Hyderized!

Day 79 – Friday, August 30

We woke up to rain today….but by noon the sun had come out, and the weather was great for a city tour of Stewart, BC.  With only 6 streets, I couldn’t understand how this tour would last 3 hours, but it did!!  Our tour guide filled us in on so much interesting stuff about the area.   Stewart is known for its snow and has the BC record snowfall of 99.9 ft of snow!!   Snow is a benefit in this area, as people come from all over to enjoy Ski-doing (snowmobiling) and Heli-skiing (where they take you to the mountain in a helicopter and drop you off and you get down the best way you can!)  They also shovel a lot of snow each winter! 

We saw the oldest house in Stewart…an 1898  log cabin of one of the prospectors/settlers in the area. 

Hyder/Stewart is on a fiord (formed by a glacier) and has a deep water port that is used for industrial use.  They load 17,000 truckloads of lumber each year on boats (it goes to China).  Every day, 365 days a year, there are 9 truckloads (triple trailers) of ore delivered to the port from the local mines and loaded on boats.  This port is used because (1) it is closer than other ports, and (2) there is no wait…they are not busy enough to create a backlog! 

Many of the homes are from the 1900’s and 1920’s and have been preserved.  Some have been moved from the waterside location, due to floods, but preservation is a key here.  It makes it a quaint little town.  Every home has a generator, since electricity is unpredictable.

There are 70 kids in the entire school.  Last year there was 1 in the graduating class.  This year there will be 3!

While on the tour, our guide pointed out a “new-looking” log cabin-type structure, surrounded by beautiful gardens.  She said it was a photographer who moved here a few years ago and was building his “retirement home” along with a studio.   About that time, he appeared in the doorway and gave us a tour of his cabin, and the guest house.  WOW!  (I have lots more stories about him, but not room here.)  He can look out one side of his place and see a glacier, and out another window is a waterfall…simply beautiful!

 

We had a delicious dinner in Hyder, Alaska at the Glacier Inn, and got Hyderized!   It’s a local tradition for visitors to  drink a shot of 150 proof alcohol. You have to sit at the bar, and they pour a shot out of a bottle covered with a brown paper bag so you won’t know what it is.   They give you a little speech saying you can’t smell it or sip it, you have to take it in one gulp and  if it comes back up, you have to buy a drink for everyone at the bar!!  They give it to you with a glass of water for a chaser.  After you drink it, they pour any residue out of the glass onto the bar and light it!  Then they give you a certificate to say you’ve been Hyderized!!  --Just had to do it…I have my certificate!!  (Jim and Bernadette refrained so that they could take pictures!) 

 

PS.  Happy Birthday today to Tom—the best son in the world!!  Can’t believe it’s been 34 years since that little guy came into this world!