ALASKA! -- Day 6 - Sitka -

Another busy day!

But y'all know we want to see it all!

This post is VERY photo heavy - so buckle up -

After taking a bus [our bus driver was a young man from Mobile!!] 

into town, we walked around downtown and

  

and enjoyed the historical Russian cathedral, 

I think we've lost all sense of time because we were 

off the bus and going before most of the shops opened up - ha.

 

We shopped a bit at a Russian store... and some standard tourist shops,

[I bought a sweatshirt]

 and one tourist/general store/fabric store combo - fun!

A one-stop shop for everyone!] 

 

We walked past the marina and have to say

the views were gorgeous in every direction!!

 

Went over to The Russian Bishop's House and

waited on a tour - it was really pretty cool to learn about!

AND - I touched a sea otter -- dead, but still amazingly soft ! 

[a pelt]]

 

 We saw several other beautiful churches along the main road 

as we walked out to the Totem Village ...

 

and soooo many pretty public parks for everyone to enjoy!

[We talked about how we could easily stay a few days in Sitka!]

 

The National Historic Park - Totem Trail - was very cool...

A nicely groomed walkway with different totems all along the way; 

 

 the Totem Trail is a mile-long path through Sitka spruce and western hemlock trees that showcases 18 Tlingit and Haida totems. 

 

Totem poles were built by about 30 Native American tribes 

living along the Northwest Pacific coast of North America. 

These wooden towers, carved with images of animals and symbols, 

were monuments expressing a family's status within a tribe.

We had sandwiches and clam chowder at Ludwig's 

as we walked back to town  [delish] -

 

and it's always nice to see friends / family along the way!

We met up with some other friends 

and did a quick stop into Hary's Soda Shop -

[I got the huckleberry milkshake - yum]

 

Our private tour guide met us there and took us to some photo ops - 

Including where the site where the sale of Alaska [from Russia] took place

 

We enjoyed seeing Silver Bay, with no tourists!

so pretty!

 

And also going out to the bear sanctuary, 

[do you think they're trained?  -- ha]

 

We saw both grizzly and black bears 

[and eagles - of course!!] 

The she took us off-roading to see some waterfalls and an avalanche trail

 [covered in snow! DIRTY snow - but still - it's JUNE y'all.]

 

We had a beautiful view of the volcano 

[Mt. Edgecomb] throughout the day...

And she also drove us around neighborhoods, past schools,  

and to a grocery store where the guys could go in a compare prices.

[We love seeing how REAL people live when we travel!]

 

We all returned to the ship we enjoyed dinner with our group at the specialty Asian restaurant and it was delicious  - cooked to order - so not too hot for me!

[Also, we saw a pod of whales out the window as we were eating  -]

 

The ship was pretty rocky by the time we finished up, so I retired to the room to do some art and relax before our next early morning...

 

#HardwickAdventures