Haines Alaska

We had a great day in Haines today. We first took our tour of the town in a classic car. Our driver told us when they did a title search our car was registered to one Ronald Regan of Hollywood, California in 1947. Is that cool? She was the school librarian so she was very knowledgable of the area. Daddy loved it. After we got back we had a few hours before our river float so we did a little shopping. Haines is a very small community, but the cool thing is that the movie "White Fang" was filmed here. We then came back to the ship and ate lunch and took a short nap before on to the next adventure. We met at the dock to go on our Eagle Preserve Float. We drove about twenty miles up the Chilkot River in the Preserve. Mother was already getting kind of nervous about the whole thing, but then when they started passing around the permission form saying we might be killed and we would not hold the company responsible, she really started complaining. We got to the landing and the first thing we had to do was give up our shoes and put on rubber boots that were all the wrong sizes. You should have seen all of us trying to "boot up."

It was hilarious. Next came the life vests and that was another picture moment. Finally it was time to board the raft, of course after they went over all the safety features of what to do if you fell off the raft, or if we got stuck etc. By this time Kevin was not having a good time and mother was definitely not happy. To get on the raft, you sit on the side and then spin around and scoot to where they tell you to sit. Another Kodak moment. Mother and Kevin were hanging on for dear life. Instead of white water rafting we had white knuckle rafting. The river was very calm and daddy and I were having a blast and rarely holding on. We didn't even have one time the drive told us to prepare for rough water and hold on. It was very smooth. We saw lots of eagles, nesting, flying, perched and eating. It was so cool. Finally by the end mom and Kevin had eased up and were even letting go. After we sat and spun to get off, they had cookies and hot chocolate waiting for us. I changed out of my life vest and lovely boots before having my reward. I got some great pictures and even mom and Kevin admitted they were glad they did it. It was really awesome. Tomorrow we dock and Juneau and we are going panning for gold in the morning and then whale watching in the afternoon. I will keep you posted, hopefully we will see as many whales as we saw of eagles today. What a great place this is!!! See you tomorrow.