Sitka, Alaska

Tuesday, July 21st must mean we were in Sitka, Alaska. This is the year that Alaska celebrates their 50th year as a state in the United States. Before that purchase, Russia owned this beautiful land. Sitka was the capital of Alaska under Russian rule.

Downtown is the small, but beautiful Russian Orthodox Church, wonderful shops, a Russian Cemetery, a wonderful overlook to the harbour area called Castle Hill and on the outskirts of town the incredible Raptor Center to rehab injured eagles.

Our cloudy morning started off early with a photographic tour excursion This particular excursion isn't designed to teach you how to use your camera equipment. It is not especially designed for the first-time visitor to Sitka.




This excursion takes you out of the city to the north to explore areas around Sitka that you normally wouldn't see. We visited several forest areas, noting different trees, plants, eagles, and yes, bear droppings.

During one of the forest hiking trails, our guide told us about the skunk cabbage plant. Black bears don' hibernate the entire winter period. When they do wake up, they are in need of unblocking their intestinal track. Well, the skunk cabbage handles that need extremely well. In fact, the guide continued, the "event" usually works within fifteen to twenty feet from the plant.

It was at this point that we noticed one of the skunk cabbage plants had missing leaves. Up ahead about fifteen feet was the "deposit". One of our traveling members on the cruise works for the 4-H Club in Mississippi. An avid hunter, he told us that deposit happened within the past two hours.









The image I included at this point is Dianne's foot NEXT to the dropping! From the camera angle it looks like her shoe is in the dropping, but actually it is CLOSE to it to show the size. (Granted, Dianne's shoe size is 5 1/2, but still gives you some perspective.)

During our hike his wife made the comment that she thought she could smell the bear near the bridge area. That coincided with the guide telling us it was time to head back to he van to leave the area. Maybe what he was really telling us was he had spotted the bear and it would serve us best to leave.

Our arrival back in downtown Sitka brought us to the lunch hour. A bowl of clam chowder, and other food products. The group decided to trek up the steps to Castle Hill. After seeing the harbour area and the location of our ship, you could then look out over the downtown area.















Our next stop, shopping, shopping and more shopping. Well, at least we looked in the stores. I had been looking on the internet for several months to find a long-sleeved casual shirt that had an animal print. Found it in Sitka! Well, really my 4-H Club buddy found it, but that's what I had been searching high and low.

In one of the fur stores, Dianne asked me if I wanted to purchase this full length fur coat that was on sale. On sale, my eye. The price tag did say it was on sale, but the sale price was over $25,000. Hard to choose, spend the money on a fur coat or a new car. Since I wasn't in the car buyer mode, let's just pass on this decision totally!

We rode one of the tenders back to our ship in the harbour and relaxed before our daily evening food feast and entertainment in the theatre.

Another night to see what towel animal waited on our bed in the stateroom, another good night's sleep and preparation to experience Ketchikan!