Wake up call at 8:15am!! Had to hurry to get Sara walked and fed and ourselves ready for our pickup van to go kayaking today. Yesterday had been so dreary, so I wasn't holding out a lot of hope for this early morning activity, but it was gorgeous this morning! We still dressed in a jacket since I have found that water areas here are much cooler than on land. So we were transported to the city docks, where we picked up another 10 people who had been on a cruise ship which landed in Skagway and they came over here to Haines to go kayaking. It was a fun group of people from Ohio (Massilon), Arizona, Utah, and Peru. The bus then took us back out to Chilkoot Lake (where we had explored yesterday) and gave us basic kayaking instruction - this kayak was a little more intimidating to me because it uses a skirt which seals you into your port, and is supposed to keep you dry; but if the kayak should turn over, you are also trapped inside and would need to free the skirt before escaping underwater from the kayak! But they assured us that these kayaks are very stable and they've never had anyone upset...if you followed the rule of never standing in the kayak, especially to enter or exit - so there were some fun demonstrations of how to lift oneself sideways in/out of kayak, or beach whaling yourself out if all other techniques fail! Altho we did not get video of our graceful transfers, no one tipped a kayak today! And we had a great 2 hour trip across the blue green, calm surface of Chilkoot lake. Once again, we saw no bears, even though they are so common that the guides wouldn't even let you go to the outhouses by yourself for fear of bear encounters! If you read our blog yesterday, you know that we walked the whole road to the lake unaccompanied, so we're either lucky or irresponsible?! They bussed us back to Haines, stopping at a point on Lynn Canal for a picnic lunch, then drove us home to our RV park. I had tried Sara's new "sedation medicine" on her this morning to see if it would calm her for the big ferry trip on Thursday - neighbors report she was still barking and upset while we were gone, and immediately passed out and was fully sedated as soon as we got back :( We'll have to rethink that plan for the ferry trip! We then enjoyed a sunny couple hours reading and relaxing at the RV, then walked over to the fairgrounds to the fake "Dalton City" (from the movie set), to eat at a real pizza restaurant called the Klondike - enjoyed an excellent Verdura Pizza (spinach/arugula/pesto) from the wood fired grill and some new Alaskan beer made from Spruce tree tips? - enjoyed it! Also, a surprising coincidence at the restaurant was when the waitress said, "Hey, I know you! - I remember your dog" - we had met her on the beach 2 days ago while hiking with Sara and she was hiking with her puppy - guess we've been here too long when the locals recognize us!! Also, Sara's dog sitter came by today to meet her (not a very true impression since Sara was comatose when she came by), but she will pick her up at the RV site tomorrow at 10am when we go to catch a ferry to Skagway. Skagway is another town up a different fjord, also on the inner passage, but would have required either a 7 hour drive, or this 45 minute ferry ride to get there from Haines. So, it's off to the ferry for us and Sara to doggie daycare tomorrow!