Alaska- Day 5

Sitka was a weird town. It was by far the most modern and probably the largest city we went to, but for those exact reasons I didn’t rank it above average. Most of the folks we were with loved it however and thought more highly of Alaska now that they saw some sign of intelligent life (read- they had a Ben Franklin).

We had no excursions in Sitka that pulled us away from general exploring of the town. Mike and Lindsay went on a kayaking adventure though and I didn’t really hear what they saw or did other than get wet.


Sitka is one mile and a half street full of shops, churches and restaurants. On the map we got from the visitors center the major highlights were the totem pole near the bay and the Pilgrams House which was really like a huge government building (strong and solid) rather than a house. You can see it in the picture above- it's that large yellow building. Mom and I took a $2 tour through the Russian Orthodox Church and that was interesting but not exciting.

Dale and I broke away from the group for lunch because we insisted on eating Sitka-local food. We met up with Tom and Mary Ann and walked with them about a mile up the hill to the rainforest and raptor park. We met Dad, Mom, Jim, Jonathan, Bryan and Greg when we got to the park and they were still laughing that strangers at lunch were verbally sympathizing that mom "bore" these 4 rowdy guys and she had to correct them. Dad suggested we catch up and go see the rain forest but Jonathan and Jim discreetly shook their heads that it wasn’t worth the effort.

We did travel as a herd another half mile to the raptor park where we were stunned to learn the admission was $12/person or $50/family. Well, most us were family though admittedly not all immediate family so we decided we’d wing it (ha ha) and head to the welcome center. Along the way we justified that Dale was in fact part of our family – he was our foreign exchange student! That joke stuck the rest of the trip. The eagles were pretty but sad – all of them were here in this park because they were injured (mostly wing injuries) and can’t support themselves in the wild. We discovered half way through our tour that we just walked in and avoided paying completely. While secretly happy we didn’t spend $12/person for a half hour viewing, we all donated to the Save the Eagles boxes on our way out to compensate.

Lastly, on our way back to the ship we stopped in for a free tour of a salmon hatchery. Basic but interesting, I’m glad we didn’t pay the $50 to go on a formal tour of the big ones.

That night we had a really funny adventure playing Family Feud. We broke into families of 4 (I was with the Sacks and Dad) and two of our three teams got called up to play! The Tom, Jim, Jonathan, Dale team didn’t do so hot and were out in one round, but we got more excited with Lindsay, Mike, Rachel & Dave made it to the stage. Lindsay beat out the Purdue chick (aka Dale’s love interest) to answer the question “What are America’s Top 5 Condiments?” Her very quick answer………. Mustard. Now Lindsay loves mustard and this made obvious sense to her, but the rest of America, including everyone present at the game, knew the correct answer was KETSHUP. This answer did net Lindsay her nickname Mustard for the rest of the trip though.

Up Next- Icy Strait!