The Cruise - Day Three - Sitka

Our explorers begin the exciting portion of day three in the Port of Sitka, as shown here to the right by the, well, very clear sign that we are in Sitka. This is outside what should be a gift shop...and looked like a gift shop...fully stocked...but not open. That's too bad, but never fear. We did find options.

After some confusion we learned we were to take a bus into Sitka (about 10 minutes or so) where we could hang out for a while before grabbing a bus back to the port for boarding our planned excursion.

I didn't check to see how big Sitka is, but it's not large. Cute little downtown area, though, with a number of good shopping options, whether it be for souvenirs or, in the case of our first stop, Russian Christmas items (that was cool and yes, we did buy some), or a good outdoor store where Katy could finally buy a hat to wear on these boats. Of course, she didn't wear it on the excursion we took, but she could have!

This building to my left is Saint Michael's Cathedral, established in 1837. We didn't go inside, as we were pressed for time in our shopping efforts, but I kind of wish we had because I didn't read the sign on the front (not shown here) until we returned later. It said visitors could view the hand-carved altar and "priceless Russian icons". I do know Sitka's heritage is Russian. If I remember correctly, Russia sold this area to the U.S. in 1867, and obviously this church had been around 30 years by that point.

We did have a chance to go into a couple of souvenir shops and find a few items to take home. Zac desperately wanted one of the knives in one of the stores and we found out they would happily mail it to us via USPS. Wouldn't even be that expensive.  We didn't do it, because we still have Juneau and Ketchikan stops to make, but also because what he liked and what we liked had very different price points.  :)

Before getting back on the shuttle for our excursion, we needed to grab a bite to eat. With options limited and time even more limited, we noticed a hot dog stand setting up on the corner.

What we didn't expect was that the hot dogs would be made from Reindeer. OK, then I am IN!  This is the first food we have had a chance to try that I would consider a bit unique to Alaska...or at least more unique to Alaska than Nebraska, so, you know...

Zac and I had polish sausages and Katy had a hot dog. I liked it VERY MUCH. It was a foot long, which I did not expect, but which is apparent by how much it hangs over the ends of what is a very good sized bun.  This and a Diet Coke and I was good to go! 

We headed to the shuttle pick-up spot, began eating, then finished our makeshift lunch on the bus as we made our way back to port.

Now, on another boat! The pic to the left is one of about three of the 700 or so I took that was actually worth it.  OK, I'm kidding, but I did take quite a few of sea otters that were too far away to be worth seeing. I did catch video of a whale doing cool stuff coming out of the water partially. I WISH I had caught video of the calf that jumped clear out of the water, twice, but I was too busy ooooohing and aaaaahing when that happened to get a video. Perhaps on our next excursion.

Technically this excursion was to see the sea otters and maybe some whales and see other wildlife. We did end up seeing a white sea lion sunning itself on a rock outcropping, and we did see quite a few sea otters, but what we saw mostly, and this was unexpected by the crew, were humpback whales. Lots of humpback whales. There was a point where they were on both sides of the boat and one where Katy was able to get a pic of a mom and her child (tails side by side, even). Just a lot of action and a lot of impressive photos and videos were taken by many, to be sure. By the way...in open water off the coast of southeastern Alaska...in July? Yeah, not warm. Technically it was mid-50s, but with the wind...nope! Bundled up, drinking hot chocolate on the boat, getting out of the wind until we slowed for viewings. That was the plan!

So we move on to Day Four tomorrow (today as I am writing this) with hopefully more whale watching adventures as well as some cool pics of ice. Just a note, when I return home I plan to upload any videos I have taken to my YouTube channel and will upload an entire album to FB for pics I have taken. Speeds on the ship are just not good enough to do any more than I have been sharing so far.  :)