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Sitka is Russian.
The Russians were the first to colonize the coast of Alaska, BC and down through California (Fort Ross was as far south as they came). According to Michner, the Russians did a very bad job of colonizing, the worst in history as a matter of fact, so there are many spots where this Indian rising and this slaughter occurred. But now it’s been all covered up with gift stores.
We walked through the town, shopped a bit on the way; the Russian cathedral is in the center of town. We walked along the street past park and skirting the bay. We walked to the park and through the park to see totems and the rain forest. Mom liked the walk. We came back for lunch and everyone but me wanted to stay on the ship, so I took the boat back and puttered around Sitka all by myself.
On the Fourth of July we docked in Juneau next to the Crystal Seas, which looked like one of those new huge ships I’ve been reading about. It was twice the size of our ship with twice the decks of balconies. In the center was a four-story window and I could see the shadow of people moving about behind the glass. Now this could be a ship with a climbing wall and other amenities and far more dining areas and specialty options (that cost extra of course) but there is a limit, I suppose and as I pointed out to Thomas, the odds are that our next cruise will be smaller, not larger because we’d want to get in further to where ever we are.
In the mean time, Juneau is just lovely. It rained and it was cold, but I loved the fact that the ship docked right across the street from the downtown, or at least a line up of tourist shops, ice creams parlors and bars. We stood in the rain for some time on Franklin Street and watched a terribly slow parade march down. Instead of squirting kids with water hose, the fire trucks and men threw taffy at the parade audience. Locals toughed out the weather, lining up an hour before the parade in the rain, to wait for the festivities. We stood for a time, but then made our way back to the ship for lunch because Michael must feed every hour or so. Even though the rain was dismal and cold, the little town, crushed up against the mountains, still white patches of snow and long trails of waterfalls thin through the green hills and mountain faces thick with trees and growth. That much was apparent even in between the drizzle and cold.
We shopped excessively but I haven’t found the totem or mask that I love. The masks are very expensive, seems to be asking more than the carving and work would merit.
We celebrated Mom’s birthday in the evening. Cocktails at 7:00, I like Cosmopolitans and two before dinner is quite relaxing. Then we had the champagne for dinner and wine and a birthday cake and the waiters all sang to her. So all is good and we promised mom a bird feeder because we were not going to schlep it on the trip.
Will we do a large ship again? Would I travel on one of the even larger ships being built? Probably not because it’s not about the room service or the dinners or the dressing up, it’s being able to get to places you can’t get to by road or rail. Like Juneau which is only accessible by boat or plane (the guide book says that Juneau has 100 miles of roads but they don’t lead anywhere) And I like traveling to small places, places that are authentic as it can be with less people than what we’ve experienced on this trip. I’m not a fan of crowds or doing what everyone else is doing, and here we were, docking in these tiny towns and bringing the crowd with us. There was no avoiding it. We are. So I think spending the money on smaller would be more interesting.
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