Haines, AK

Alaska Marine Highway to Haines on the Lynn Canal, where we stayed at both the Haines Hitch-up and Oceanside RV Park. We toured around a lot, visiting the state parks on either end of Haines. Went to the Hammer Museum. We saw a grizzly fishing at Chilkat State Park, and then saw him off in the bushes right next to the car. Mollie bravely barked him away. We saw a whole flock of hundreds of Surf Scoters that were fishing and diving cooperatively in the bay. (Funny fisher ducks. They would start moving away from the group in a line of 30 or 40, and when the first duck in line got to a school of fish, he would dive; then the next birds in line would dive at the same spot; the rest would keep following til they got to the same spot where the school of fish was and they would dive too. So we watched one after another of them dive, one or 2 at a time, while the rest of the line kept on coming, each bird diving in its turn. Looked like they did that because if they all dived in at the same time in a melee, the fish would scatter and none would get fish. Whew. Hard to describe that operation, but it sure was interesting!) We promoted the economy at The Babbling Book bookstore on Main Street. When we were on the way to see glaciers at Chilkoot State Park, we saw a moose eating dinner. We ate at the Chilcat Bakery & Cafe. We got a couple of much-needed haircuts. We ate lunch at a Manna-type cafe called Mountain Market. And lattes at The Top Frog. (Customer parking only, all others will be toad...)