Cruise Day 5

Sitka, Alaska!! Such a beautiful place, and my favorite port call by far. There is no pier for the cruise ships, so we had to take a tender in to shore. The first thing we did was rent a couple of bikes and head off for the hills. I loved it, maybe because it felt so.... normal. Like we weren't tourists. The scenery was fantastic, the weather was cool (perfect for biking,) and we pretty much didn't meet anyone else on the trail.
A mountain lake:
We passed by a bear sancuary. We didn't want to pay 20 bucks to get in, so we stopped on the hill above them where we could see them just fine. Sort of.
We also saw this eagle. We think it's an immature bald eagle.


And of course our best wildlife find of the day:
And did I mention that the trail we biked had a LOT of steep hills?? That sign is NOT exaggerating.
Here's a view of our cruise ship from a road we were biking on.


When we were done biking we just had a few minutes to grab a quick lunch, find a Russian doll for Sissy (Sitka is a very Russian city,) return the bikes, and meet up with our group for kayaking! Here I am sporting the fabulous rain gear they outfitted us in:
And here is an orange jellyfish. I really really really didn't want to capsize. Those things were everywhere. It was odd to feel like we were in the mountains, and yet be finding all these sea creatures.



Oh and here's our friend sunstar who we caught and gave a ride on our kayak. He was sssliiiimmmy.



On the way back from kayaking, we saw an eagle pulling his dinner up from the water!
That night was another formal night. I wasn't sure I'd be up to getting all gussied up after our tiring and adventurous day, but it was worth it! If for nothing else, then for this dessert which was fab-u-lous.
I cannot even begin to describe how good the meals were. I'm sure I've never ever eaten so much in a week. My clothes were getting a big snug by this day.
Our nightly guest, this time sporting my sunglasses which I had happened to leave on our bed.