Alaska Cruise Day 3

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

My birthday! Oddly enough, I didn’t remember that today was my birthday until after we had gotten up early, worked out, and taken showers. We were both a little forgetful. We ate breakfast in the main dining room, which proved to be a big disappointment. I thought they would know how to do eggs benedict, but I think Cinnamons has ruined me for all others. The eggs were rock solid, and the hollandaise was lousy. I pulled off the eggs and ate the ham and English muffin, but it was basically just for food, not because I wanted it.

Today, we were in Sitka. We took a shore excursion to Tongas Forest National Park which was very nice. It consisted of several hiking loops in the park with a bathroom break in the middle. The hikes weren’t too strenuous, just a little up and down. What really impressed us both was the quality of the trails. They were cleared and well maintained. Most of the trail was covered in gravel or wood stairs. Someone spends a lot of time working on them. We’re told that Sitka has 12 miles of roads and 15 miles of trails. For a town of 4600 square miles, they only have roughly 8000 residents. Very small town with a lot of room. The town only has two stoplights.

At one point on the tour, between trails, a man ran past us and said “there’s a grizzly.” We thought he was joking as the rest of his group was still out in front. It turns out he was running to get his camera, not to get away. It was actually a brown bear, about 800-1000 pounds, hanging out in a field. Every so often, he would pop his head up over the tall grass and check us all out. All I have are a few pictures of a little head above the grass. Still, it was really neat to see.

We had three guides on the tour and there was some dissention among them. One is rather familiar with bears and was willing to take the largish group along the planned trail while another didn’t want to go, yet she didn’t want to do a different trail with only two people (the ones that were willing to change course), so the reluctant ones came along and basically implied that we were all stupid. The first tour guide (Laura?) gave us all a rather stern lecture before we continued stating that we were to stay within one arm’s length of the person in front of us. Also if the bear stands on it’s hind legs and sniffs the air, that it’s ok, but when he stands on all fours, lowers his head, and walks towards us, then we’re in trouble. She said when that happens, don’t run, instead, talk loudly, and make yourself look as big as possible. It was all for naught as the bear never moved from his spot and we were soon long gone. It was quite a thrill all around.

On the bus ride back into town, we also saw an eagle sitting in the top of a tree and flapping its wings. The guides pointed it out stating that it had made a nest there.

After the tour, we had a little time before we had to catch our tender back to the ship, so we wandered around. Didn’t accomplish much except take a few pictures of totem poles
(they’re everywhere), and establish that the prices are outrageous.

On interesting thing is that the tour gave us bars of chocolate. It came with the story that the chocolate was made by a former forest ranger who wanted to spend more time with his kids, so he took his hobby and made it into a business. It’s a big success, and the guides seemed rather proud of him.

We got back just in time to change and head down to dinner. Mike told the waiter it was my birthday and at the end of the meal, I had four tables plus about 6 wait-staff all sing happy-birthday to me. I think I must have turned crimson, but it was a nice gesture.