A Journal, with Pictures

After our Sea Otter & Wildlife Quest excur­sion we dis­em­barked in the city of Sit­ka. Sit­ka was the site of the orig­i­nal Russ­ian out­post named New Archangle. The main objec­tive of the Russ­ian-Amer­i­can Com­pa­ny was to trap the then plen­ti­ful Sea Otter for their pelts. They were suc­cess­ful to the extent of reduc­ing the pop­u­la­tion to near extinc­tion. The Rus­sians lost inter­est in Alas­ka, then sold it to the U.S. for a small sum. Today the small com­mu­ni­ty thrives on com­mer­cial fish­ing and tourism. We searched high and low for a restau­rant that served Dun­ge­nes crab to not avail and set­tled for King crab on a open deck in the sun­shine. We then explored the town start­ing with a vis­it to the Russ­ian Ortho­dox Church that is still active. We then climbed Cas­tle Hill, the for­mer site of Alexan­der Bara­nof’s cas­tle with a great view of the har­bor and Mount Edge­cumbe across Sit­ka Sound. That evening after anoth­er great din­ner we enjoyed a show put on by the crew that received a stand­ing ova­tion from the pas­sen­gers. Tomor­row ear­ly its Hub­bard Glac­i­er so it was in to bed rel­a­tive­ly early.