Small Town Living

Yesterday, I had my first chance to go grocery shopping at the "Fairway Market." Luckily, I happened to choose the right day of the week to wander in, because the 6-aisled store was littered with boxes from a fresh barge delivery. Unfortunately, most of the food was still in the boxes. I got what I needed though, and made note of a few comparison prices for everyone.

In Skagway,

• a gallon of skim milk costs $5.01
• a dozen eggs costs $1.30
• a can of Cambell's tomato soup (no bells and whistles) costs $1.65
• a bag of Tostito's chips costs $5.29
• a bag of M&M's costs $0.65

While I understand that the cost of bringing all this food in by barge drives the prices up, the logic of how these prices are determined is lost on me. Last time I checked, a bag of M&M's in Clifton Park was closer to a dollar.

To answer a few other questions people have been asking:

• The town population is about 800 people in the summer.
• There are 72 students enrolled in the local k-12 school. 3 graduated last year.
• The town is the length of an airstrip and 4 blocks wide. I'm not the best with visually calculating area, but I believe it's less that one square mile.
• Everyone rides bikes around here, since cars are so expensive to bring in by barge.
• The nearest town to drive to 113 miles away; Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory of Canada.
• The nearest town to ferry to 14 miles away; Haines, AK. But it's about 350 miles if you want to drive.
• The wind blows all day, every day. The bright side is, it keeps the bugs away!
  
• It has been in the 50s since I got here. I think the guidebooks I read overestimated the temperature ranges, perhaps trying to trick more people into visiting the region.
• Sleeping with the sun isn't that bad, because at least your bed is always warm and out of the wind.

I might be calling home to beg my parents to mail me my ski jacket pretty soon...