Today, it was all about the wildlife! We woke up this morning just as the cruise ship was pulling into the old Russian port of Sitka, Alaska. By 9am, we were seated in the large show lounge downstairs with the rest of our excursion group. Normally, when you book one of these activities, you just meet up with the director on the pier at a designated time. However, Sitka doesn't have a deep water dock, so our ship had to drop anchor out in the bay and ferry (or "tender") everyone in to the actual pier. This is the main reason that most cruise ships don't stop in Sitka-- and it's their loss, really, because the town is so beautiful and the surrounding islands and water are chock-full of wildlife!
At any rate, our tour boat for the day picked us up directly from the ship, and off we went. We were on board for a few hours, and saw an INSANE amount of animals! We saw probably a hundred sea otters, a whole group of harbor seals, lots of bald eagles (including one eagle nest and an eagle eating a king salmon), a grey whale, and several humpback whales. It was great!! I got some decent pictures, although I really needed more of a telephoto lens (which I don't own, since I generally do portraits!). Still, it was so cool! I mean, just look at these!
It's incredible to me just how many different species of BIG animals live in Alaska. It is so awesome!
Anyway, our tour boat dropped us off at the Sitka dock afterward, so Gus and I roamed the quaint little town, picked up our traditional Christmas tree ornament (we also bought ornaments in Seattle and Juneau), and grabbed a bite to eat. We had some light Japanese food, and then Gus decided that he absolutely needed to try a reindeer hot dog. Yes, made from actual reindeer meat. I am a big baby when it comes to trying new foods, so I passed on that. For the record, he enjoyed it. Yuck!
So that was our day in Sitka! Right now, we're relaxing a little bit before dinner. Gus is sitting out on our balcony with the binoculars, looking for bald eagles (and has alreay seen a few). We should be pulling out of Sitka any minute now. After dinner, we've got a comedy show to go to, and then we might just call it a night. Tomorrow, we'll be in Ketchikan, where we will go to a lumberjack show and visit Totem Bight State Park. We'll only be stopped there for about 5 hours, so we plan to make the most of it!
One last thing... It's 10:39pm right now, and I just took this picture from our balcony. This is what it looks like for pretty much the entire "night" around here during the summer. 18 hours of daylight, and 6 hours of this "nighttime." Good thing we have thick curtains!
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