Sitka, Alaska

If I thought yesterday’s waves were a little rough, I was way off base! Once again, we woke up to the rolling of the ship and I peeked outside – white caps – high white caps! And all I could think of was that this was Glenn’s fishing day – his ONLY fishing day!! And I was certainly glad I wouldn’t be on the boat with them!!

Since it was only 5:30am, we slept a little longer – and taking a shower proved to be VERY interesting!! Glenn donned his long johns and we both dressed in layers!! And soon Sitka came into view – what a cute town perched on the edge of this bay we were entering!

Sitka does NOT allow the cruise ships to dock at their main dock –I’m not sure why – possibly the water is not deep enough? But we knew ahead of time that the “tenders” (small boats from the mainland) would be picking up whoever wanted to go to town!
After breakfast we went to the theater to await our tender tickets – quite a few of the people had excursions right at 8:00, as did Glenn, so we were hoping to make the first boat and we did – Glenn and I were the last 2 passengers allowed on!

We motored on in to Sitka and met Jeremy, Glenn’s charter boat captain, and those 2 were off for the day! Glenn was excited when Jeremy told him he was the ONLY fisherman on board that day!

I asked Jeremy before they left if there was a camera shop in town and of course there isn’t but he DID say there was a Radio Shack!! ALL RIGHT!! Maybe, just maybe they could help me out! I found it but it didn’t open until 9:00 so I had about 45 minutes to spare – I walked around the town, taking note of the pics I wanted to take after I found out about my camera! In the meantime, the clouds rolled in and it was soon raining – lucky me – I got to try out my new umbrella!!

I showed my camera to the guy at Radio Shack and he said he would google it and see what type of battery it took, since of course I didn’t have one to show him. But the news wasn’t good news – that type of battery IS still made but Radio Shack doesn’t carry it any longer – he also advised me that the cost of the battery would be $50.00 and did I know I could buy a new digital for around $100??? I thought about that for a minute – but I chose NOT to buy one on the spur of the moment! I always like to do a bit of research on them to find what kind I really want before I buy one! So no battery and I was disappointed all over again!

Across the street from the Radio Shack was an honest to goodness, Ben Franklin!! I went on over to buy a couple of one time use cameras and of course bought 2 since each only holds 27 prints – not cheap either I might add but there was no choice in the matter – I wanted SOMETHING to take a few pics with!

Coffee was next on the agenda so I found a cute place to relax and then it was off to shop and see a few sights – in the rain! After taking a few pictures with my wonderful little Kodak throw away, I decided I better buy some postcards, just in case none of the pictures turn out!

I visited Saint Michael’s Cathedral and the historic Lutheran Church – and then climbed a LOT of steps to a place that looks out over the bay – it was beautiful! It was on this spot that the United States took possession of Alaska in 1867 for the price tag of 7.2 million dollars, less than 2 cents per acre – wow !! Because there was a Russian settlement here for many years, the Cathedral was built with the famous Russian onion domes!

Shopping was great – lots of cute stores to browse in and I loved the “Russian” stores! My Christmas ornament from Sitka looks like a Russian person with the name Sitka on it! I can’t believe how many Christmas ornaments are in the stores – they’re EVERYWHERE!!

I headed back to the ship about 11:30 for lunch and relaxation, hoping Glenn was having a great time!

What a nice afternoon I had just relaxing, blogging and reading! Until it was worry time……………… I had told Glenn SEVERAL times that the LAST boat leaving from Sitka was at 4:30 and he HAD to be on it! I know how often Glenn checks his watch – NEVER! So I donned my coat and decided to stroll along the deck, waiting for the last boats to unload! I watched and I watched and NO GLENN – OK – now I’m starting to panic – if he misses the boat, how does he get to the next port????

SO I race up to the room and turn on my cell phone and try to call him because there was service and I KNEW he had his cell phone as he had to call his guide on the way in! I dialed – straight to voice mail - now I’m REALLY starting to panic!! So I try again and he answers – relief – he’s on the boat!! A few minutes later he calls and CAN’T find the room and I’m thinking, hmmmmmmmmm, what did he have to drink on that fishing trip?????

He was just on the wrong side of the ship so he found the room – and he looked pretty green to me!! He’d had a great time fishing of course and did catch some fish but nothing large enough to keep and ship home!! But they went about 6 miles out and it was rough, really rough!!! So rough that he got sick!!! (now that’s always ME, not HIM).

He rested for a few minutes but we had reservations at 5:30 so had to get dressed and it was formal night again! A great meal – my favorite was the dessert – baked Alaska – it was heavenly!!

As Glenn was exhausted, he chose to go to the room and SLEEP, telling me he’d get up later – I knew better than that – ha ha!! So I changed to some comfortable clothes and went down to the production for the evening – it was 50’s and 60’s songs and I enjoyed it immensely!!

At 10:30 that evening they were doing the “dessert” showing – now that was something else – tables were set up all around the swimming pool with some fabulous ice sculptures and every kind of dessert you can imagine, all set out in an elegant display!! You could walk around and take photos until it was time to eat them!! I was still full from dinner so just opted to have some strawberries and chocolate from the fountain!

Are you enjoying all the great pictures that go along with this post??? It’s called “IMAGINATION” photos so whenever you think I would have posted a picture, just pretend they’re really there!!