Forts & Farmers’ Markets
The ms Statendam navigated the Lynn Canal and pulled into the quaint port of Haines, AK early on Wednesday morning. This town–not far from Skagway–is not a common destination for cruises. Unlike Juneau or Ketchikan, Haines can only accomodate one cruise ship at a time.
Belgain Waffles For Breakfast
After breakfast in the main dining room, we disembarked. After Hazel hurt the feelings of the bear mascot greeting us at the end of the gangway by calling him a raccoon, we strolled up the hill toward the historic Fort Seward area.
The ms Statendam As Seen From Shore
We stopped at several shops and galleries along the way. In the former fort hospital, we found artisans who spend their time creating and restoring Tlingit totem polls. It is great to see people still taking the time to create these works of art.
Part Of Historic Ft. Seward
We made our way to the current downtown area of Haines before running into some of our “cruise friends” and stopping at the Sheldon Museum. The museum houses a very extensive collection of native and Alaskan pioneer artifacts. A majority of these items are from the collection of the late Steve Sheldon, a Haines businessman.
To round out our short time in Haines, we hopped aboard the town shuttle bus and made our way to the fairgrounds for a local farmers’ market. The fairgrounds are located on the former set for the movie White Fang.
Wednesday Farmers’ Market In Haines, AK
We returned to the ship and relaxed a bit before dinner by watching a movie from the rather large library of complimentary DVDs.
We had dinner in the main dining room, and then gave line dancing lessons in the Crow’s Nest a try. My two left feet kept getting in the way, and I gave up pretty early.
I closed out the evening by taking some photos from the upper decks as we cruised down the Lynn Canal–the deepest fjord in North America–towards Juneau.
Eldred Rock Lighthouse Is The Oldest Alaskan Lighthouse In Existence
Haines was personally my favorite port of call on the cruise portion of our trip.