Alaska Day 1 - Sitka

We left Hot Springs Village on Thursday, 12-JUL, and drove to Ft. Worth to spend the night with the John Stonecipher family and to catch an early flight to Seattle on the 13th.  We had a great evening with them.  On Friday morning John took us to the airport bright and early (arrived at DFW at 5 am).  Thank you, John!  Our flights took us from DFW to Seattle and then Seattle to Sitka, AK.  We arrived in Sitka on a drizzly afternoon; the tour company was at the airport to meet us and get our bags to the hotel.  We're in front of a sign that says, "Welcome to Sitka."

 

Sitka is a port town and supports a lot of fishing.  Here are some of the boats in the harbor.

Since we had some free time on Friday afternoon, we walked up to the Sitka National Historical Museum.  We saw some neat totem poles.  Here I am in front of one.

On Saturday morning we started our official tour.  We started with a bus tour of the city.  We next went to the Russian Bishop's House.  Sitka was the administrative center of Russian America.  Also, this is where the sale of Alaska to the USA was finalized in 1867.  The Bishop's House is one of only a few remaining Russian buildings in the USA.

From the Bishop's House, we walked to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.  This is a replica of the original that burned down in the 1960's.

The church is in the center of downtown.  The bishop gave us an excellent overview of the history of the church.

As we walked around Sitka, we found several "well trained bears."  Here I am with one:

The Tlingit people lived in this area for more than 8,000 years.  In the afternoon we went to a Tlingit performance of traditional songs and dances.  Here's Rosie with one of the performers.

 After the performance we boarded a small vessel for our rendezvous with the Admiralty Dream - our home for the next week.  On our way out we saw seal lions, harbor seals and other wildlife.  Here are a couple of harbor seals - the animal that brought Russia to Alaska.

The harbor seals' fur was known as "soft gold"; it feels great--as many as 1,000 hairs/square inch.

On board the Admiralty Dream, we headed for Hobart Bay and exciting day 2 activities.  Here we are coming into the bay.

More to come on Day 2!