Sitka

This morning we got to Sitka at about 7:15AM. Fortunately Josh and I were still in bed, and still had a half hour before breakfast was delivered to our door. Seriously, I’ll never get over that. We fill out a card with ALL of the breakfast foods you could possible imagine on it the night before, hang it on our doorknob, and tell them what time we’d like it. We then eat breakfast in our bathrobes in the comfort of our room. We leave the dishes there, and when we come back to our room before lunch, the dishes are cleared, the bed is made, and there’s a note by the door of what is going on today. This is living.

Megan and Mark had told us about the company they were going on a kayaking adventure with. So, when we got ashore, we looked for the company, and scheduled our own tour. It was amazing.

We went kayaking in Alaska, and we loved it! We were in a 2 person kayak, which was good because it means both Josh and I saw everything the other one saw. It was bad because Josh got sick of me saying “left! Right!” and telling him which way he should steer the boat. He had control of the rudder because he’s a man, and he’s taller, and stronger. Ugh.

In any case, we wandered around, saw about a million star fish, in every shape and color – they have bright purple ones here. We saw fish, and mussels, and ravens. But the best part was when we went into “starfish cove” as the tour guides call it. It’s just behind a lighthouse on one of the 30 small islands we wandered around. We kept hearing eagles (like bald eagles….) in the trees, so we sat and waited. Before long we saw 2 or 3 swooping in at a time. Then one came down, grabbed a salmon right out of the river, and carried into the woods. 3 or 4 more quickly joined in for the meal. They fought over it. Then another eagle had salmon, and more followed him in. It was incredible. They flew all around us – probably 8 or 10 eagles flying around us for a good 15 minutes! These creatures are amazing!

The kayaking was beautiful, peaceful, calm, serene. We saw wildlife, and beautiful islands. We learned all about the life here in Sitka, saw some Russian dancer-ladies….(they were a little lame, but it can’t all be amazing, right?) and wandered around a cathedral. In all, it was another beautiful day. It seems that every day has some event that tops yesterday – but then when I relive yesterday, I can’t imagine it being any cooler, until I remember today! What a week this has been!

Now I'm sitting on a cruise ship, listing to the kids swim in the pool, watching my husband play ping pong with a comeplete stranger, and enjoying the view of the snow covered mountains right up against the ocean. With small islands littered with Christmas trees  as far as I can see. Does life get any better than this?