A Family Visit

A Family Visit

One of our reasons for going back to Skagway was that John’s sister Susan and her family were going to dock there on a cruise ship, and we thought it would be really fun to meet them.  Susan, her husband Jack, son Michael, daughter Kathryn, her husband Roy and baby Jackson were aboard.  Susan Jack and Michael live in Houston, Kathryn et all in Salt Lake City, and we had never seen the baby.

The passengers had from 7 am to 9 pm in Skagway, so as we met them, Susan and Michael took off on a hike to Dewey Lake.

 And we took the rest on a quick trip up the White Pass, which required going through Canadian and American border checkpoints. The weather wasn’t very cooperative, and it got down to 43 degrees.  There was a lot of fog.  But we saw a lot anyway.

When we got back, the hikers were coming in, and Jack and Kathryn were taking a father-daughter fishing trip aboard the Choctaw Lady.  Why Choctaw – isn’t that an Oklahoma or Texas tribe?  It turns out the captain had graduated from Texas A&M (so did Kathryn and Michael) and he wintered in Fredericksburg, Texas.  As they left the harbor, the small fishing boat next to their cruise ship, the Zuiderdam, was quite a contrast.

Jackson wasn’t sure of who we were, and gave Great Aunt Dixie the once over.

The rest of us had lunch, and then Susan and I went to a great quilt shop, while John went to get our mail at the post office.

 Then, we met the fishermen back on the dock.  I couldn’t resist including this great Norman Rockwell type picture of them down on the dock.  They did catch a King Salmon, but it was just a tad undersize  and they had to throw it back (or catch and release, as they say).

Susan had some champagne that we ended up having in the parking lot of the small boat harbor.  And, we toasted our son Chris, who happened to call from overseas and was on the phone with John.   Jackson managed to fall on the Macadam and got a big goose egg, so I thought it was all over, and they would have to take him back to the ship.

But, dinner was next and we had a wonderful time!  We managed to almost make two reservations at the same place, but got it straightened out when we realized that this is a family of organizers and everyone had the same thought!

We took them all back to the boat in time for their departure.  It had been a full day but John and Susan, and then Susan and Jack posed for goodbye pictures, and they were on their way.