Dave and I cruised to Alaska with Dave's parents in 2005, but we didn't stop at Sitka. On June 20, 2018, we made our first visit there, and we loved everything about it. Sitka is small and remote enough to be very charming, yet it also has significant and picturesque historical sites.
Dave and I were up early, looking at the wharf as the boat docked. The ports of Alaska's Inside Passage, such as Sitka, are very busy because the sea is virtually the only way of delivering supplies.
Sitka was the first capital of Alaska, when the Russians ruled it in the early 1800s. We took a historical tour, rather than more nature-watching, because Sitka's history is so distinctive. St. Michael's Cathedral (really, a modest church) is in the center of the town. It is still a Russian Orthodox church, even though only 5% of the parishioners are Russian. Another 20% are Native American.
Apparently, the church is struggling financially.
It is beautiful inside, richly decorated with gold and silver ornamentation, chandeliers, and icons.
I love the Byzantine style which the Russian Orthodox Church adopted.
There are Russian crafts and souvenirs in Sitka's stores, including a great collection of matryoshka (nested) dolls in Grandfather Frost's Russian Christmas Store. Some of the dolls were beautifully hand painted and cost more than $1000.
We saw many large, brightly colored flowers. Plants grow fast and big in the long days of sunlight.
I have often thought that, if I had another basement to decorate, I would fill it with Northwestern and Alaskan art. I love totem poles and Native wood paintings and sculptures. And, of course, bears are another favorite.
We had some free time, during our tour of downtown Sitka, to shop. Dave, of course, bought a t-shirt. I am less tempted to buy things on trips than I used to be, since I have learned that I can find virtually anything I see on my travels on Amazon, Etsy, or ebay, often with more variety and better prices!
I was quite tempted, though, by these jars of kelp marmalade!
Our next stop was the Sheldon Jackson Museum, filled with artifacts from Alaska and eastern Siberia. Many were collected by Sheldon Jackson, an Alaskan pioneer who, during the late 1800s, introduced an educational system to Sitka and helped to import reindeer.
The museum curator described the museum's collections. She was Tlingit, as was our guide in Juneau.
I paused to admire the handiwork of a craftsman working in the museum.
We also visited the Sitka National Historic Park, with its 20 totem poles. The poles were collected from native villages by the governor of Alaska to showcase his state at the 1904 World's Fair, held in St. Louis, Missouri. When the totem poles returned to Alaska, they were gathered into this Sitka park, which also has mossy, drizzly hikes through its temperate rain forest. Lisa and Kyle felt right at home. They have rain forest within half an hour of their Seattle, Washington house. "I never realized it was such a special thing," Lisa said.
The totem poles tell Native stories. One of the prominent figures in the stories is Raven.
This was the site of the 1804 battle between the Tlingits and the Russians. The Tlingits had fought the Russians off in 1802, but they surrendered to them in 1804, and the Russians then ruled Alaska until the Americans took over in the 1840s.
We finished the morning at a Russian dance concert at the local community center. The dance troupe was formed twenty years before, made up solely of women. As a new dancer joins the troupe, she is assigned to dance as either a male or a female. We were impressed with how talented and professional the group was, since they were purely volunteers, fitting the dancing in around their work as mothers, bankers, teachers, and other jobs in the community. The announcer said the dance troupe has advisors from several states, including Utah. We assumed the Utah advisors would be the sponsors of the BYU International Folk Dancers.
One witty dance was about a young man who gave identical handkerchiefs to his two girlfriends. All was well until one girlfriend saw the other's handkerchief!
"I've got to see some bears while I'm in Alaska," I insisted. Luckily, we were able to catch a ride to the Fortress of the Bear, an animal rehabilitation center, when our historical tour ended. Every road we drove down in Alaska had gorgeous scenery, such as this blue glacial lake.
We were very impressed with Fortress of the Bear. One of the owners told us about the Fortress' mission of taking orphan cubs, rehabilitating them, and then either releasing them back into the wild, or, if they weren't capable of living in the wild, taking care of them indefinitely at the Fortress.
Alaska is full of bald eagles. We saw some on our whale watching excursion, but many more at the Fortress. They swooped over the bear pond and settled on the telephone wires.
Furs and skins filled the souvenir stores in Sitka. I'm not sure who would be tempted by this item.
These deer skins were more of a temptation. I could imagine one of them in our cabin.
