Haines

I’ve got just two words to describe our visit to Haines, AK—too short!!!   I don’t know what it is, but the mountains just seem to be getting higher and higher all the time, and when they rise straight up from the sea, they are especially breathtaking!

We knew within minutes of our arrival that this was going to be a special place for us.  While Jim and Bernie went ahead in Lily to check out possible campsites, Kathy and I waited in their truck.   They weren’t gone five minutes when the two of us looked up to see a disturbance in the woods right beside us.  And here was the culprit!   We watched the moose family just five feet from us for 20 minutes at least before mama decided to taken them down the road a bit, and cross the street.   

Mama moose

"OMG!  She has a baby!", we said.

"Wait a minute, here comes another one!"

Time to go

"Wait for us!!!"

Something fun we did here was tour a cannery.  It was set in a beautiful bay and cannery windows are positioned so you can watch the catch being processed.

In our campground we found another surprise—it was thimbleberry season!  Bernie and I were familiar with these flavorful berries from our journeys around Lake Superior, and the four of us had a lot of fun picking!  Our camper smelled like heaven with a thimbleberry crisp browning in the oven that night!

Thimbleberries--and Jimmy blowing raspberries in the background!

Another delectable here was the BEER!   Haines Brewing Company turns out what may be the best beer we’ve ever tasted.   We each got a different flavor—including “Spruce Tip Ale" and “Black Fang” stout—and they were yummy.

So fun to share our passion for microbrews with Kathy and Jim!

We drank them outside in the remains of a movie set Hollywood constructed here in 1996 for the filming of “The Call of the Wild”.  It was called Dalton City in the movie which was based on Jack London’s famous novel.  It is located at the fairgrounds and many of the facades now grace little businesses, including the brewery!

Could that be "White Fang" himself??

Also in the Fairgrounds Saturday morning was the farmer’s market, and we enjoyed getting some fresh greens and listening to the little bluegrass ensemble that was playing for the crowd.

Rubbing elbows with the locals at the farmer's market

Yes, indeed, this is a beautiful, beautiful town.  The tourbook says Haines has the highest per capita concentration of artists of all kinds of any city in Alaska.   There's certainly no lack of inspiration, that's for sure!  Here are a few more shots from in and around Haines, taken while hiking and just driving around.

We are seeing more and more quonset huts for businesses of all kinds, and even churches!

Sunflowers and cabbages decorate this storage shed

Haines harbor

That's the library in the foreground!

Retired biology teacher, Kathy, really enjoyed the fungus on our hike!

When we leave Haines it will be by road now, not ferry boat!   This is the end of our time in Southeast Alaska and the start of our adventures in the “interior”.    We are, of course, filled with happy anticipation of what that will be, but feeling sad that six weeks of our time in Alaska has already passed.   It is going by much too quickly!!!