Busy Tourist Week

With our first guests here in Sitka we have joined them in some of the tourist things. Since moving here we have not seen any of the typical(albiet important) sites. This has finally been our excuse to do this. We did discover after our fishing trip that really fresh salmon is something that is really good.
We have spent time hiking some of the trails. Particularly Mosquito Cove. This is a nice 1.5 mile loop trail near the original site of Russian Sitka. We also walked some of the trails at the Sitka National Historical site where the Russians and natives clashed in 1804. The Indian river flows through here. The salmon are all lined up..waiting to proceed up stream to spawn. It looked like a 10-15 lane freeway. Really cool. We have watched a carver work on a beautiful bowl and a weaver making small baskets out of cedar roots. It is interesting that in the film a the museum how many names I knew from working in the clinic. A very cool feeling. We toured the Russian Bishop's House that is one of 4 original buildings remaining from the Russian era on the whole U.S. west coast.
Yesterday we visited the Raptor Center and got close up views of bald eagles, ravens, owls, etc. The eagles are so majestic. Some of these can't be released back to the wild, but the goal is to release as many as possible.
Saturday the 19th we took a wildlife tour... it was a 3-hour tour... We saw 4 humpback whales, a single orca(killer whale), a bunch of sea otters(I hadn't realized how big they get..100 lbs.), a lone sea lion, puffins, and eagles' nests. A very calm day and none of us got sick this time.
We finally made up to Castle Hill too. This is where the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the US took place in 1867. It has been a site used by natives as a watch point and for the Russian governor for his house. Charles and his friend spend time up there just "hanging".
Saturday afternoon it got sunny!!! It has been about 3 week since we had significant sun. The sunny conditions continued all day Sunday also. It was nice for Anneka and Mike to see Sitka in a different light...so to speak... They left Sunday morning to return to St. George and 100 degree temps. Poor Anneka was cold the whole time she was here. Annika is still cold too. We even were able to eat outside on the deck on Sunday.