Alaskan Adventure - Day 8 - Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Sitka, AK
Overcast in morning, turning sunny in Sitka, temperature in the high 50s, low 60s.

Up at 0545 and into the gym by 0615. Worked out for about 40 minutes. Breakfast again was in the Rotterdam dining room. Today's sailing brought us to Sitka, AK. Sitka is a town of about 8 or 9 thousand permanent residents and was the site of Russia's first toehold in North America. To this day, the town has a very definite Russian flavor.

We dropped anchor in Sitka Sound at 7:00 AM. The harbor in Sitka is not deep enough to accommodate tying up at the dock, so our ship dropped anchor in the sound and transportation from / to the ship was via tender. There were 3 other cruise ships in port with ours. At 9:30, we left the ship with the Vanguard tour group and boarded a bus for a short tour of Sitka (there isn't much to see). Our young bus driver, nicknamed "Stretch" amused us by showing us how he can pull the skin on his neck out 4 or 5 inches on both sides of his face. He claims he is going to be on the David Letterman Show's Stupid People Tricks feature in August. We'll have to watch for him.
We stopped at St. Michael's Cathedral, a replica of the original (1844) church which was the diocesan seat of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska. It is still an active parish, with only about 60 parishioners, mostly Tlingit Indians. Looking around the church and talking to it's priest, I was reminded of my mother, and uncles Mike and Andy, who were Russian (Greek) Orthodox Catholics. I lit a candle in remembrance of them.

After the church tour, we got back on the bus and traveled a half mile to Sitka National Historical Park. Here, we watched a show by the New Archangel Dancers, an all-female troupe of locals who preserve the Russian folk dance traditions. Cindy and I walked through the rain forest in the park to the site of a famous battle in 1804, when a Russian expedition fought the local Tlingits and drove them from the area to establish the Russian presence in Alaska. Rather than ride the bus back to the town center, we walked. Although cool, the sun was shining, a welcome relief from the past week of rain. Cindy decided to catch the tender back to the ship and I went to the Internet lounge and uploaded a few photos to my Webshots photo page. I caught the tender back to the ship at about 2:30 PM.

Dinner tonight was formal, with the "Parade of Baked Alaska" for dessert. After dinner, we had a glass of port in the Crow's Nest Lounge on Deck 12, while we watched the sun set. I got a great photo of it. Sunset is about 10:30 PM! With sunrise at 4 AM, there is close to 19 hours of daylight! We cruised through the midnight dessert buffet extravaganza and showed remarkable restraint, I must admit. I only had one chocolate covered strawberry. Karen and Jenaye would have gone wild over the desserts.

We watched some TV before bed.