Thursday, July 3: Exploring Sitka

Sitka was a wonderful break in our trip.  They consider themselves a "working town" and, although there was a smaller ship in port when we were there, it didn't have the feel of a city that lived or died on cruise ship business.  They even have an Edward Jones office.

First, of course, we had to check out the children's section of the Sitka library to find the famous sculpture.  It was as impressive as we expected.

Below, a reminder that garbage needs to be protected against bear invasions.

Sitka was a Russian settlement and the Orthodox Cathedral, shown below, is still there, although the original was burned down in 1966.  The Bishop's House is now open to the public.

From downtown we went to the Raptor Center, a nonprofit that takes care of injured raptors (eagles, falcons and some ravens although the latter are not raptors).  They return as many as possible back to the wild.  Those that cannot be returned to the wild are sent to zoos or are trained to work with human handlers so they can be used in brief presentations to the public.  

Below- eagles learning to fly again in a screened enclosure.

There was a pleasant hiking trail behind the raptor center.

Finally, we stopped for lunch at the Sea Mountain Golf Course on our way back.  The waitress offered us the keys to a golf cart after lunch so we could explore- no charge.  I didn't tell her I'd never driven one before.  It was pretty interesting given the steep hills, but we returned it unscathed.

Even without golfing, we loved the course!