Sitka, Alaska

Sitka was an interesting little town. The ships cannot dock, so all are anchored out and we were tendered in. The tender dropped us off right near the little "downtown" area. The fist thing we did was head over to St Michael Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It is right in town and for $2 you can go in and look around. It is a beautiful rustic little church that still holds services.

We looked around in the shops and there was a lot of Russian influence here. One shop that was really neat was called Fairweather Prints on Lincoln St. It is a locally owned shop with lots of wearable art that is hand painted, silkscreened or embellished. The variety was quite impressive and the colors were great. Lots of greens, blues, purples. Some of the pieces had whales or turtles on them. Worth stopping in.

At 11 am, we were scheduled to go kayaking with Sitka Sound Adventures. They are located in an old blue school bus right where we had been dropped off by the tender. Emmi and John got us all checked in and we literally walked right to the waters edge and into the kayaks. This was a great tour in that it was just me, my friends Danielle and Cathy and our guide, John. It was the first time I had been in a kayak with a sprayskirt and rudder. The ones I had been in previously were open since I was in Caribbean waters. Boy do I like having a rudder!

We paddled out from the small harbor area across to a cluster of small islands. There were quite a few fishing lodges located on the islands, but because of the time of year, they were closed down for the season. One other interesting building we paddled past was a lighthouse. John told us that it is owned by a local dentist and can be rented out. It is a working lighthouse, but because of it's position, by the time you would see the light, you would be in trouble. John took us close to the shores of the small islands and we could see seastars in the clear water. There were many eagles in the trees and we saw one nest that was enormous. We saw a lot of bull kelp floating in the water along with the odd dead salmon.

One fun thing was that we had a sea lion checking on us. It would stick it's head up out of the water, see where we were, then disappear again. Soon it would resurface to check on us again. It came up right behind Cathy at one point.

After our wet paddle, it was time to get back in the tenders and head back to the ship. Once on board, I spoke with a nice couple I had met from Tennessee. They said that they had simply wandered around the town and come across the cemetery. Sarah told me that it was a pretty creepy place. Others had gone to the Raptor Center where CruiseOne presented a check for $3000. Celebrity Cruises also presented a free cruise worth $3000 for an upcoming fundraiser they will have.

It was then goodbye to Alaska since the next day we spent at sea. Our final port of the trip was Victoria, British Columbia.