June 30 - A-Town

Sunrise 4:11 AM. It was a very early morning to get to our 5:40am flight to Juneau and onto Anchorage.  The Sitka airport, small to start with, but even smaller when they had to divide

it up to provide TSA room to screen.  This morning, social distancing was difficult, but we managed to survive.  All our COVID-19 testing had returned “none detected”, which was a good thing.   For “breakfast” we had a choice of Coke, Diet Coke or water and a little bag of snacks!  After we retrieved our rental car and baggage, we dropped Ann of at the clinic.  We drove to Katie & Brandon’s house in southside Anchorage.  Jenny made grilled cheese sandwiches from the bread Katie & Brandon had forgotten to take with them fishing.  John made some excellent tomato soup! 

Glacier National Park from the 30,000 ft.  The 250' high ice wall in 2017 with a harbor seal in the foreground

We did a quick trip down to Potter Marsh, a wildlife viewing boardwalk.  The marsh was created almost by accident as the Seward highway separated a low lying area from Cook Inlet.  It was a lovely day.  While birds and turtles were plentiful, we saw no eagles.  We did see some young fish in the stream, maybe smolts getting ready to head to the ocean, but no salmon headed up to spawn. 

For the afternoon activities, John and the young folk went fishing at Ship Creek, while Bennie & Jenny went downtown to rent e-bikes at Pablo’s.  We rented two Aventon Pace 350 Step-Through Ebikes.  They were powerful.  Pablo told us to do a test ride in the nearby parking lot.  He said don’t turn on the bike until we were on the trail and not to use power to make turns!  Wow!!  He was right.  Although these bikes were pedal-assist bikes, they had quite a bit of oomph.  They had 5 levels of assist and we largely stayed in level 1 except on big hills.  Jenny had some issues after being in a high level for a while and the bike seemed to give out.  But back on the flats and level one, the bike seemed to recover.  We rode the entire length of the Tony Knowles trail to Kincaid park.  I had the bear spray with me.  When a rider coming toward us reported seeing a bear, Jenny thought we should turn back.  No bear was ever spotted.   Anchorage had a constructed a series of signs representing our solar system along the trail.  Each step (if you were walking) represents 186,000 miles, or the distance light travels in one second.  Though we didn’t backtrack to where the sun was a few blocks east, we rode from Mars to Pluto or about 11 miles (~3 billion miles in reality).  As the week went on, according to Jenny, our ride of 22 miles got longer and longer.  

The fishermen were not successful in bringing home dinner, so we did Hawaiian take out of barbecued pork and chicken thighs at our AirBnB in downtown Anchorage.  We walked across the street to the New Sagaya City Market to get some ice cream, but since they didn’t carry Tillamook (A-Town’s version of Blue Bell), we drove to a nearby Carrs (Safeway) to get Mountain Huckleberry & Peaches and Cream. 

Sunset in A-Town:  11:39 PM

Monday, June 29 - Sitka

Sunrise 4:10 AM.  Ann had arranged a tour at the Sitka historical museum this morning. It was a new, small collection, but had the key elements of the history of Sitka...primarily the relations of the native Tlingit and the Russian "visitors". Frictions arose when the Russian laid claim to the entire of Alaska, which the Tlingit felt no one should own... They saw themselves as stewards of the land. After two significant conflicts (1802 and 1804) won by the Tlingit and Russians respectively, the two managed to peacefully coexist for the next 60+ years. The Russians were primarily interested in the sea otter pelts, which they traded for from the Tlingit. All was fine until the sea otter population was largely gone and Russians were in need of cash. The US made an offer of $7 million or 2 cents per acre, which they accepted (Seward's Folly). The US flag was raised for the first time in Sitka in 1867 and Alaska was a territory until 1959 when it was granted statehood. 

Sitka Museum.  Prince & Princess Maksutov.  Tlinget woman

We had hoped to visit the Russian Orthodox Church in downtown, but it, like many other things in Sitka, was closed due to Covid-19. Bennie grabbed some homemade sandwiches at the nearby Backdoor Cafe, which he and Ann had visited in 2017... One each of turkey, ham, tuna fish and pastrami. We tried to do most of our dining outside or in our apartment, to minimize our exposure to other folks.

The afternoon was spent in search of whales, to no avail. We started at "Whale Park"... Now come on... No whales??? It was drizzling but we traversed the boardwalk surround by Sitka spruce and salmon berry bushes. A mom and at least 5 young boys... All but one was hers... Were also on a salmon berry hunt. Most were eaten by the boys as they picked them and only a handful made it to mom's bucket that she had jam plans for. We were brave and each tried one or two. They very much resembled a blackberry in shape and form, but they varied in color from a salmon red to bright yellow. They were very tart and we all agreed that they would be better as a jam or pie.

Back in town we headed to the Sitka National Historic Park. Unfortunately all the national park service buildings were closed, but we were able to walk the lovely trail through the totem pole park. There were probably close to 20 poles of various ages and sizes. Most had a QR code on the back that led your smart phone to an audio guided tour of each pole. There trail ended at the site of the 1804 battle. We then hiked back along the Indian River. We searched for incoming salmon, but we didn't see any... We must have been a bit early for them.

Sitka Totem Park

We visited the site of old Sitka... Where the first Russian settlement was and the site of the 1802 conflict. A small island, magic island, sits just off in the water. A low tide there is a land bridge that let's you walk out to the island.
Castle Hill - The site of the residence of the Russian Governor/Manager of the Russian-American Company. In 1867 this spot was where the exchange between the US and Russia took place. And in 1959 there was a ceremonial flag raising of the short lived 49 star US flag.

CW from top, Totem Park, Princess Maksoutoff grave, salmon berries, Mean Queen Pizza, Castle Hill & Russian Orthodox Church

Our dinner was takeout pizza from the Mean Queen. We had salads and the Queen's Court Pizza (Marinara, Mozzarella, Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Mushroom, Green Pepper & Red Onion). While we were waiting for our pizza order, we visited the grave of Princess Maksoutoff, who was the wife of the last Russian Manager. She died during childbirth of galloping consumption...or TB.

Sunset 9:59 PM

Sunday June 28 - Sitka

Our AirBnB on Sitka Sound

Ann and I arrived at the Sitka airport just after John and Jenny's flight from Seattle arrived. They did not have a jet way... So they had to wait until the stairs to the tarmac arrived. Amazingly there were only four passengers aboard... One for each crew member! Our home, a newly renovated two bedroom apartment, was right on the Sitka coastline just north of the town center by a couple of miles. We shared some cheese and crackers and stories of their travels before calling it a night. It was nearly 2am east coast time for them.

Sunset over Sitka Sound 9:59 PM