Day 24 – June 29 – We woke up early to the announcement that there were whales off the side of the ship. Ben, who had already gotten up rushed out and was thrilled to see the show. Most of us dressed quickly and came out on deck. For the next 45 minutes, there were frequent sitings, from either side of the ship. Most of time, you could see the blow and then a flash of fin or tail. One came particularly close to the ship and slapped his tail from one end of the ship to the other like he was being paid. Pretty fantastic! Later in the morning, a brown bear was spotted in a meadow at the edge of the woods. The ship was pretty close to the shore at the time so we were able to get a pretty good look. He didn’t find us either interesting or threatening but, of course, he didn’t see our Model Ts. Then he might have been taking a picture of us!

We arrived in Sitka around 6:00 pm Out hotel was right downtown so, as soon as we got settled, everyone headed out to explore. It is a pretty city, with flowers and hills and a lovely marina. The shops were inviting and had some wonderful work by Alaskan artists. Ken and Joyce bought tee shirts (now they are officially tourists) and, as always, our cars attracted attention from both the locals and the other tourists. No one could believe we had driven all the way from Texas. I guess Texas seems as foreign to them as Alaska does to us.

629b
629b – The view from the ship was amazing, hundreds of thousands of acres of mountains and islands and water. This charming lighthouse guarded a small settlement with a narrow channel. Most of the time we were a pretty good distance from the land but occasionally, we were within 300 feet from shore. We were struck by a number of communities that had only access by water and had no cars on their islands at all.
629a
629a – A view of Sitka from Castle Hill, a part of the National Park in downtown. This old Russian city is charming and lovely. We would have liked to spend more time here but the Alaskan Marine Highway moved our departure up by five hours with only one hour of warning so we didn’t get to explore as much as we would have liked.
629c
629c – Castle Hill Monument. From left to right: Ross Lilliker, Sue Capps (in red) with Andy and Little Bit; Ken, and Bill Capps.