National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 23 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Bummer to hear of the dull breakfast, and the fog too. But, hey. You're in Alaska!
Our neighbors have a good friend that lives in Skagway and comes to visit usually around New Years every year. He says they truly appreciate the tourism the cruise ships bring in, but then really looks forward to September when life returns to normal!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
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We took exactly the same tour with Brian. He was great, wasn't he? Fortunately, our trip was blessed with great, clear weather. The only day we had rain and overcast skies was Juneau. We were not blessed with whales though. We only saw a couple on our whale watch in Juneau and they weren't very active. Here's a picture of the suspension bridge without the fog.
Friday 2 September – part two: so what’s hot and cold?
Soon we were passing through the American customs outpost. There’s a weird no-man’s land in between the American and Canadian customs, as they’re about 12 miles apart. The reason for that is the actual border runs near the top of the pass and it’s just too darned inhospitable for people to be based there. Brian told us some really scary stories about the weather. One included how, if you go to the movies (and bear in mind if you do from Skagway, it’s a 110 mile drive to get there! ) in the winter, you leave the car engine running, so the battery doesn’t ice up, just taking two sets of keys, so you can lock the car.
We had another stop for some wonderful photos:
Soon we were at the Canadian border in Fraser. I won’t even call it a town, as it’s home to just 13 people and many of those are associated with the border crossing. I told you things were small around here. We had our passports checked by a Canadian official and we were all let through and back on to Canadian soil.
We made a stop almost immediately afterwards at an amazing lake with stunning views. The sun was just coming out and that made for some wonderful shots.
When we got back on the bus, we were all complaining about the cold, as the air conditioning had been working at full pelt. Brian told us he couldn’t tell any longer what was hot or cold, “like normal people do” so told us to holler and we did, as I think I almost had frostbite, it was that cold... OK, maybe a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. Finally, we had the heat and I felt human again.
We were told all about the differing vegetation up here, because the wind literally strips the trees, so they don’t grow to their usual height. It was all fascinating stuff.
Then Brian told us the story of the Klondike gold rush of 1898. It was terrifying hearing what some of those prospectors went through. Fearing a repeat of a previous famine when people had invaded before, searching for gold, the Canadian government insisted that every single person had to bring with them a year’s worth of supplies that had to be hauled with them up the route we had just come. It just did not bear thinking about. :
Some people made money, but of course, like all these things, so many did not and many arrived to discover that all the gold was gone. Some of them worked on building the railroad for a month or so to try and get enough money to get back home again, as they were absolutely penniless. We were told that something like 7,000 boats set sail for the gold rush, as that was the “rich man’s” way to travel. The poor man’s way was... guess what?... to walk there. Yes, not something I’d want to do either.
Some people made money in very unusual ways, by bringing along items that were highly coveted. There was the story about the guy who sold eggs for their weight in gold and another guy made his fortune selling kittens for $50 a go (and remember, this was 1898...) rightly figuring that those heading to find gold would want company. It was a really interesting history and kept us all thoroughly entertained until we got to the Yukon Suspension Bridge.
Brian explained that this literally was in the middle of nowhere. White Hook was the nearest place to the north, still about 100 miles away, while to the east and west, the nearest places were a lot further away and only had small populations. It was certainly beautiful and they’d made a very good job of creating this.
Wow, now when someone says "the middle of nowhere," I really have a better reference! The photos in Fraser are beautiful when the sun peeked out. Sounds like Brian is making this tour worthwhile too!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Wow, now when someone says "the middle of nowhere," I really have a better reference! The photos in Fraser are beautiful when the sun peeked out. Sounds like Brian is making this tour worthwhile too!
Either that or head to Wyoming - that was the middle of nowhere as well, but that's a story still to come...
It really is so hard to imagine what those gold rush people went through! And sadly, so few made any money. Love the stories of those entrepreneurs! Eggs for their weight in gold? That would be one pricey omelette!
The views are beautiful! How wonderful to have a great guide who keeps you entertained and informed! It's just so hard to imagine what those early explorers and gold miners had to endure...these days we have the luxury of tour buses and it still seems like an arduous journey!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Friday 2 September – part three: Steve makes a new friend!
Almost as soon as we entered, we met the real star of the place, Yukon Jax, a beautiful 10 year old Golden Retriever, who Steve immediately bonded with.
They even had him in the gift shop...
... along with another couple of fun messaged T-shirts...
Once through there, we walked slowly down towards the bridge, with lots of exhibits to see on the way...
There were even some funny photo opportunities along the way:
Soon we were at the bridge itself.
I will say that I am not a great fan of things like this, but that’s mainly because usually there’s some kid around jumping up and down all over it but not this time, as it’s an adults only tour. That was a great relief to me and, to be honest, I didn’t notice any movement on the bridge at all... well, that was until I went to take a photo. I tried to do the first and then decided that, after that, I should use the screen rather than the view finder, as trying to look through that would’ve probably given me a black eye before too long!
I will be honest here. Usually, it’s a case of the camera doesn’t do justice to what you see, but here it was the complete opposite. When I looked at the photos later, I couldn’t get over the beautiful array of colours. I had seen them while we were there, of course, but I didn’t realise how vivid they were.
We made it to the other side and Sue, Steve and I headed off to explore, while Mark wandered back, as his ankle was playing him up (he suffers from gout ) and the views from here were spectacular.
We walked all the way up to the little log cabin they have here...
... then it was back to the bridge, where Mark, who was on the other side, took some photos of me crossing back over, which was neat.
We made our way back to the gift shop area, where there’s also a coffee shop. We grabbed a hot chocolate each, along with some maple syrup popcorn and maple syrup cookies (are you seeing a trend here? ) and we settled down to enjoy that, with Yukon Jax occasionally visiting us. We had to be careful not to give in to those beautiful eyes, as we had been told categorically not to feed him, as he’d had stomach surgery a few weeks earlier.
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) in the winter, you leave the car engine running, so the battery doesn’t ice up, just taking two sets of keys, so you can lock the car. 
We had our passports checked by a Canadian official and we were all let through and back on to Canadian soil. 
: 
but not this time, as it’s an adults only tour. That was a great relief to me and, to be honest, I didn’t notice any movement on the bridge at all... well, that was until I went to take a photo. I tried to do the first and then decided that, after that, I should use the screen rather than the view finder, as trying to look through that would’ve probably given me a black eye before too long! 
) and the views from here were spectacular. 
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