Alaskan Cruise Day 5

We arrived in Sitka and since the cruise ship could not get close to shore, we got to ride on “tenders” to get to shore. The tenders were the life boats on board and they could hold about 100 people. There were several tenders shuttling back and forth all day. We got on a tour van and saw the fishing docks where all the boats were moored. There was a sea lion that jumped out of the middle of the water with a fish in its mouth. The eagles swooped down to see if they could get anything, but the sea lion went under. That was cool. We saw a private boarding high school that was only for the Tlingits and paid for completely by the government. We drove around by Silver Bay and saw salmon berries, which are like raspberries. The tour guide said we could stop and pick some, which we did. We saw a brown bear habitat with two bears in it. They were rescued as cubs because their momma died. When raw meat was thrown in, the bears would do tricks, like stand on their hind legs with their arms raised or sit on a tree stump. There were lots of eagles to see up close and watch them eat the scraps. We stopped at a totem pole place and a river there held a legend that if you drank from it, you would never leave Sitka and if you did leave you would return. There was a family with a 2 year old on the tour, and why they decided to trap this boy in a van during nap time is beyond me. He was not happy that afternoon. After the tour, we looked around town and stopped for a late lunch. We had some salmon chowder and a burrito. There was “free Sitka internet” curiously enough.


On the ship, we saw quite a few more whales in the ocean. It was formal night again for dinner and at the rate everyone was eating, we should have been wearing bathrobes instead of dresses. The ship was swaying a bit but nothing like the first night. I should have videoed the pool on that first day at sea; the pool was sloshing over each side whenever it would tip that way.