repete, both travel books I had were talking up Haines. So we got off in Haines. I really must not have seen what was special about it. Maybe its because it was too much like small towns we have lived near. If you have always lived in a large city I could see how someone would like it.

jor -
When I began planning this trip to the Inside Passage, I asked myself why out of all the places in the world did I want to spend my yearly one week vacation there. It sounds like a series of rural towns connected by a waterway. There are many rural towns in Arkansas! I guess I'm just in the mood to experience this place. (And I'll bet I can get even more in the mood by watching "Northern Exposure"!) There are other times I'm more in the mood for a New York City type experience. When I talk to others who have visited the Inside Passage I hear very mixed reviews - unless they went on a cruise. (I notice those who love cruises tend to give this area two thumbs up!)

jor,
Different strokes, I guess. Stranglely, for me, it might have been the opposite.

One of the things that appealed to me was that unlike so many Alaska towns, it had been around so long it had a sense of order (probably the military influence) that other towns lacked, kind of like the more settled towns in the Midwest.

Because I was living in AK's boom-and-bust, build-a-subdivision-a-week rush at the time, it was an exception -- and probably did remind me of the small town I grew up in. (FYI, so small that a big night was nearly an hour drive to St. Cloud ...)

Also, our first visit was when the eagles where thick through the Chilkat on a glorious day. Also appeciated that the small town kept such a tidy museum.

And it did look good in comparison to Wrangell ...

Northern Exposure is my favorite TV series. I've probably seen each episode an average of five time. Haines is supposedly the prototype for the series. I think I saw more interest in the past military presence in this town than what I saw in what the series was about. Yes I would recommend getting off the ship or ferry in Haines. Everybody has their own conceptions. But I still stand by my statement not to get off in Wrangle and get chased around by church ladies!!!

Also heard that Talkeetna was a model . . . of course, neither was close to the oft-mentioned Sleetmute. It seems to be quite an amalgam.

I was living there when it was first on and it was good for plenty of yucks. Although there were some obvious gaffes, when they nailed the nuances it was hilarious. Great writing.

And I actually know a guy who moved from Haines to Wrangell, hard to figure ...

repete, Did he move back to Haines before the church ladies nabbed him? I guess I should mention the other two hot attractions in Wrangle. The walk-up Dairy Queen where the church ladies (when they are not in the church) and kids hang out. And the bar full of drunks at noon. Whew! the spectical of it all.

my guess is the church ladies probably chased him all the way back to philadelphia . . . the guy seems to have finished into some kind of Northern Exposure recluse plot.

However inaccurate Northern Exposure might have been geographically, the show got quite a lot right about small (non-Native) town life in Alaska. And Roslyn (WA) did a fair stand-in for Cicely.

The Pacino vehicle Insomnia OTOH, was so wrong on so many fronts that IMO it blew the film's premise. I (and anyone who's at all familiar with Alaska) could just imagine Hollywood types who've never been closer to Alaska than Chatsworth sitting around dreaming up bogus plot lines and settings without any reference whatsoever to reality. Drove me nuts.

I got the biggest laugh with the Wrangell story! What a hoot.

Food on the Ferry is just okay. Breakfast is the best deal (it is hard to mess up eggs or pancakes). Hamburgers and "baskets" your safest bet for lunch/dinner, though we have had some good daily specials. If you research ahead you can plan your meals on- shore. At Petersburg (one stop north of infamous Wrangell), you can call Papa Bears 20 minutes before you dock and they will have a fantastic fresh pizza ready for pick up (it's just across the street from the terminal). Their hamburgers are better too.

We choose the ferry over flying anytime we can.