Hammer Museum & Bears

We pedaled around town today, stopping at the visitor centre and grocery store before having lunch at the Chilkat Restaurant and Bakery. The service was poor/disorganized, but the food was good. They have the most beautiful flower baskets all along the porch:

These really old houses on Main Street have beautiful flowers in their yards. That’s something I’ve certainly noticed about Alaskans. They LOVE their flowers!

After lunch we rode past the Southeast Alaska State Fair which started today. I kind of wanted to go to it but Fran wasn’t keen and figured it would be too much walking for me (my feet are still giving me quite a bit of trouble).

So, we stopped at the small, walkable and very unique Hammer Museum (www.hammermuseum.org) on the way home. We have been to many museums this trip but this is certainly the most unique. It has an amazing collection of every kind of hammer you could imagine and some you probably haven’t imagined!

There are some unique creations made of hammers out front. E.g. this ‘bicycle’.

These are 'drink hammers'. Apparently in the 1920's you would clink your glass in order to signal to the waiter that you need a refill.

The fiberglass and papier mache figures throughout the museum were donated by the Smithsonian Institute. These are in the ‘blacksmith’ section:

Aren’t these glass hammers pretty!

Who knew there were hammers for breaking up sugar lumps?

This mallet is from the Barnum and Bailey Circus. It would have been used to drive in the stakes that hold up the big top!

If you use this two-handed hammer properly it is impossible to hit your thumb!

It took two passes through the museum to see everything. Then we went back to camp to do laundry, bike-walk the dogs, and wash the motorhome. I made a pie, too. The weather turned out quite nice today with a very warm sun peaking through the clouds from time to time.

We had one more restaurant we wanted to try out before we leave Haines tomorrow – Mosey’s Mexican cantina. It is located in a neat old house in Fort Seward.

Again, there were beautiful flowers outside.

The décor inside was very bright and Mexican. I had the fish tacos and Fran had chicken tacos. We also sampled their flan and crème brulee desserts. A very good meal and good service, too. This is a picture of my fish tacos (made with rockfish).

We rode down to the main dock before heading for home. The passenger ferry to Skagway was getting ready to leave so we waited to see it go.

It was a beautiful evening and I took some more pictures of Haines.

and of Fran...

This one shows our RV park, which is right behind the masts of the boats in the Small Boat Harbour.

At 8:15 Don and Sharon Del Rosario picked us up to go bear-watching. We drove past the ferry landing and on up to where the Chilkoot River flows into the inlet. Our timing was perfect as Mamma Bear and two youngsters were fishing in the river. Just after we got there, they came up on the road and moved to the weir. This picture shows one of the youngsters coming out of the river.

Mamma and one youngster stayed in the river in front of the weir to catch fish while one little one stayed up top and ate the fish that were passed up to him.

Then they moved back onto the road. Junior dropped his fish and really didn’t want to leave it but eventually he joined Mom and his sister and disappeared into the bush.

What a treat that was! I have to give credit to Fran for taking these good pictures of the bears. And Big Thanks! to Don and Sharon for taking us out there.