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| On the way to Sitka |
Civilization!
Lipstick! Restaurants! We are in a real city of 9,000 on Baranoff
Island and they don’t roll up their streets at 8 PM. On the contrary, this is quite the
cosmopolitan place. Originally settled
by the Tlingit Tribe, it was stormed by the Russians in the late 1700’s, (they optimistically
named it the capital of “Russia America”) and then purchased by the U.S. in
1867. But the Russian culture remains
strong here - this must be where Sarah Palin got her knowledge of Russia,
reading Sitka street signs.
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| Whale! Well, Whale Breathing |
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| Whale! |
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| Two Whales Swimming Together |
Sitka, has natural beauty to spare – surrounded by craggy,
pointy mountain peaks to the north, south and east and the Pacific Ocean to the
west. Its weather leaves a little
something to be desired though – highs in the summer average 60. From what we experienced, it is sunny every
day and rainy every day.
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| Juvenile Eagle |
Since Sitka is known for its fishing, Jim embarked on his
own version of the Deadliest Catch - a half
day fishing trip – we will now call him “the provider” as he hauled home 4 large
salmon including the very rare white king salmon. Then I brought out my favorite kitchen tool –
the vacuum sealer - for an afternoon of
sucking air out of plastic bags. Dinners
on board just improved.
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| Sitka Waterways from Mt. Harbor |
We rented a car for a scenic drive up the twisty, narrow, gravel
road to the top of Mt. Harbor, an elevation of approximately 2500 feet. This might not have been too bad except that
other people had the same idea and the road is wide enough for exactly one
small car. Each time a vehicle came the
other way – usually a monster truck - we’d swerve into one of the numerous
turnouts. Unfortunately, the turnouts
themselves are skinny with a sheer drop off and nothing but loose gravel between
you and the bottom of the mountain. Despite
my constant screaming “we’re going to die” we made it all the way to the top
where I finally pulled my nails out of Jim’s arm. There, a parking lot and foot path leads to
the summit and a breathtaking 360 degree view.
The summit has picnic tables and grills. We chuckled about how hard it would be to
organize a picnic all the way up here and then, sure enough, we encountered a
family with their dog in the parking lot unloading their picnic supplies: charcoal, burgers, buns, and of course, a handgun
- just in case a grizzly tries to wrestle you for the burgers.
Sitka can only be reached by boat or plane and we drove our rental
car reaching the “Road Ends” signs at both the north and south side of town.
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| Sitka Harbor at Sunset |
We ate out every night and had wonderful
meals, tapas style, white king salmon, and rockfish – Petersburg, can you hear
me – civilization, restaurants!!
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| Leaving Sitka |
Sitka can only be reached by boat or plane and we drove our rental
car reaching the “Road Ends” signs at both the north and south side of town. 
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