Cruise to Alaska Day 08: Sitka

We were up and at 'em early this morning on our adventures in Sitka!

We fueled ourselves with caffeine and sugar in the ship's coffee bar. I don't know what those delicious creme brulee doughnut thingies were, just that I ate them obsessively every single morning for second breakfast, and they were DELICIOUS.

I think you'll agree that Matt looks pretty great in his rain gear, like a sexy salmon fisherman. Of course, we're actually going sea kayaking, not salmon fishing, but whatever. In related news, one of our bus drivers taught us this way to name the five types of salmon using your hand, and also what a "king salmon salute" is.

The more gear I put on, however, the surer I am that I am going to drown.

But could one choose a more beautiful place to drown?

There are very few house permits available for this sheltered cove, and it's apparently a prized location for its privacy, although as far as I'm concerned, not only would you have a clear view of all the other cabins from your porch, but you've also got, you know, KAYAKERS paddling by you every day.

Paddlers like us!

We paddled along the intertidal area, so that we could see blue crabs, urchins, and plenty of starfish like this little guy, who got put back where we found him.

Don't we look happy here? I highly recommend tandem kayaking in lieu of (or in addition to) marriage counseling. As the front person in the kayak I was supposed to be the navigator, which means that Matt was SUPPOSED to paddle where I wanted, but I want to paddle as close to the rocks as possible to see all the critters, and Matt wanted to paddle as far away from the rocks as possible because he's lame. So he would basically paddle against me, and we wouldn't go anywhere, and we would hiss horrible things at each other while young honeymooning couples paddled smoothly past us in beautiful tandem. Let me tell you, we worked through a LOT of shit on that 90-minute paddle, and look at us afterwards!

There were eagles on the paddle, but it was too difficult to take photos. Fortunately, eagles just hang around in Alaska like pigeons or starlings, leaving plenty to photograph as we tromped around town later.

We passed a science museum that made me sad because if the kids had been with us we'd have for sure spent half the day there, but fortunately we found the beach right afterwards, and spent the rest of our time in Sitka there.

Another blue crab, and look, Matt, you don't have to paddle near the rocks to look at it!

Don't fall down onto these. I'm telling you--it hurts!

And just look at this beauty that I found! Matt put wrapped it up in bubble wrap for me, and it's my favorite souvenir, our only one from Sitka, although I super wanted some of this expensive fancy salt.

Oh, just a little lobster for lunch! I may have eaten lobster for dinner, as well, although the only thing that I really remember from dinner is that my waiter made one of those fancy milk foam drawings on top of my after-dinner cappuccino. I loved all the little luxuries just as much as the big ones!