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Like yesterday, when we woke up our ship was already at our day’s destination - Sitka. However, unlike yesterday there is no dock for the ship pull up to, so it was parked in the middle of the bay and a few of the life boats were lowered and used as tenders to shuttle us between the ship & shore. Also, in contrast to yesterday, we have no excursion planned; we will just be doing our own thing.
We ended up doing our own walking tour. We first hit Totem Square on the way to the Sheldon Jackson Aquarium and Hatchery, continued onto the Sitka National Historical Park Trials on our way to the Alaska Raptor Center.
Totem Square provide some neat nostalgic history from the totem pole to the three anchors to the Pioneer’s home (a community retirement home). The three anchors were dug up, as the plaque states, when Standard Oil was building its Sitka plant in 1950 and presented to the city. It is believed that the anchors originated in England prior to 1800 (yes that’s 1800). We continued up Harbor Dr past St Michael’s Cathedral and Sitka Lutheran Church which dates back to the 1830’s. As we walked past the boat harbor, there was a bike locked to a tree, I had to take a picture of it, primarily because I was intrigued that it was used for transportation to the owner’s fishing hole (note the fishing pole protruding out the saddle bag).
The aquarium and hatchery was a bit disappointing even though there were some interesting things to see. The bike, shopping cart and contents in the cart were all pulled from some near by waters during a clean-up day a few years back. Yes, those are barnacles and other signs of corrosion on the bike & cart. The sea life could be touched once by each person to limit potential damage, while yet allowing visitors to gain some interaction. The hatchery part was practically non-existent. There were a couple tanks outside that had a few fingerlings residing in them, but the rest were empty – I guess we were here at the wrong time.
We continued our walk up Lincoln St and made our way through the trails of the national park. The weather today was really nice, but as we walked through the forest covered trails, you could feel the dampness and our hands would start to feel the coldness despite the rest of the body staying comfortable.
The Alaska Raptor Center exists for the purpose of rehabilitating injured raptors (eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, and kites), as well as providing educational experiences in classrooms and to visitors. The bald eagle that was presented to our group is approximately 23 years old. He was 5 years old (bald eagles are born all brown and grow their white heads when they reach maturity around 5 years of age) and has resided at the center for 18 years. In the wild, bald eagles live to be 25-30 years old, and as old as 50 in captivity. This particular eagle was not released back into the wild because he has a damaged eye, and he would struggle to hunt and eat.
We then made our back to the harbor and returned to our ship. Tonight’s dinner was the second of our 2 formal nights. Also during dinner, the waiters honored and serenaded our table partners (Duncan & Angie) for their anniversary.
Tonight’s concert was themed "Rock Out" and centered more around Michael’s earlier works, which are more of a pop genre, as opposed to his more recent pieces which are of the worship variety. Jacque & I sat up in the balcony – not in the priority seating group for this event and we arrived late after dinner. We noticed someone down between the front row and the stage, just below Smitty’s keyboard, dancing around during every song – I will share more about Morgan tomorrow.
Once the concert had concluded, it was time again to checkout the sunset as our ship was underway once again. And we stopped by the Lido Restaurant for ice cream and/or cookies before retiring for the night.
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