Friday, August 30, 2013
We were woken up this morning by a very loud roar of
something that sounded like it was right under our window starting up and
taking off. We didn’t realize it was a sea plane until it happened a 2nd
time and we saw one. Then it started raining and we finally gave up and got up.
We ate our breakfast supplies in the room then went out. It had stopped raining
and was still pretty warm, though not sunny today. It was predicted to be about
5 degrees cooler today than yesterday. It wound up being overcast or cloudy and
rainy all day. I think it was closer to normal weather for here. It was still
fine.
We set out walking across Sitka to start our day at the
Alaska Raptor Center. Admission was $12 each. It opened at 8am and we got there
at 10am. They were not busy and we got a private guided tour. We learned a lot.
We saw about 13 eagles, 6 owls, 3 falcons, and 3 ravens. We watched a kestrel
(a small falcon) slurp up a mouse tail like a spaghetti strand. Pasta anyone? I
don’t know why, but since I was little I have been scared of eagles. Today’s
visit will probably give me nightmares! We walked the center’s loop trail and
saw another section of the Indian River that was jam-packed again with spawning
and dying salmon. It is incomprehensible. We must have seen about 100 giant
ghost slugs there on that trail. Before we left, we used the restrooms and
visited the gift shop where Clay got a nice $7.99 T-shirt and I got an apron
with a map of Alaska on it.
We set out for our next destination which was Baranof Island Brewing Co. They said they open daily from noon to 8pm, so we walked slowly
through the rain. We even stopped at a convenience store and got some snacks
and sat on a covered bench in front of the Post Office killing time. While we
sat there we watched 2 eagles fighting/playing with each other flying out of or
over Sitka National Historic Park and Sawmill Creek Rd. That was exciting. When
we reached the gravel part of Smith Street, there was a loud alert noise that
startled us and we both stopped and looked around. A man walking into the
New Archangels Dancers building saw us and laughed out loud. I made eye contact and shrugged, he called across
the street to me that it was the tsunami siren. I was stunned and asked,
there’s a tsunami?! He laughed again and said no not now, they sound it every
day at noon to make sure it’s working and have been for about 3 years since
they installed the system. He said he didn’t know how many speakers there were
but that you could hear it from any point on the island. Amazing. When we got
to Baranof Brewing after 12pm, they had a sign on the door that they opened at
11am. Anyway, they said they served lunch so that was what we went for, plus
Clay wanted to try the beer. It turned out they only had delivery pizzas, but
that was fine with me. We each had 2 slices of pepperoni pizza and root beer.
It was all good. Clay also had a $14 6-beer flight. That was 6 4-oz. glasses. He
liked the Halibut Point Hefeweisen and the Peril Strait Pale Ale and not so
much the Redoubt Red Ale. He did not like the Silver Bay IPA, the Baranof Brown
Ale, or the Medvejie Stout. I don’t know if that had anything to do with the
alcohol content increase as he went up the color scale they were arranged in
from lightest to darkest as well as lightest alcohol to highest. He really
liked the root beer too and we had 2 12-oz glasses of it. It was a fine way to
fill an hour or so of a pouring rain day.
We walked back down to town through the Sitka Nationa lHistoric Park. We looked for more slugs and didn’t see any. We saw some more totem poles lying under cover behind the building that we had missed before. I went in and asked a ranger what was up with the slugs and why they were only on the uphill side of Sawmill Creek Rd. He said they aren’t. He described their slugs and I described all we had seen. He was pretty surprised and said that they were called banana slugs and while they were in the park he had only ever seen one of them and thought they were pretty rare. Clay and I had to differ and advised him to go across the street and check out the Raptor Center.
We walked on toward town. We stopped at the Sitka Sound Science Center & Aquarium. It was very small, basically just some touch tanks. We did get to see
a little decorator crab though. They told us to be sure to walk out by the hatchery where they were very busy today. As we left, we walked out past the hatchery and
watched some workers harvesting eggs from humpies for next year’s salmon. It
was $5 each.
Across the street we went in the Sheldon Jackson Museum. It
was very interesting. I really liked it and Clay was just ready for dinner and
bed, or maybe his back hurt. I don’t know. I had way too much fun with a collection of rubber stamps and a list of artifacts they represented. I also had to open every single artifact drawer. Anyway, we wound up leaving Bob
there and after we walked about halfway back to the hotel we had to walk back
and retrieve him!
Dinner was problematic. We wound up eating at the Dock Café
downstairs at the Totem Square Inn which had halibut 6 ways and maybe 6 other things on the menu. It
seemed like about half the restaurants in town were closed on the Friday night
of Labor Day weekend. At least 3 that we tried were closed and there aren’t
that many here! Clay found out the sodas in the hotel’s vending machine are
$1.50 and he bought 2 at the grocery store halfway across town for $1.99 each!
Tomorrow is predicted to be cooler again and rainier too.
The long term forecast looks like clear about 60 degrees F in the day time.
But, we’ll see.
Tomorrow at 10:30am we meet our tour leader for our Admiralty
Dream cruise and turn over our luggage. We tour downtown sights and see some
dancers if we walk from 10:30am to 2:30pm when we board a small boat at the
dock here at the hotel for a sea life and otter tour on the way to Admiralty Dream. Thus begins our Alaskan Dream Cruise.
Photos
Photos
