Leaving Sitka

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Sitka, for all its charm, seems to be a town built around the arrival and departure of the big cruise ships. In the small free weekly newspaper there is a calendar that lists what ships will be in port and how many they carry. Performances by dance troupes are built around when the very large cruise ships arrive. For example: our hotel, the Shee Akita Totem Square Inn was one of several businesses owned by the Klingit tribe. We were directly across the street from where they hold tribal dances. We picked up a flyer that said when the dance performances would be but when we went, we were told that it was cancelled. It was a big disappointment. We found that there were very few restaurants in town which makes sense because people on cruises eat on the ship. It is pretty bad when your best meal comes from a kiosk in a parking lot behind another hotel.

It rained, really rained all day Sunday. We donned our lovely dollar store clear plastic ponchos and bravely walked all over town meeting no one except a few revelers still partying from Sat. night, some brave passengers from very small tour ships- about 70( who had had all their tours cancelled), and, well Val and I.

The somber day matched my mood as I had given up on ever finding my bag of souvenirs that I had purchased at the Raptor Center. The items were specific to the center and could not be had anywhere else. My best recollection was that I had left them on the Green line bus. The problem was the buses didn’t run from 5 p.m. on Friday until 8 a.m. on Monday when we would be long gone. I called the Police Sept. every day and has a lovely chat each time with ‘Jenny’. Jenny either lives at the
Police Dept. or has a phone at her home. She was very sympathetic and looked all around but was sorry to tell me that nothing had been turned in. ( story to be continued)

Most of you know I am not a morning person. But when we had to be ready for our taxi ride to the ferry at 2:30 a.m. I had a dilemma. Do I just stay up? Or do I try to get some sleep? I did try but nothing happened and so sleepless in Sitka, I boarded the ferry at about 2:30 am.

We picked up the key to our, ahem, state room from the Purser. We walked down pretty much the length of the ship ( about 465 feet) to Cabin 23 B. It was tidy ( read that as pretty small), in fact we decided that the closet of our B&B in Juneau was bigger. There was a set of steel bunk beds, 1 small steel chair, a shelf and a cubby area for baggage ( we had checked our large suitcases and just had backpacks and purses), a small bathroom with shower and best of all a good size window. What it didn’t have was heat. Well, there was a thermostat which we tried to get to go
above 55 degrees, alas, it was a futile task. We grabbed the extra blankets, slept with heavy sweaters on and several pairs of socks. Smart Val had taken out her ‘long johns’ as a precaution. I’ve got mine ready for our next journey. It also lacked a ladder to get up to the top bunk, which Val had offered to use. After several attempts and contortions she managed to levitate to the top bunk. Thank goodness I don’t know how to use the video on my camera or I could have entered it into Am. funniest videos and probably won.

The ferry was wonderful. It had a full cafeteria style restaurant where you could order just about anything you wanted. There was a bar, a lounge area with overstuffed chairs, a more informal space towards the bow of the ship with chairs that swiveled so you could check out any wildlife that appeared. There was a naturalist on board who gave some of the kids a scavenger hunt quiz and later made them ‘junior rangers’. He also gave a great lecture called ”Let’s twist again through the Wrangell narrows”. He explained the depth of the water and difficult it was to get through some of the passes we were about to make.

We LOVE the ferries and are so glad that we decided to do this trip using them. The only drawback is the hours of departure and arrival. But it makes for some interesting cab rides. You have to love a rather smelly old man who will come and pick you up at 2:30 AM for $20.

On to Petersburg…….

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