Sitka

Sitka is Alaska's fourth largest city. It is located on an island in an archipelago in the Gulf of Alaska. After early battles with the native Tlingits in the early 1800's, Russia established a fort on this site to protect their sea otter pelt trade. Sitka became the capital of Russian America.

Sitka was also the location of the flag lowering ceremony in 1867 when America bought Alaska from Russia, but the Russian heritage is still evident in the city.

After America's purchase, Sitka became Alaska's first American capital (before later moving to Juneau). Growth was centered around gold mining and fish canning. Today, tourism has kept the city humming. Museums, historical buildings (such as the onion shaped dome of St Michaels Russian Orthodox Cathedral pictured above), and of course, shopping are all there. My wife Sharon and I toured the town on foot with stops at the Alaska Raptor Center and Tongas National Forest.

The Raptor Center takes in 100-200 birds of prey annually that have been injured and they try to rehabilitate them. Those they can "fix" are released back into the wild while others are sent to zoos or kept on-sight for viewing by the public. If you want a close up photo of an eagle, hawk, owl, falcon, or raven(?), this is where you can get it. Also at the center are hiking paths through the surrounding woods. At the head of the paths a sign read, "This forest trail is excellent habitat for brown bears. Please use the trail at your own risk." For some reason, Sharon was always looking over her back!

We also hiked through a small portion of the Tongas National Forest. Tongas is the largest national forest in the United States. It encompasses most of the panhandle of the southeast portion of Alaska. It is classified as a temperate rain forest. Amongst the tall spruce and hemlocks were ferns, moss, and mushrooms. Sharon saw her first red squirrel chattering away and a stream in the forest had one and a half to two feet long salmon trying to get upstream. With fish only a foot apart from each other, across the entire width of the stream, for as far up stream we could see, it's no wonder the bears hang out around there! At different parts of the park's paths are totem poles representing family histories of the indigenous people of the area.

After a stop at a local bar back in town (for Sharon!) we had a snack before heading to the ship. I had a reindeer sausage sandwich. It tasted like a Polish sausage. Maybe the reindeer was Polish! Live (and eat) The World!