though I think they had a whole foods type store too. I think he said a half gallon of milk is $3.50!!!! and a gallon $7. He said they use milk sparingly here. Everything is barged up from Seattle and if you are not at the store the day the milk comes there is a good chance you won’t get any milk for the week. And Skip being the dairy farmer asked why they didn’t have cows there. Goldbeard said that there really isn’t enough flat ground to have a dairy farm. Though I bet Skip would figure out a way. LOL. skag128 by Jenseib, on Flickr The ride wasn’t too long and before we knew it we were ready to start our day. Up next….panning for Gold with Charlie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRUZIN TOM Posted December 3, 2015 #706 Share Posted December 3, 2015 We enjoyed the jewel. very similar to the pearl and star. My wife has and allergy to wheat, so food choices were limited. But what we found out that they handle food allergies great. As long as you let them know where you were going to eat the following day, they set up your food accordingly. One of the head waiters would go over the menu for the next day and provide main dishes, breads and desserts that were gluten free. If you dined in the buffet and needed bread or cookies all you hhad to do is ask and they would bring them to your table. The staff didn't leave out the gluten free items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 4, 2015 Author #707 Share Posted December 4, 2015 We enjoyed the jewel. very similar to the pearl and star. My wife has and allergy to wheat, so food choices were limited. But what we found out that they handle food allergies great. As long as you let them know where you were going to eat the following day, they set up your food accordingly. One of the head waiters would go over the menu for the next day and provide main dishes, breads and desserts that were gluten free. If you dined in the buffet and needed bread or cookies all you hhad to do is ask and they would bring them to your table. The staff didn't leave out the gluten free items. My sister has allergies to gluten, soy and dairy. Good to know they worked so well with you. I can tell her that. We plan to do some family cruising in the next year or so and even though Disney is the top of our list it's good to have a back up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 4, 2015 Author #708 Share Posted December 4, 2015 On the bus ride we were given a couple of tokens to hold on to. One was for admission and one was for lunch. We may have been given a 3rd for gold panning but I can’t remember for sure now. I put the lunch ones away safely so they wouldn’t be lost. When we got off the bus, Goldbeard pointed out a few things like bathrooms, smoking areas, gift shop, snack bar, etc. We then were going to go and pan for gold first. skag129 by Jenseib, on Flickr They had coats for use too if you needed one. skag130 by Jenseib, on Flickr We had to wait a few minutes till the group before us were done panning so if anyone had to use the restroom they could do so at this time. We were standing next to Goldbeard and Skip saw this! klon1 by Jenseib, on Flickr It’s a dredger. Now that means nothing to me and probably to many of you as well, but for those who are Gold Rush fans on TV, I guess this is a big to do. Skip said “well that looks just like Tony Beets’ dredger!” And Goldbeard replied, “yes it does, because it is the sister dredger. Tony got that one from us.” Skip was now in heaven and this excursion, which I think he thought was going to be somewhat lame, just turned into one of the best things ever. klon2 by Jenseib, on Flickr kfe30 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon4 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 4, 2015 Author #709 Share Posted December 4, 2015 It was now our turn to go see Charlie and learn about panning for gold. kfe31 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon3 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon6 by Jenseib, on Flickr Charlie had a lot of funny stories and he taught us the ways of panning for gold. klon5 by Jenseib, on Flickr Charlie told us that when it comes to panning gold kids can do it well and adults usually have troubles. That is because you have to dip the pan in and dump out the rocks….gold weighs more than the pebbles so it will stay. Kids will follow the directions, for adults it just doesn’t seem possible for the gold to stay in the pan and the pebbles will fall out. And it was true. When it came to our turn, I just could not get it right at all. klon7 by Jenseib, on Flickr kfe32 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 4, 2015 Author #710 Share Posted December 4, 2015 It looks easy enough, but believe me, it was not. klon8 by Jenseib, on Flickr After we got our lesson and stories from Charlie we got to move on to try it ourselves. Skip had to get his picture with Charlie….as you can see he is super excited now about this whole thing. We made Claire get a picture too….she was being shy but we got a couple of shots. skag31 by Jenseib, on Flickr skag32 by Jenseib, on Flickr I took a few pictures of the equipment laying around as we made our way to the panning area. klon9 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon10 by Jenseib, on Flickr Skip knew all the terms for each piece and was rattling it off as we went by. klon11 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 4, 2015 Author #711 Share Posted December 4, 2015 klon86 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon12 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon13 by Jenseib, on Flickr We each got a pan of paydirt. klon14 by Jenseib, on Flickr And we got started. klon15 by Jenseib, on Flickr As you can see, Skip was taking this seriously. kfe33 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 4, 2015 Author #712 Share Posted December 4, 2015 I was horrid at this. Skip was ok and he helped Claire but I had one of the guys there basically do it for me because I just could not get it right. kfe34 by Jenseib, on Flickr Now there is real gold in this paydirt and the guy said I had a pretty big flake….he said it was not the usual size and pretty rare. Score for me! We all got little vials to put our gold dust in. Then when we were done we could go in and have it weighed. They do not buy the gold but you can either keep it in your vial or purchase something to put the gold in. Of course they have to make some money some way…right? We made our way up to get our gold weighed then. klon16 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon17 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon18 by Jenseib, on Flickr The line was pretty long but it did move fairly fast. klon19 by Jenseib, on Flickr Up next…I am the Gold Champion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 5, 2015 Author #713 Share Posted December 5, 2015 Soon it was our turn to have our gold weighed. The lady said she could weigh them individually or all together. I chose to have mine weighed separately and Skip and Claire were going to have theirs weighed together. klon20 by Jenseib, on Flickr It was pretty obvious I had more gold than them so I wanted to see just how much more I got. The girl saw my big flake and was pretty impressed as well. klon21 by Jenseib, on Flickr And my gold was weighed. klon22 by Jenseib, on Flickr I don’t remember the weights though we have it written down somewhere. Mine was worth $21 though. Not too bad for a few pieces of dust specs basically. Skip and Claire’s combined was worth $24. So I almost doubled what each of them got. I would like to say it was because of my expert panning techniques….but we know that’s not true. But I think my lucky big flake helped me push my worth up. Of course then we had to decide what to do with the gold. Now Skip does not like to spend money on things like this in gift shops. He avoids these kind of scenarios at all cost. I picked out a little clear looking locket that cost $20 and we decided to put all the gold in it and give it to Claire. Skip actually agreed. Then of course you had to purchase some sort of chain to wear this locket on. More money…we chose the rope one which was only about $5. Skip just laughed that we had $46 in gold and then spent $25 to hold it. But Claire was happy with it and Skip didn’t grumble. I think he was just so excited to have found gold. klon24 by Jenseib, on Flickr After that we had some time to wait as others were still getting their gold weighed. Goldbeard told us to just walk around and enjoy the area and we would meet by the tables after a bit. kfe35 by Jenseib, on Flickr We headed up front to a smoking section for a bit. klon23 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 5, 2015 Author #714 Share Posted December 5, 2015 I took some pictures. klon25 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon26 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon27 by Jenseib, on Flickr And we headed into the gift shop/snack bar area and got some treats and hot chocolate. klon28 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon29 by Jenseib, on Flickr Then everyone was finished and we moved on to the next part of the tour. klon30 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 5, 2015 Author #715 Share Posted December 5, 2015 We got a look at typical things that were brought on gold expeditions to the Klondike and how many supplies each person had to have in order to be even allowed to go. I think (and I don’t have the info in front of me currently to double check), it had to be 2 years’ worth of supplies which weighed about a ton. klon31 by Jenseib, on Flickr Often you had to have 2 people at least in your party as well. You would carry some of your supplies so far and then one person would stay with them while you went back to get the next load. You did this all along the trail so it took a long time to even reach the Klondike. klon32 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon87 by Jenseib, on Flickr Skip was hanging on every word and asking questions. klon33 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon34 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon35 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 5, 2015 Author #716 Share Posted December 5, 2015 klon36 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon37 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon38 by Jenseib, on Flickr kfe36 by Jenseib, on Flickr It’s really hard to tell how big this rock slide area is from the picture…but there are people over there walking on it and climbing around…You can’t even really see them in this picture. kfe37 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon39 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 5, 2015 Author #717 Share Posted December 5, 2015 klon88 by Jenseib, on Flickr Now it was time to start to walk up the stairs into the dredger. Remember now, Skip has had THREE hip replacements and a total of 4 surgeries on the hips…meaning he is sometimes a bit slower and hates doing steps a lot of the time. He does them, but if he doesn’t have to he does avoid them. This was a new man today. He literally pushed his way through the crowd and was the first one up the steps. As we stopped here you can see he is angled himself so he will be the first up the next set when we move on again. kfe38 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon40 by Jenseib, on Flickr kfe39 by Jenseib, on Flickr There he goes. He is leaving us in the dust! kfe40 by Jenseib, on Flickr Up next, …..A delicious lunch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockfan2 Posted December 6, 2015 #718 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Loved all the posts. We are on the Jewel in March. Love all the hints. I have been following your trip reports for a few years. Have basically watched Claire grow up. We will be on the jewel in March. Looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 7, 2015 Author #719 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Loved all the posts. We are on the Jewel in March. Love all the hints. I have been following your trip reports for a few years. Have basically watched Claire grow up. We will be on the jewel in March. Looking forward to it. How wonderful to be on the Jewel coming up. Hopefully some of my ship posts are helping you a little bit at least. I look back at pictures from just even a year ago and I can't believe how much she has grown. it makes me sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 7, 2015 Author #720 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Claire finally did make her way through the crowd to catch up with her daddy. We both were just laughing at how quick he had been moving. klon41 by Jenseib, on Flickr kfe41 by Jenseib, on Flickr There was a little piece of paper that asked questions and you could fill it out and I think there was a prize at the end. I only saw one family doing it and I am not sure if they got a prize or not. But one of the questions was how many gold nuggets were in the jar. klon45 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon42 by Jenseib, on Flickr kfe42 by Jenseib, on Flickr kfe43 by Jenseib, on Flickr I learned more than I ever cared to know about a dredger. LOL. I will admit that this part was going a bit over my head and my eyes glazed over a bit. I think Claire was feeling the same way, but Skip was having the time of his life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 7, 2015 Author #721 Share Posted December 7, 2015 We moved on to the next room…and like I said before…I had glazed over a bit, so I don’t remember what this was for, though I assume it has something to do with running the equipment. I know he told a story about how they used Mercury to help get gold particles and didn’t realize that mercury would kill them and then everyone got sick. klon43 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon44 by Jenseib, on Flickr After we finished up here it was time for lunch so we made our way down and headed that way. klon46 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon47 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon48 by Jenseib, on Flickr We got in line and pulled out our tokens. klon49 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 7, 2015 Author #722 Share Posted December 7, 2015 The choices were pretty good and we filled our plates. klon50 by Jenseib, on Flickr The drink choices were few but we each found something that would make us happy. There was one family with some kids and the kids wanted milk so the dad went in search of some. I totally laughed….did he not hear how much milk is in Skagway this morning? And sure enough he was told there was no milk to be had. There were tables inside and out and we headed out and found one. klon51 by Jenseib, on Flickr kfe44 by Jenseib, on Flickr They did have some BBQ type sauces too you could dip your chicken in and it was very good. We all cleaned our plates. It was very tasty. I am not sure how they cook their salmon but I really enjoyed it. Once we finished our lunch we walked around and used the restrooms and just relaxed a bit till it was time to meet up with the group again….in the beer room. Goldbeard told us about different beers in the area, some they actually brewed themselves. Also there was a root beer that they made. Everything was natural except of the Sarsaparilla which has to be an additive by law as I guess the actual root is considered to be a drug of sorts at this point in time, but they are working on getting that changed. We all got a glass and were allowed to try any or all of the different beers and root beer. klon52 by Jenseib, on Flickr One of the beers they brewed was similar to Bud Light and I did try that one. klon53 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon54 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 7, 2015 Author #723 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Obviously Claire went with the Root Beer. klon55 by Jenseib, on Flickr Skip did too. I went back up for the root beer next and it was really good. I think Claire ended up with a total of 3 glasses of root beer and Skip had 2 or 3 as well. It really was some of the best root beer I have ever had. We had to laugh at the light fixtures. They were very basic. Skip said he would make me some like those. LOL. klon56 by Jenseib, on Flickr I do want to say that when I looked up reviews on this excursion beforehand there wasn’t much. It really sounds like this might be fairly new. Maybe just 2 or 3 years at most is my guess. It also appears they were constantly adding to it so it would have more experiences and more room to hold people. I know part of the dining area looked like it had been added fairly recently and there were some buildings that looked very newly built. I am glad they are doing well enough that they can expand. Once we all had our fill of the beers we moved on to the dog sledding portion. We went into a building and were first shown a movie about the Iditarod. klon57 by Jenseib, on Flickr I knew a bit about it but the movie was good at filling in all the details. And another score as Skip enjoyed the info too. We then moved on and met Matt, who has done the Iditarod a few times. klon58 by Jenseib, on Flickr Sadly I got a bad spot to stand and couldn’t see Matt for most of this presentation. The girl in these pictures was his helper I guess you could say…and I think she does dog sledding too but not the Iditarod yet. She was very passionate about dog sledding and she introduced Matt to us. I can’t remember her name now. klon59 by Jenseib, on Flickr klon60 by Jenseib, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenseib Posted December 7, 2015 Author #724 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Matt was very interesting, telling us stories about his adventures. klon61 by Jenseib, on Flickr He had a dry sense of humor and would talk very seriously and then you realized it was actually a joke. He showed us his sled and different features. klon62 by Jenseib, on Flickr The most important thing about the runs are the dogs. They are very well taken care of. When they take their breaks, he has to take the booties off each one of them…the booties are not to keep their feet warm but actually worn because their feet are so hot that when touching the snow it clumps to the feet….he then feeds them, puts them in blankets, massages each one, etc. During the whole break time he himself actually rests about 1/8 of the whole down time. The rest is spent on the dogs. klon63 by Jenseib, on Flickr He also told us how important sponsors are as they pay for the dog food…and then of course as he would talk about sponsors he would point to dog food or some other product and smile as if doing a commercial for them. klon64 by Jenseib, on Flickr He told us about the different kinds of dog food too. Depending on the temperature, that would dictate what you feed them. I believe beaver was one food given to them in extreme cold temperatures. It was all very interesting and we learned stuff we never would have known before. Once we were done in this area we moved the next area….and you could hear the dogs barking!!!! klon65 by Jenseib, on Flickr Up next….Sled dogs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraJon9 Posted December 7, 2015 #725 Share Posted December 7, 2015 We have talked of going on a Alaskan cruise and then we all get the bug to swim in warm waters. I have totally enjoyed the review!! This sounds so silly but I tend to be a little xmas obsessed. One of the musts is to watch the cute but cheesy Hallmark movies. It is called "Northpole: Open for Christmas". The little girl on there, she is very young is identical to your daughter.. You have to watch! I kept thinking who does this little girl look like, then when it was time to read more, bingo.. Looking forward to the pups up next.. I am more obsessed with dogs then Xmas. Ha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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