Trip to Seattle & Alaska Photo Dump – Day 7 – Sitka, AK

Sitka was another beautiful place in Alaska and the only port visit we had that was gray and rainy. We didn’t let that bother us though. We just grabbed our rain gear and continued on our adventure.

Alaska Raptor Center

The excursion we chose for this port first took us to the Alaska Raptor Center. We’d seen the Raptor Center featured on a Nat Geo show a while back and we were excited to be able to go visit it. The wonderful people at the center rescue and rehabilitate birds of prey when they become injured.

A bird can only be classified as a raptor if it has a hooked beak, strong feet with sharp talons, front facing eyes, and has a carnivorous diet. Some types of raptors are eagles, owls, and falcons. Since Alaska has one of the largest concentrations of Bald Eagles, they are one of the most frequently seen birds at the Alaska Raptor Center.

Home

Sitka National Historic Park

After the Raptor Center, our tour took us to the Sitka National Historical Park. Our tourguide offered to take us through some of the forest and gave us a down and dirty course on the various plants in the forest and what they can do. There were huckleberries, blueberries, Salmon Berries, Devils Club, and Old Man’s Beard. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about everything as he was living a “subsistence lifestyle”. This means that he mainly lives off the land, eating what he hunts, catches, or gathers. He told us that everything in Sitka (and presumably other towns in Alaska) have to be shipped, so the price is higher than in the lower 48 states. A box of Cheerios costs $10 compared to what it costs in Virginia.

He also said that a large part of Sitka is National Forest, so there is a shortage of housing. He lives at one of the the three marinas in Sitka on a houseboat because there isn’t enough housing to go around and what is available is expensive.

Afterwards, we walked around the trails at the national park by ourselves enjoying the forest and taking photos of the totem poles that were there. We learned that every totem pole tells a story. They can represent family lineage, they can symbolize characters in history or mythology, they can even ridicule someone. Non natives are not allowed to know the true story of a totem pole because the meaning behind may be lost in translation.

We had a few minutes to go into the visitor’s center and see some of the exhibits, but we were short on time and had to get back to the bus for our next stop.

When the salmon runs, there are three different kind that fill this river going to spawn upstream. The tour guide said there are so many fish you can walk across without getting wet.

Naa Kahidi Dancers

Our third and final stop of the excursion was at a Tlingit longhouse where native children performed several dances. The children were actually paid to be there, but their parents see it as a type of school they participate in to learn more about their own culture. At first, I was weirded out; I didn’t want them to have to perform for us, but after a while, I grew more comfortable and realized they were happy to be able to share their culture with us. It was quite an experience, but to be respectful, I only took one snap of the stage and performers after we were told it was okay to do so.

Walkabout Sitka

We left our tour and walked around Sitka for an hour or so going in and out of shops. We found a few places to buy some souvenirs, but we didn’t want to buy a bunch of touristy stuff. Instead, we bought the majority of our souvenirs at the Raptor Center and the longhouse.

Sitka was the capital of Alaska when the Russians owned it and their artistic and architectural influence can be seen throughout the area.

A wooly mammoth skull in one of the stores.

We did make one extra stop where we purchased an authentic piece from a fur trader shop. I bought Adrianne a sea otter head-band. Only the natives can harvest the sea otters and the fur is quite soft and so expensive it is called soft-gold. The little head band I bought Adrianne was upwards of $350. I hope that it will become something of a family heirloom. There were many other things there all of which were beautiful and well out of our price range. A coyote coat at the same store was $3,000.

Home

After our extremely busy day, we headed back to the ship and enjoyed some more hot tub time. We had dinner at Jamie’s Italian Restaurant, another signature dining experience.