Well there is only one word to sum up today and that would be wet. We woke up and got showered and dressed. As we are staying in McCarthy we have shared bathrooms. Although we are technically staying in a hotel it is actually more like a hostel so we got up early in order to get a hot shower before the day had begun. So after our showers we went down for breakfast and then went to get the shuttle to Kennecott the mining town down the road.

The raining was literally pouring down all morning! So we caught the shuttle to Kennecott and then started the tour of the town and the mill. Kennecott is a small town which was used to mine copper and McCarthy (where we are staying) was built after Kennecott as it was a dry town so people went to McCarthy to drink and party!

The tour started at one end of town and walked us through all the different buildings and their uses. At the beginning we looked out over an area which looked like it had been mined but in actual fact it was glacial ice which had rocky sediment on the top. Once we had walked through the town we made our way up the hill and explored the 14 storey mill building and found out more about the mining of copper and the process it went through.

After we had completed the mill tour in our trendy hard hats we walked down to the power station where our tour finished. Some of the facts we found out were that when a train derailed, rather than pulling the train back on the track they simply built a new track under the train. They built one of the bridges to McCarthy in just 8 days. And they had over 100 bridges to cross to get the train in and out Kennecott and one bridge they rebuilt every year as it was cheaper to make it from timber than it was to create a permanent steel structure.

Once we finished the tour we were drenched (to be fair this is probably an understatement). Some of the group decided they were going to go on a 5 mile hike to the Glacier and back but I decided along with a few others that I would get the bus back to McCarthy but not before stopping off at the gift shop.

When we got back to town we went to the lounge and had our lunch and a chat and then walked up and looked around the museum. Which although was quite small was really quite interesting. From here we went to get a hot drink at The Potato cafe but it was full so we walked back closer to our hotel and decided to get a take away 'coffee' from the Fireweed Cafe. The cafe was on Alaskan time as it took almost half an hour to make 5 drinks but we were chatting to the owner and she looked a little stressed when I asked for my drink as she had never made one before!!!

So after we got our drinks and a sneaky cake we headed back to the lounge to drink them where we met a couple from New Zealand who were due to fly to the back country for 4 days camping but couldn't get out because of the rain. So we chatted to them for a while before we went next door to the Golden Saloon and had a giggle playing cards before dinner.

We then went back to the hotel to get ready for our McCarthy fine dining dinner experience!

The dinner was really lovely and sociable with Miles our guide telling us all about some of the goings on in McCarthy and all about the residents of the town and the reality TV show based there - so I will definitely be googling that I when get home.

The evening finished with a walk down to the bridge to see the mountains and Glacier and then a quick visit to the Saloon to hear the live music before heading to bed to get ready for a slightly brighter day tomorrow - hopefully!