Sitka Day 7

    Sitka is the only town in Alaska facing the Gulf of Alaska and was the capital of Russian, Alaska. We started our tour with a two-hour wildlife boat tour. We saw a lot of gray whales. Those are the whales we were able to touch when we were in Mexico. However, this wildlife viewing was not terribly thrilling compared to Mexico because we could not get closer than 100 meters. When I mentioned how close we were able to get in Mexico, our captain reminded me that they, of course, have different ideas of what one can and cannot do. My thought was the Mexicans used to kill the whales but discovered it was more profitable to allow tourist to touch the whales than to kill them. Seemed to me a win/win for the whales and local people.

   It was interesting to think however that it was very possible that the whales I was looking at could be the same whales I touched in Mexico. The whales do make a 7,000 mile migration each year.

  We also saw two humpback whales which was unusual because their migration from Hawaii doesn’t usually bring them to Alaska until June.

  We saw a few sea otters from a distance as well.

   Next we stopped at Fin Lodge for a lunch of Alder wood fired grilled salmon which was absolutely delicious, tanner crab (snow crab) and wood fired beef tenderloin. Tom said the crab chowder was wonderful. The sides were all very delicious as well. We left stuffed.

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Tom & Holly