Alaskan Cruise Vacay Day 7: Weather is a fickle mistress 070417

Showered and got a quick bite before heading over to the helipad for our first shore excursion - helicopter glacial landing and exploring in Skagway. Walk over to the helipad and as we are waiting for the safety video, weather moves in and cancels our trip even though a group went before us and not too long after we left they seemed to be going again but since they were all booked up, we couldnt be moved to a later slot - huge bummer as I never have been on a glacier before, nor have I ever ridden in a helicopter. Oh well.

As we exit the boat, we see the hill side littered with ads  painted onto the rocks.

Close up of one of the sections

The welcome patrol is out in full force - thats a lot of nice old cars.

This train was moving ever so slowly across the tracks. Sure did produce plenty of steam and noise in the process.

Let that parade begin.

Old School fire truck in the parade.

A little bit newer model.

One of many wicked themed floats in the parade.

Got some banner people walking in the parade.

Found the old cars now in the parade.

Slightly older car/tractor?

Murica!

Mountie's in the 4th of July parade.

Teaching the youth the skills they need for future success.

Live music for the parade attendees. 

Here's a little bit of bagpipe entertainment

Another old car cruising in the parade.

Throwback float. I am pretty sure these kids have never seen the movie they are portraying.

The National Park Rangers walking in the parade with their mascot?

As we were walking around town, came upon the annual arm wrestling competition.

Part of the sky finally clearing up from earlier.

Seems promising...

Came in from the cold to grab a pint in the happy endings saloon.

We walk around town a bit and quickly realized it was july 4th as they were lining up all these classic cars and floats and had a parade where most of the floats happened to be centered around Wicked the musical which I didnt quite understand. After that ends, we walk around some more and wind up at a saloon for a beer and to warm up a little bit. After that we head back to the boat for lunch as it is free and not too far of a walk. Take a power nap (having woke up really early to catch our helicopter ride) and then head back out into Skagway to check out their brewing company. It is a small place and we grab some beers and head up to their game room to hang out for a little bit. Once we are done there, we head back to the boat and realized it has finally stopped sprinkling. Get to the boat and do some laundry and watch as people take pictures of puppies a local group has brought on board. After finishing the laundry, go to see Steve Hites who is a folk singer/storyteller talking about local history; its a pretty cool show with a lot of information and he makes it rather fun. Went to dinner in the dining room for some delicious scallops and shrimp with more randos before heading to the indoor theater for the musical "on the bayou"; probably the weirdest musical I have ever seen having good classic rock music but seemingly no real story and then an abrupt end with a bunch of weird figurines dancing around stage. Was a quick show (~45 mins if I remember right) that ended right before the ship was to celebrate July 4th with a balloon drop in the atrium. After some music and celebrating the holiday, we go to bed for tomorrow's long day on the shore in Juneau.

Its about to happen!!!!

Balloon drop video - happy 4th of July everybody! :)