Monday, July 9

I woke early Monday but decided to skip the yoga class.  Instead, I enjoyed coffee in the lounge and saw a humpback whale breaching the surface and spouting.  They told me there had been more earlier, but I was happy to see even one.  We spent the morning in the village of Klawock, populated mostly by Tlingits, and visited a park where 16 totem poles had already been erected, with 6 more planned.  After that we walked to a community building where more were being carved.  Many of the ones in the park had been created after the Great Depression in the late 1920s/early 1930s.  In an effort to create jobs, the US government started a project to recreate fallen or deteriorating totem poles; some appeared to have made their way back to Klawock only recently.  Ron and I hiked back to the boat by ourselves after stopping at a grocery store and picking up a few provisions. 

Totem Pole Park

A Work in Progress

The walk back to the boat

We spent the afternoon "critter hunting", which fortunately did not involve the use of harpoons.  The captain cruised around in search of whales and we ended up in a place rich with them.  It didn't matter what side of the ship you were on; everywhere they'd breach and then the fluke would follow, gracefully disappearing into the water again.  We also saw the occasional river otter.