Sitka

2 June, Sunday, 9.40pm (still very much light outside)

Today we anchored at Sitka, our first port of call. We tendered to shore around 10.30am. We walked through the little town (~8500 people) towards the Sitka National Historical Park, which is a relatively small, spruce-filled park with totem poles in it. These were mostly moved here from the houses of the indigenous people, the Tlingit. It was cold but very refreshing; nice mountain air after the air-conditioned ship. We walked through there fit quite some time and heard local bird song and saw some really big juicy slugs (Anna would love them). At the other side of the park we crossed the road and walked up to the Alaska Raptor Center, which tripadvisor lists as Sitka's #1 attraction. It was very cool. They said in the 1990s (80s?) there were less than 500 breeding pairs of bald eagles left and today there are over 100,000 - largely due to the work they are doing there. Amazing! We watched a talk with an 'educational' (tame) bald eagle, named Sitka, then walked outside to see more eagles, owls and falcons on display. They either rehabilitate, in their 'relearn to fly' enclosure, or if the bird is too injured to be released, they house it for the rest of its life. We also did a smaller bush walk there, which had warning signs saying "Hike at your own risk: this is excellent habitat for brown bears". I was excited but mostly scared but we didn't see any. Not sure what we'd have done if we did! We slowly wandered back to the tenders. I had a yummy 'smoked salmon spread' bagel for lunch. 

At around 7pm it was sail away time. We had a couple of yummy cocktails and watched from the open decks. At dinner next to a window we saw numerous whale spouts/blows and once, an entire tail come out of the water. It was very exciting (the people around us didn't seen remotely excited). We later learned these would've been humpback whales. So neat! 

We can't wait till tomorrow when we sail through Glacier Bay and hopefully see lots more wildlife. I think it will be the high point. 

PS. The weather in Sitka was lovely and not too cold. 

Mum - sorry for the lack of communication, Internet access is scarce this far North! Love xxx