Friday, August 3rd
We woke up among the Klondike gold rush-era facades of the Attic, as Freddie’s apartment complex is known among the residents. Once again it was time for more blueberry pancakes using Charla’s blueberries from Talkeetna! (Readers might have noticed that by now they’ve been smuggled across a second international border, so we should get around to eating them.)
After filling up on pancakes we ventured into town to discover that Skagway receives a lot of rain. And wind. And clouds. And 600,000 cruise ship visitors a year in a town of 900 people. Like the cruise ship people, though far more appreciative of their services, we visited the National Parks Service visitors’ center to start our day. After exploring town (which essentially constitutes walking from one end of Broadway to the other) we returned to the Attic for lunch and were pleasantly surprised when Freddie got off of work early and came back to join us.
We spent the rainy afternoon getting to know Freddie’s roommates and coworkers, and then ventured back into town for a stop at the local brothel. The Red Onion was Skagway’s brothel back during the gold rush days of the 1890s (and a post office, telegram station, military barracks, etc., before becoming the museum it is today; hence, the 1940's and 50's pinups on the walls), and the fully-functional bar gives tours of the upstairs where the girls never missed a trick. Today it costs $5 to get upstairs for 15 minutes, which is the exact same that it cost in 1899.
Before departing on the trip we had become accustomed to Burger & Brew at the West Rib Pub in Talkeetna on Friday nights, where you get a burger and a PBR for $6.95. We were adrift in Skagway without our Friday night staple, until a whispered rumor sent us to Jewell Gardens for Friday night Hippie Hour where the burgers are $5 and the PBRs are $2. Though an extra nickel changed hands, we were able to keep up the Friday night tradition!
After dinner, we started up a new Friday night tradition at the Skagway Brewing Company. Well, perhaps not a tradition since it won’t happen again, but we all wish it was a tradition. The BrewCo was offering 75 Cent Mystery Shot night, which we descended upon with Freddie and a couple of his roommates. In addition to 75 cent shots, the BrewCo also had its signature Spruce Tip Blonde back on tap, a favorite of ours after sampling a brown and an IPA the night before. After a wild time at the BrewCo (where we were the only table ordering mystery shots and also the only table being wild) we made a quick stop back at the Red Onion. A lowly brothel by day, the RO turns into a dance club at night, luring in the likes of a bachelorette party all the way from Whitehorse.
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