Day 14
The whales didn't really cooperate yesterday on our ferry ride out to Sitka. I suppose I wouldn't really want to get that close to a moving metal box either. I ended up falling asleep for a pretty good part of the ride. Even though it was light at 4:30 yesterday morning, it still felt like I'd been up all day by 10 am. For the last part of the ride, the part when I was least conscious, we were told to stay in our seats or use the handrails (nonexistent) if we had to get up because the boat would be making "bold adjustments" to our course. There were some pretty sharp turns through there, but I can't say I've ever thought of a boat making "bold adjustments" unless it was maybe in terms of their color scheme. The reason for this maneuvering is because we were in a very narrow channel. And it was also pretty shallow in places too because I could see sandbars pretty close to the boat. Somewhat terrifyingly close to the boat. But we made it, safe and sound.
The ferry ride was the most eventful part of yesterday. Otherwise, it was just boring things like setting up camp, showering, doing laundry. Mom and Dad took a walk. I sat in the car and killed another book. We went to bed fairly early. I finished the book. It definitely got darker here, but that's because it's been cloudy and raining on and off the entire time we've been here.
Day 15
Ashley and I slept in. Mom and Dad went for a walk in Sitka's National Historic Park and around the town. It's not very big.
We finally made it up and breakfasted to the park a little before noon. We learned more about the history of the local Native people, the Tlingit, and how the Russians came in and took over. The Russian Orthodox Church is very prominent in this town, and it is quite important to their history. The Church converted many of the Tlingit but allowed them to continue their way of life and ceremonial rituals, unlike the American missionaries. We learned about this at the Bishop's House which is part of the National Park.
We also stopped into this nonprofit aquarium in town. It's called Sitka Sound Science Center (say that 10 times fast). They only have creatures that they have collected from the waters around Sitka. I did this project in...elementary school I think...about sea cucumbers (when they get scared, they poop their guts out to get away, so cool! That's why, of course). There were sea cucumbers at this aquarium, and you get to touch them! One-finger touching only. They're kind of like balloons... Well...softly inflated balloons. With spikes that aren't hard. It was really cool.
The rest of today is rather boring. We walked around the town. A little. It's rainy. We ate lunch. Now we're just kind of killing time. Our ferry heads back to Juneau tomorrow early afternoon. Then the next day we head to Haines.
Oh yeah, we saw a BUNCH of totem poles today, even though their "Totem Park" is closed so the grass can grow back every where. Anyways, the point of this is that there was one place we were going to go to to pay and see totem poles, definitely don't need to do that now. And there was another place in Haines where we were going to pay to see bald eagles, but we've seen bald eagles in the wild every single day we've been up here. In fact, yesterday, while we were setting up camp, a whole bunch were flying over head.
So we're just kind of twiddling our thumbs now... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment