A beautiful day in Sitka

We spent a perfect day in Sitka, Alaska. We could not have ordered up more beautiful weather! I’ll post several photos taken from our room balcony – early morning with fog as the tenders started carrying visitors back and forth on the short ride to shore, bright sun taken when I returned to the ship this afternoon and the last one just before 9 p.m. tonight as the sun was going down and spreading its rays across the ocean. Sunrise to sunset in Sitka today is 4:15 am – 9:55 pm. That’s 17 hours and 40 minutes of daylight!

Sitka has a population of around 8,500. In town, one can see many signs of its indigenous Tlingit culture (totems, ravens, eagles, masks and more) as well as remnants of its Russian heritage. It is home to brown bears, bald eagles, all 5 species of Pacific salmon, humpback whales, sea otters, puffins and millions of seabirds. Its snow capped peaks and volcanic Mount Edgecumbe are definitely postcard worthy. The downtown area which is located between the mountains and the ocean has several hotels, restaurants and gift shops.

 

early morning tenders from our balcony

midday from our balcony

amazing sunset from our balcony (9 pm)

one of several hotels

 

The Prospector statue

 

Sitka's heritage is multicultural, first being called “Shee Atika” by the Tlingit Indians, then renamed “New Archangel” by the Russians who ousted them. The town and its shops reflect both cultures offering lots of totems and Tlingit masks, silver jewelry and Russian lacquered boxes and stacking dolls. Below are some random shots I took as we walked around.

 

shopping street blocked off for foot traffic only

 

St. Michael's Cathedral

 

inside St. Michael's

glimpse of inside

 

Matryoshka (stacking dolls) in almost every shop

no shortage of totems either

 

a wolf cap!

fox glove

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked with friends around the town, browsed in a few shops, ate street food (reindeer hotdogs for Noel, halibut (or cod?) fish 'n chips for Kay, tamales for Ronnie and me). The others wanted to walk the totem trail, but my back was telling me "no" so after lunch I took the tender back to the ship. Ronnie said they walked at least 3 miles. Photo credits go to Ronnie for the pictures below taken during his totem walk this afternoon.

totems being carved

beautiful day and place for a walk

hiking the totem trail

young bald eagle

Tonight we sail to Ketchikan. Hopefully we will have another good weather day tomorrow!

Happy 4th of July!!

Today we will celebrate July 4th onboard the Insignia.

This important information comes from today's Denison Report: At noon ET today, Joey Chestnut will attempt to retain his title in Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Approximately 35,000 fans are expected to convene on New York’s Coney Island to watch. Chestnut is the top male hot dog eating champion of all time, having won the title 15 times. He holds the world record for eating 76 hot dogs in ten minutes.

We didn't break any records, but we did enjoy hot dogs and hamburgers on the deck for lunch. We're in Alaska, but the weather was actually nice enough to eat outside today. I’m somewhat picky about hotdogs but the ones on the ship are actually good, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re topped with French fried onion rings. We also enjoyed carrot cake for dessert. The chef and kitchen staff like to go all out for special holidays. Last week they had a cake for Canada Day; today it was a USA cake. There was all kind of other dishes and desserts as well - too many to name.

Just before lunch, we joined the other 180 day passengers for a group photo out on the deck. The sun was so bright we had to go back inside to get our sunglasses. This afternoon we will have our last meeting with "just us Texans" on board. Later we will sail by the Hubbard Glacier.

 

why? it's tradition!

 

one of (too many) desserts

 

enjoying one of his hoarded DP's

 

a very patriotic pair

carrot cake (it was good!)

Later: Many passengers were disappointed! We were not able to see the Hubbard Glacier because the weather had worsened and there were a lot of icebergs floating, so the captain made the call not to sail up into the passage. We've seen glaciers before (even on this trip) but some passengers on this segment have not and were quite upset with the captain's decision, especially given that there were 3 other cruise ships that had sailed within sight of it. Oh well, I'll post some photos of what we did see, even though we were still miles away from the glacier itself.

 

Horizons Lounge was dressed up today

people gathered in the lounge hoping for a better view of the glacier

passengers on upper deck hoping to view glacier

some snow on peaks even in July

a "calving" iceberg floats by

"waterfalls" from melting ice trail down mountain

beginning to see more floating ice

the much larger Norwegian Jewel

not today, Hubbard Glacier

Seward, Alaska

It feels good to put our feet on USA soil and be greeted by the good ole USA flag in the cruise terminal!! No more trying to figure out currency or understand what is being said.

Seward, Alaska, is a town of only around 3,000 people but it was really hopping yesterday, due to the arrival of two large cruise ships, the July 4^th holiday celebration and their big annual event - the 94th Mount Marathon Race. The race consists of a grueling 1.5 mile climb up, and back down Alaska's majestic and treacherous Mount Marathon. I can’t imagine…

 

the view when I pulled back the curtains this morning

 

Old Glory inside Seward, Alaska cruise terminal

Welcome to Seward, Alaska!

After being at sea for a week, it was good to be able to walk around the town, browse in the shops and booths that were set up for the race and eat from the food trucks. It rained in the morning but cleared enough that we were able to walk around without umbrellas. Here are some random photos I took as we walked a few blocks through the streets of Seward, Alaska.

  

Alaska Sea Life Center

 

Main Street, Seward

craft booths downtown

hotdogs, Alaska style

root beer floats, chocolate covered bacon

Once in a Blue Moose (only in Alaska)

church in downtown Seward

back drop to downtown

hot pretzels

these smelled good!

drinks for sale

fried halibut

cotton candy, yum yum

 

coffee and more truck

purses, backpacks and more

business built from the clever recycling of bicycle tubes

a beautiful pine

 

Old Glory waves from ladder of firetruck

clouds suspended over mountains

"Only you..." Old Smokey

everyone and their dogs

perfect event weather

 

the good, the bad and the ugly

First I'll start with the good. We've had a wonderful trip around the world! We're now back in the good ole US of A, and Lord willing, only 12 days from home. The bad is that yesterday in Dutch Harbor (where "The World's Deadliest Catch" is filmed), the weather was rainy, cold and just all around nasty. The ship did not dock, so going ashore meant a 30 minute tender ride in. Dutch Harbor is very small and there was not a lot to do there so some passengers (myself included) chose to stay onboard. 

The ugly is what's happening today! Sometime during the night, the ship began really rockin' and rollin'! It has continued to do the same all day. We've not seen the sea like this in the previous 168 days we've been onboard. And due to rough seas, our port stop in Kodiak, Alaska has been cancelled. Thankfully, we are in no danger, except for the possibility of falling down while the ship is pitching or losing our tummies due to motion sickness.

We didn't even experience this kind of motion when we went through the Drake Passage which is known for its rough seas. Our room is on the 8th floor and believe it or not, at times today the spray has come up as high as Deck 9! However, as long as we're not looking out at the waves, we are o.k. (if one spends much time watching the ocean, it won't be long before that queasy feeling kicks in). We have the RX nausea patches and Meclizine that both help with sea sickness, but thankfully neither of us has had to use them.

We're hoping we'll get to see some wildlife while in our Alaskan ports. Marianne Houston, a fellow passenger and an amazing photographer, posted some beautiful photos of a bald eagle sitting on the ship's antenna yesterday on her blog. She graciously allowed me to share them on this post. Both the eagle - and her photos - are amazing! Ronnie also took several photos of bald eagles while in port yesterday. They were sitting on top of their nest but unfortunately, the distance was too great to capture them in clear focus with just his phone camera.

This being my 7th straight day onboard, there's not much to share. I almost forgot, today is Irena's birthday! Irena is one of two persons who service our room twice daily - Marvin (from Mexico) and Irena (from Russia). They are both wonderful. We left some treats for her on the bed this morning and probably other folks did as well. She's such a hard worker and she always greets us with a smile. I was thinking how not fun it must be to be working on a pitching ship on your birthday!

We have reservations in the ship's Polo Grill restaurant tonight. However, I'm voting for room service, staying in, working on my photos and watching a movie in the room (we learned only recently that we could order popcorn to our room). Re: photos - there's literally no telling how many I've taken since we left home in mid-January! I'm starting the task of going through them to select maybe 10-15 from each port with the goal of putting together a coffee table book. That may sound simple but it will take many, many hours to accomplish this and I'm thinking I should give myself a head start on these lazy sea days. Once we return home, there will be lots of appointments and "catch up" to do before life returns to normal.

photo credit: Marianne Houston

photo credit: Marianne Houston