Day 47 14 September Sitka

Today we arrived in the lovely town of Sitka, that has a population of 8,500. 

The Russian explorers settled here in 1799, naming it Fort of Archangel Michael. The Russian-American Company was a colonial trading company which was attacked by the native Tlingit who destroyed the original settlement, killing many of the Russians living there in 1802.

The Russians returned in 1804 and eventually defeated the Tlingit.Renamed the "New Archangel" and was made the designated the capital of Russian America.

We had a bit of a bus ride around the town and we had a rather wonderful dance presentation that outlined the history of the place.

After that we went to walk around the town.  It was so well set up for tourists. We walked through a temperate rainforest and then crossed a river where the salmon were running and many of whom were being picked off by birds of prey. I wasn't too worried about bears, given that we had just seen about 300 teens run through the woods as part of the Sitka Invitational Run.

All those fish and no fishing rod.

We were taught on the bus that there were five types of salmon in Alaska. These are Chum, Sock-eye, King, Silver and Pink.  Here below,  there are two types...dead and not dead yet.

We found our way to the Raptor Centre.  Here they rehabilitate birds of prey back into the wild if they can. They are injured as the result of car accidents, electrocution, fighting each other or being shot at. For animals they intend to release back into the wild, they limit human contact, so they are behind a one-way mirror, and they use a small waterfall to mask sounds of human activity. It was all very clever. 

This is a Northern Goshawk. They are quite shy and don't like being near humans. The carers had us come over quietly to observe her feeding her. This one was shot after it got into a chicken coop.

This beautiful specimen is a Grey Northern Owl. The photo does not do him/her justice.

This Snowy Owl has been given some food wrapped up to make it more interesting for him. He didn't seem to want us to see him open and eat it.  It was a rat's head so I can understand his reluctance. Or maybe he is just stupid.

They did have several bald eagles in residence, and they really are quite magnificent animals.

It was a really nice experience.

We walked back into town and found the National Cemetery. This contained the burials of former US service men and women. I thought this was an area that WW2 would have figured very prominently but the graves varied from the Indian Wars through to the Korean War and some with their wives.

We came across one grave at random, a Captain Charles William Paddock USMC and with a minimum of research we discovered that he was an Olympic gold medalist from the 1920 Olympic games. He was the first person to be described as "The Fastest Man on Earth" and his "100m" record stood until 1956. He was killed in an air accident during WW2. He was portrayed in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, and although it was the third Olympics he competed in, he was not in the final.

We also found the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St Michaels's church built in 1841 but unfortunately it was burnt down in 1966 but rebuilt. 

A reconstructed Russian blockhouse that was part of the fortified wall.

The site of the Russian cathedral that was dismantled on the site.

We also ventured into a very dark and damp rainforest on a pretty sketchy track, and it was a bit spooky.  I thought if we didn't come across the Russian cemetery soon, we would turn back. It was at first very difficult to see but we did find some graves off the track. 

THe Russian cemetery is over 200 years old and contains 1,600 graves. As we ventured further in the canopy lightened and we saw many more graves. Some of them did not have particularly Russian sounding names but i suspect that they had strong Russian links so opted to be buried here.

We visited the museum which was small but had quite good exhibits detailing the First Nations occupation and the Russian colonisation, followed by the US ownership after they purchased Alaska from the Russians. 

The Prince and Princess Maksoutoff. He was the last Russian Governor who handed over Alaska to the US when the Americans purchased it for 2 cents an acre. His wife died several years later, aged 36 and her body was bought back and buried in the Russian cemetery.

What the settlement looked like under the Russians.

Russian Orthodox aretefacts ,although maybe not the saw on the left.

We returned to the ship by shuttle bus. Our driver Linda told us that Mount Edgecombe off the coast is an inactive volcano. It hasn't erupted for 4,000 years. One of the locals took a shipment of tyres and was going to burn them over there so they produced this very thick black smoke. He had told the police and the airport but forgot to tell the Coastguard. He lit the tyres and apparently it was the best April Fool's joke the town has ever had.

We returned to the ship to see some whale spout in the distance. Essentially if you can't see them near the ship, then there isn't much point.

We saw an interesting presentation on glaciers this evening. Apparently, some glaciers are pink which means there is algae growing in them and that also means that there is a worm in the ice that eats algae.

Day 46 13 September Ketchikan

Today under leaden skies we arrived in Ketchikan.  It is the salmon capital of Alaska.

There are three other much larger cruise ships in port so the place should be very busy, or at least that is what we thought. 

We were here in 2017 and saw most of what were to be seen. We did go for a walk and the salmon spawning season was over and there were dozens of salmon unable to spawn being hunted by a family of at least three seals.  It was pretty easy pickings for them.

The salmon were running and these are Harbour Seals. 

This one is upside down. The advantage is that it can still breathe and look at the fish underwater. Or he is just a showboat.

We had a bus trip that took us to a potlatch village. Our guide Matt was from Las Vegas, studying Law and History and this was his summer job. He had lots of good advice for us, in regard to bears. 

"If it is black go on the attack, if it's brown lay down, if it's white, it's goodnight."

We learnt a lot about the totem poles from Matt, how they are designed and the symbolism that went with them.

Totem poles last for the best part of a century until they rot, and then they just replace them.

Here, one is being created.

We and two other buses were late back to the ship but luckily, they waited for us. They had a major landslide that destroyed three buildings and killed a person a few weeks ago. They spray painted the dirt green so they could tell if the soil had continued to slip.

We attended a lecture on wolves in the evening.

Day 45 12 September Inside Passage

Today we head north through the inside passage. 

We met our cabin steward Von who is from the Philippines.

We attended three lectures today on the exploration of the Pacific North-West, Russia's expansion into Alaska and the history of the global fur trade. All very interesting and informative. One of the lecturers is Australian and is an honorary professor at Sydney university.

It was a perfect sailing day. There were lots of aircraft contrails in the sky.

Day 44 11 September Vancouver

Today we woke early, and it was a lazy day acquiring last minute supplies for our journey. Another good coffee from Tim Hortons for breakfast. 

We waited in the hotel until 11.45 am as we had a 2.00 PM boarding time.  Pre-embarkation was likely to take two hours and there were three cruise ships in town. It could have been worse as there can be four in the port.

It was very well organised, generally, as the first thing they did was to take our luggage off us for security screening. We then checked in with Viking and that was easy. We then lined up for personal security screening as that was better than normal, as you did not have to take your devices or remove your belt.

The problem then was US customs as it slowed to a crawl.  They seem to be getting through people quite quickly but then the officers either seem to go to lunch or had finished their shift, as we hardly moved.

They had a separate line for US Canadian citizens and we were given the option of hopping into their line. It was a good move as there were a number of them in front of us and they did not have to have their photo taken, so our line moved much faster than the original. It took us almost three hours to go through, so we were on board at 2.45 PM.

We went to the pool grill for a late lunch where Elizabeth had salad and fruit salad, and I had a hot dog and chips. We sailed away as we looked back at Vancouver.

We went up on deck to have a look at Vancouver harbour and sail under the Lion Bridge on our way to cruising the inside passage.

Seattle in the distance.

Loooking back at the Lion Bridge.

Day 43 10 September Toronto to Vancouver

Today we took the train to Toronto's international airport. It was fast and efficient and not too crowded. The flight was just over five hours and we met Chistine who was from Hawaii. She told us her daughter lives in Alaska, but her daughter knew Brisbane as a photographer when she was hired to do a wedding shoot.

It was a chance to catch up on the blog and watch the presidential debate. 

Day 42 9 September Niagara Falls to Toronto

 Today was a travel day as we left Niagara under rain clouds. Our bus driver got us to Toronto early. We later discovered that Niagara had been hit with a mini tornado. Luckily we missed it.  Our accommodation in Toronto was the Victoria Hotel, a three-star hotel. The towel rail fell off and the shower control came out of the wall. I had read reviews on-line of these very things happening. 

Toronto is a prosperous city with a lot of construction going on.

All dog lovers should check out this. A dog park with a fountain with dog sculptures. There is a single cat that is not squirting water. Can you spot the only cat there that is not squirting water?

We decided to walk down to the train station and prebuy our train tickets to the airport. This worked really well until we purchased the tickets and realised that we had to use them within an hour. Rather than throw them away, we decided to give them away to people. One guy offered to give us money, but we refused to take anything.

We had a great meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It is good food at an affordable price. We loved it when we ate at this chain in 2017.

Day 41 8 September Niagara Falls

Today we went to the falls and finally there was sunshine on them, It was a crisp morning with a stiff winds to begin with, but then it eased off.

We caught the bus to the floral clock and then walked 1-2 kilometres to the Issac Brock Park.

This was another battle site from the War of 1812. The British commander here was killed as well.

There was a new monument to the First Nations people who fought with the British.

General Brock's monument was built by public subscription and not long after, someone with a grudge blew it up. He apparently blew a few things up. A lot of the original monument was paid for by the First Nations people but was never acknowledged. Brock who was killed in the battle is buried beneath the monument.

A view to Lewiston across the river from where the Americans crossed the river at night. 

Another monument to Laura Secord (mentioned at Lundy's Lane). She was at the battle and saved her wounded husband as well as other wounded. What a legend!

This redan had two guns that covered the landing.

We had to wait around for our room to be serviced and couldn't get in till 4.30 pm. We walked up to Tim Hortons (a Canadian fast-food chain). We had roast beef rolls that were delicious.

We walked down for the 10 PM fireworks and they light the falls up so it was rather nice.