camwyn | Still no grue. (Reply)

Today's riverboat tour was... well, it was okay. Very touristy. Got there an hour ahead of launch time, half an hour ahead of boarding time; the gift shop is enormous, taking up the space of three businesses. An awful lot of the stuff for sale there was the kind of stuff I could probably get for a lot less in the souvenir area of Fred Meyer, with the exception of Captain Jim's Smoked Salmon - and I'm not so sure about that. The music grated on my nerves - country music performed by some Alaskan, I think, I can't figure out why else they'd be playing "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" in a voice not that of the original singer - so I sat outside and knitted for a while.

mountainspeak, I have officially become a Canadian Magnet. When I got to the boat I sat down and started knitting again, and the woman next to me commented on my skill. Turned out she and her husband were visiting from Canada. "What part?" I said, well aware of the Molson's Rant segment about how 'I don't know Bobby or Mary or Steve from Canada although I'm sure they're very nice people'.

"Near Toronto," said the lady.

"Ah," said I, "I have a friend in Brampton."

"Really? That's where we're from," said the man.

*blink* *blink*

"If you say one of you works at Etobicoke hospital I'm going to have to scream... that's where my friend works." (At least, that's the name I remember of the places you work.)

"Well, my wife here worked at one of the sister hospitals for Etobicoke - Peel. Does that count?"

"Possibly..."

So thus far it's been four random Ottawa-area Canadians (first on the Arctic Circle tour bus, then the same four on the Mary Shields thing), one Anglophone Quebecois woman (volunteering at the bird refuge), and the two Bramptonites. At this rate I am going to start collecting Canadians, like insects. I think I'll try for Manitobans next.

*ahem* Anyway. The tour. We went down the Chena river for around an hour or two, saw a bush pilot take off and land, saw where Susan Blucher and her husband raise most of their dogs, saw an Athabascan fishing wheel, watched a Native woman who has a chief's jacket of her own making hanging in the Smithsonian prepare a salmon for drying, visited an 'Athabascan village' that was basically four or five exhibits with college-age Native and part-Native kids earnestly explaining what each building/fur/etc. was... It was basically $45 for a three and a half hour big-boat cruise experience, sans the killer meals. Although we did get free samples of Captain Jim's salmon (the pilot of the boat spent a lot of time pushing that stuff over the loudspeaker) and I bought a cup of reindeer meat chili for lunch/supper.

Reindeer tastes like pork.

All in all I guess it was okay, but I was about the only person on the boat who wasn't there as part of the land segment of some cruise line's tour. As such I was probably the youngest person on board. It kind of felt like it was geared towards people who were coming to Alaska with a bit of resentment that they couldn't see the entire state at one go, because they wanted to say they'd Experienced Alaska. Not really my style, but there are worse ways to spend three hours.

When I get back to the hostel I have to tape up the blister I got in the process of walking there. I managed to catch a bus back, rather than circumnavigating the city again; I've had a fair amount of walking these past few days and I need to walk more tomorrow (going to the LARS again if I can manage), but that fourth toe on my right foot's really giving me gyp. Today has been very clear. I may attempt to stay up REALLY late and see the northern lights again. Last time I tried all I managed to see was a meteor. We'll see.