JillMelancon Travel

8 July 2023

Went to the buffet for breakfast, then headed off the ship and into Sitka for my tour—Sea Otter Adventure!  Sitka is basically a souvenir stand recently built at the port.  Got onto a small boat for the “adventure” right next to the ship.

First went to a small island where we could see a large bald eagle next with a baby inside stretching its wings—they can’t fly yet.  Several adult bald eagles flying around as well.  There are over 100,000 bald eagles in Alaska!  They mate for life by meeting in mid air and going into a death spiral, parting at the last second.  If it goes well, they are mated!

Then we spotted a “raft” of sea otters—a fairly rare occurrence as they are usually scared off by the sound of the boats.  There are a million hairs per square inch on sea otter fur—so very soft, but you can’t really find skin the hair is so thick!  They have no blubber or fat, so they roll in the water to create air pocket so that when they go under they don’t get as wet.

Saw some stellar sea lions resting on a buoy—I think it was three (maybe 4).  Saw Mt Edgekumbe—an active volcano on Kruzof island.  Also Mt Baranof which was glacially formed. While there,  we spotted several humpback whiles, several did “flukes” which is when they dive down and their tails come up…the two parts of their tail are called the “fluke”.  Then we spotted a mom and calf and the mom started breaching, which is when they jump up completely out of the water.  Amazing! 

I started to feel seasick when we stopped moving because of the waves (and despite the patch is was wearing!) so I laid down for a bit.  Once the boat started moving again I was okay.  We headed back to port and from there I took a shuttle in to the actual town of Sitka.  Every time I left a store/food place, the employees would thank us for bringing the good weather.  Apparently in Sitka, they only have about 10 sunny days a year—and we got one of them!

The actual town of Sitka is the first one that has looked like an actual town and not just a tourist trap.  Had lunch at a hole in the wall called Pel’Meni—they serve Russian dumplings with potato or beef—and that’s all.  There are several toppings you can get too.  They make them as you order them.  SO good.  Sitka was once a Russian city and this is just one of the holdovers from that period—you also see a lot of Russian nesting dolls in the shops.

I walked from there to Sitka National Park (the oldest in Alaska) where they had a lot of totem poles and a small museum.  The Tlingit tribe is also known as the “people of the raven” so saw a lot of ravens on the poles. Some of them are new, and some are replicas of the originals from the late 1800s-early 1900s.  Walking back, I went to the Russian Bishop’s house and almost got to do the tour, but at the last minute, the people who had scheduled the tour showed up.

Headed back to the ship and went to a massage “taster” where they rub your shoulders for a few minutes and try to sell you a real one.  I already knew I wanted to get one so figured I could get a deal out of it.  She offered me a “deal” on a 75 minute massage—basically the discount from the listed price meant that I still paid the listed price once gratuity was added.  It still cost me 200, lol.  Booked a time for the next day.

Had dinner at DaVinci and planned to see Blades of Glory out on deck but because we are so close to the Alaskan shore as we are cruising, the noise ordinances require us to not use the sound and instead just use subtitles.  It was getting a bit windy as well, so I went back to my room and watched it on my tv there 🙂