At the end of my first year of graduate school, my family celebrated my grandfather's 80th birthday. For this occasion he decided that it would be nice to have the whole family together (16 of us) for a cruise to Alaska.

On the second stop (day four of the cruise) we came to port in Skagway. It's a nice little town of about 700 summer residents and four major cruise ships. During the winter the population drops to about 400 or less.

On this day, I decided to take the opportunity to abandon my family and go out on my own for a canoe trip in the Yukon. This required a long van ride along the only road out of town that leads into the wilderness of northern Canada. Fortunately, there were many beautiful sights along the journey. Unfortunately, we only stopped once for photo opportunities and we didn't know exactly what area we were in.

Before arriving at our destination of Spirit Lake, we got to see the world's shortest river and smallest desert--both located in Carcross, Canada.

It was a relaxing day in the silent mountains. I shared my canoe with a man from Trinidad who was on the trip with his daughters--I don't think he really enjoyed canoeing. The water in the lake was shallow--maybe a couple feet deep. We thought it was a tame trip until we reached the middle of the lake and the depth dropped to about 200 feet.

Upon my return to the ship, I had the excuse of being late for dinner and too tired to do anything with the family. Although, I was up for more drinking with my brother and cousins later on.