Before our wedding, Scott and I received a veritable deluge of wedding advice from friends and family members and from all the wedding sites I was browsing during the planning process. Some of it was really great and some of it was really awful, but this one piece stands out to me as one of the best:
Give yourselves time to fall in love every day.
Whether it’s having an impromptu romantic dinner {or to-the-death Mario Kart tournament} together at home, or sharing a fun activity, or planning a full on adventure, life should be fun. The weight of the world and that thing called responsibility are always pressing down on us, and a relationship can just be added stress if you don’t make the effort to make things fun. That’s probably what drew you into the relationship in the first place – that you were with someone who made life fun, that made you happy, and you probably made them happy in return.
Scott and I have made that conscious effort and our relationship is all the better for it. A lot of days, especially when he was making a terrible 90-minute commute from the city, we sat down together over dinner to talk about our days and the silly people he ran into on the train {working in the fashion district, he saw some, well, interesting folks} and the things my cadets did that made me roll my eyes or laugh out loud, and the time was just that: time to fall in love all over again, to appreciate each others’ company and the things that drew us together.
It might sound funny, but sometimes we get so busy in life that we need that little reminder that love is important, and so are our relationships. Make the time.
Out of all the days we spent traveling, I think our day in Skagway was the day that really showed me just why I fell in love with my husband, and it’s actually a pretty funny reason. You’ll see 
Chilkoot Trail by Horseback
We entered Skagway’s harbor on one of only two gray days we had on the entire trip {I mentioned in my last post that we had phenomenal weather}. The fog was in, but the weather was still pleasantly warm. If anything, it just added ambiance to our adventure.
We started out by hopping a van out to the home site of Alaska Excursions, who provided both of our adventures. This one started out at the stables, where we were introduced to our great guides, Sarah and Sinead, and our horses. We’re still in love with Scott’s big Belgian, Peaches.
Yes, I called my husband “Peaches” for a while after that. The fact that he puts up with me is one of the many reasons I love him. I also love him for getting on a gigantic Belgian draft horse when he hasn’t been riding that much.
We wound our way up the Chilkoot Trail, enjoying the morning, checking out the thick and lush temperate rainforest around us, and hearing stories of the pioneers and gold prospectors who invaded the area during the Klondike gold rush period. It’s amazing, hearing the history, that it really wasn’t all that long ago. The biggest part of the expansion happened in the 1890s through the turn of the century. I keep forgetting Alaska only became a state in 1949.
Instead of heading northward, we headed out toward Long Bay, pausing to watch the salmon swimming busily upstream. It was amazing to see them flopping around in such shallow water.
The views from the tour were equally amazing.
The pink flowers you see in some of these pictures are called “fire weed.” We had lots of speculative guesses as to why, but we did learn that the locals use it as a climate meter. The flowers bloom from bottom to top in stages, and when the blooms reach all the way to the top of the plant, they know it’s about two months until the snows hit. Most of those stalks are blooming close to the top, so it’s pretty near the end of the season!
After bringing our horses back into the corral, we headed back toward town for lunch, but we did stop to enjoy some of the picturesque views on the way.
Skagway
Everywhere I travel, I always try to figure out good, local, non-chain places to grab food. We asked around the guides until we found someone who was local to Skagway {a lot of them come in from Dyae}, and they recommended that we try out the food and especially the spruce tip lager at the Skagway Brewing Company. It sounded right up our alley, so we went.
The restaurant is located on Skagway’s main street. It’s pretty easy to find, since there aren’t that many streets. There are a couple commercial streets and a few residential streets, but that’s about it. The locals will tell you that you’ve got to practically drive to Juneau, or at least over the mountains, if you want to see a traffic light.
Of course, it’s cruise ship central so there are tons of stores and merchants plying their wares. We bypassed all those {we opted to spend our cruise budget on port adventures and only left a little to purchase family gifts and souvenirs} and headed right for the Skagway Brewing Company.
Why the spruce tip ale you ask? It’s said that Captain James Cook {who famously explored from Australia to Alaska and actually spent his last days here in Hawaii} was responsible for its creation. When his crew and the prospectors came to Alaska, scurvy was a big problem. The locals recommended that they take tea made from the newly formed needle-buds of spruce trees, the spruce tips, because those would help {and they did, they’re rich in Vitamin C}. While they were helpful, they tasted truly nasty, so Captain Cook found a better solution: beer.
The beer is delicious. It’s fairly light with a citrus flavor, and went quite well with the burger I enjoyed. And yes, this is why I’m not skinny. Le sigh.
After lunch, we went back toward the dock to meet up with our next tour, but first we visited the monuments to the old Alaskan Rail. Skagway has a great historical treasure trove of information on the rail and a lot of refurbished trains. One of them still even runs tours. We were especially impressed with this monster tunneler/snow plow.
Sled Dog Musher Camp
Our next stop was Alaskan Excursion’s sled dog musher camp. We were curious to see what kind of training Iditarod dogs did in their off-season {the race is in March}, and the musher camp gave us a chance to see them in action.
The bus dropped us off at the base of a hill, and we had to take this monster truck up the hill to the musher camp.
There, we found the dogs, raring to go! As soon as we showed up, they all started gleefully barking, and when one set started barking…they all started barking. All six-hundred or so dogs training at the camp. It’s impossible not to smile, though, at the sound of so much puppy joy.
We were divided out into the groups, put into the training sleds…and then we were off!
The dogs get soooo excited when it’s time to run! Their mushers are actually grateful that folks come up to help them work the dogs. Rather than just let them pull weighted sleds, they get to introduce people to the amazing creatures these athletic dogs are. My husband was ready to adopt these two!
That’s not an impossibility. When the dogs get past their racing prime and are ready for a life of sitting on a couch or in front of a fire, they get adopted out so they can live out their days in comfort and not amid the working dogs.
After running the dogs, we got an overview of a musher’s equipment and had a chance to do some Q&A with a few of the mushers working dogs at the camp. It’s an amazing job, working with these dogs, but not for the faint of heart. The races these dogs run are days long, anywhere from 500-1100 miles long, and they’ll go as many as 100 miles in a day.
We finished our tour by spending some play-time with some of the racers-in-training. We played with three-month-old pups who are getting ready to learn the ropes, and then got to cuddle with exceptionally cute six-week-old pups. Seriously, if not for Hawaii quarantine, I would have smuggled one out of there.
And that is the reason that I fall in love with my husband every day. The fact that he just laughs like a kid when the dog he’s cuddling smears doggy tongue all over his face, that he takes joy in these moments, is worth a lot to me. I love this picture, and I also love that he doesn’t give a hang that I post it on my little corner of the Internet {I did ask, I’ll have you know}.
Love that little face! I wish I could have taken this little guy with us, but there is that Hawaii quarantine and all {we’re still waiting to be able to bring our cats out from Florida}.
As we wrapped up our day and headed back down the hill, back toward the ship, Scott and I couldn’t help but be amazed at the adventures we had, the beauty of the landscape, the warmth of the people, and the wonders of Alaska. We knew we had more places to explore, but a part of us would have definitely enjoyed a few more days of adventure in Skagway.
If I could tell you anything about marriage after my one year and two months being a very happily married woman, it’s finding those little things that make you fall in love every day. The rest of it – communication, fighting fair, not going to sleep angry, not banishing anyone to the couch ever – are just good maintenance.
Here’s hoping everyone’s having a great week so far, and mahalo for stopping by my little corner of the Internet.
