Sitka, AK (7/15/2017)

Day 32
Saturday, July 15, 2017
After choosing a breakfast from several store-bought sweet pastries, we headed out to check out some of the outlying sights in Sitka.

Sitka National Cemetery (designated in 1942)

Some of the belief emblems available for headstones;
the Latin cross on the left for Christians and the
Russian Orthodox cross on the right

In the second row is the Star of David for Judaism, and on the right is
a lamb with the flag of victory for the United Moravian Church

Headstones from an earlier era

Sitka Sound Science Center in the Sage Building (1929 as
the industrial arts building of the Sheldon Jackson College)

A smaller Silverseas cruise ship

Sitka's Blarney Stone was already known in Tlingit lore;
it later was called Baranov's rock and also served as a corner
marker for the Sitka Training School; now you circle it once for luck

Sitka Small Boat Harbor with fireweed in bloom

We drove beyond the town to the west.

View from the site of Redoubt Archangel Michael, the first
Russian fort that was burned down by the Tlingits in 1902;
at the Old Sitka State Historical Park

Dwelling on a small island

A gorgeous day; we have been very fortunate
with all the sunny days on our trip

Back in town.

St Peter's By the Sea Episcopal Church (1899,
designed by H Louis Duhring, Jr in Gothic Revival style)

Stained glass window with a Star of David, the story has it that the
church placed an order back East and waited many months before the
window finally arrived and instead of a Christian symbol that was ordered,
there was a Star of David; considering the time and difficulty they decided to
keep the window as a reminder of the beginnings of the Christian faith

Inside St Peter's By the Sea

The See/rectory (1905) of St Peter's by the Sea

At 10:00 we picked up Jan & Kirby from their hotel and drove to the Alaska Raptor Center (established in 1980, present location in 1991). The goal is to rehabilitate and return injured or sick raptors to the wild. If the birds are not able to function in the wild, they are sent to zoos or wildlife centers, or remain as permanent guests at the Raptor Center.

Some permanent guests with their own
perches and shade umbrellas

A peek into the clinic to see a few-week old bald eagle being weighed

A demonstration with a juvenile bald eagle
with head trauma

Haliaeetus leucocephalus/Bald Eagles; some residents can be trained to
be part of public demonstrations, and others are just left alone

Aquila chrysaetos/Golden Eagle

A non-resident in a tree above the center

A short nature hike:

Water droplets on Lysichiton americanus/Yellow Skunk Cabbage leaf

A carved stump in the forest

Eagle Pool in the Indian River

Tour bus solution to hold open the roof ventilation door

Bubo virginianus/Great Horned Owl

Flight training aviary

The flight training aviary is where the eagles can progress from hopping up on low stable logs and posts, to flying onto higher unstable horizontal ropes, and finally to narrow ledges at the highest points.
We drove back into town for lunch at the Raven Dining Room patio of the Westmark Hotel.

The Westmark Hotel was built on the site of a water wheel
powering a grinding stone (KSS)

After lunch, we drove almost as far east as we could, to find the Fortress of the Bear.

Fortress of the Bear, (2007) a bear rescue center providing
a safe haven for orphaned bears

Two of the bear habitats are former clarifying tanks of a pulp mill,
already with high concrete walls, a drain for running water,
and 3//4 of an acre of space

Hmm, is this Killisnoo?

There's Toby and Balloo, waiting for an ear of corn treat

Toby came right up to the wall in the water to lie down

The other brown bear habitat

Ursus arctos/Brown Bears: There are three types in Alaska. Here we have five of the
Ursus arctos sitkensis/ABC Bears, who live on Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof Islands. We have also seen the Ursus arctos horribilis/Grizzly Bears who live in the Interior of Alaska. Finally there is the Ursus arctos middendorffi/Kodiak Bear from the Alaska Peninsula and islands.

There are also three Ursus americanus/Black Bears in a separate enclosure

Salmon parts as bear treats

Ha! Owner and founder Les throws salmon heads
up in the air to be caught by eagles on the fly,
and all I caught was a wing

We returned to town.

Sheldon Jackson Museum (1895-1897), the oldest museum in Alaska,
with the collection of Native artifacts collected between 1888-1898
by Dr Sheldon Jackson, a federal education agent

The former Sheldon Jackson College, founded in 1878 as a training
school for Native boys; after a fire, Dr Jackson helped raise funds
to rebuild in 1882, and the school was named for him in 1910

Jan & Kirby went to see some of the town and shop, while we went to the library to use the internet.

View from the Sitka Public Library (KSS)

We picked up Jan & Kirby to go to dinner at the Channel Club.

Lobster and scallop macaroni and cheese

Rockfish and chips

We said our goodbyes, but see you soon. Tomorrow Jan & Kirby would be flying back to Seattle and we were catching the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry.