Haines, Day 2, June 4, 2011. How long would it take you to see all there is in Nevada, MO? There's the statue of Senator Stone on the square. Then, there's the Bushwacker Museum and the old jail. The courthouse has some historical value as does the Farm and Home Savings building. There are some old homes but then the tourist appeal drops off pretty quickly.
Haines is one-fourth the size of Nevada. We saw the American Bald Eagle exhibit and the Sheldon Museum. The Hammer Museum was closed. I wanted to look at 1700 hammers, but Annie wasn't crazy about the adventure. "You see one hammer, you've seen them all," she opined. I could say the same thing about the scores of Christmas plates she has hidden away in drawers in our house. I could say that, but I won't. Mercifully, I am not as stupid as I look.
We also had lunch at the Fireweed Restaurant, on the grounds of old Fort Seward. The old fort has a lot of untapped potential as a tourist attraction. Annie recognized that and suggested that a cruise line should buy and rehab it into shops and eateries. The ships would then add another "attraction" to their runs up the Inside Passage. I started doing a mental business plan for the venture, but my pizza was delivered and I soon lost interest.
We checked in at the ferry to pick up our tickets for Monday. The terminal was deserted and there was only one nice lady at the ticket desk. She greeted me as though I was the only person she'd seen all day. I gave her my name and she printed our tickets. Now, all we have to do is show up at 7:00 PM, Monday.
The nice ticket lady went over our accommodations with me. "You have tickets for two adults, a motor home and a state room. You'll like the state room. It has two beds, a bath with shower and some even have an observation chair. The bath is big enough for a grown person to change his mind." I understood her to be telling me that the bathroom wasn't very large. I thanked her and told her I'd see her Monday.
We drove out to the Chilkat River and watched some juvenile bald eagles fish. The juvenile eagle doesn't develop its white head and tail feathers until age five. Several pictures were taken from a distance, but I think you'll see the difference between a juvenile and a mature bald eagle.
The eagle exhibit had a diorama which displayed many of the animals indigenous to this area. You'll see pictures of some above. There are also live exhibits including a bald eagle, several species of owls, a red-tailed hawk - did you know there are 11 species of red-tailed hawks? - and a falcon. Today's live exhibit was a barred owl named Hunter.
Our guide, Jamie, is the wife of a soldier deployed to Iraq. She lived in Junction City, KS, while he was stationed at Fort Riley. While living there, she volunteered at the Sunset Zoo. We told her about donating our monkey, Skippy, to the zoo in 1971. A look of recognition spread over her face. "I think I know him," she said. "There are two rhesus monkeys at the zoo and one is a very old male. He is cool. The other monkey jumps around trying to annoy him. He just ignores her." That certainly sounds like Skippy. If he didn't like you, he either ignored you or bit you. Maybe we'll stop by the zoo in July and see if he recognizes us. I doubt it. We stopped in 1974 and the monkey we thought was Skippy just ignored us even then. I think he was still mad that we gave him away.
So, what now? We've seen Haines. We are still deliberating about Skagway. We may just declare tomorrow a rest day, watch the water and read. That sounds nice.
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