Sitka Adventure!

Now Sitka is where we had planned some serious fun! We were so excited for our high speed boat excursion. But before we could do that, we had a couple hours to walk around and see the town. Sitka is so gorgeous because there are high snow-capped mountains close by and then lots of little wooded islands right off the coast.  We rode the ship's tenders (glorified lifeboats) to shore and began walking around. The town is pretty. Everyone has lovely green yards (since it's a rain forest). Even their weeds look pretty. We climbed up a hill where we could see the sights really well. It was so beautiful and sunny! Here are the sights we saw:

After lunch back on the ship, we were totally excited for our boat ride! We were a little nervous, too. After all, this is the picture that we had seen on the website for the shore excursion company: 

 But here we are, all suited up in our special flotation suits. They were so cozy. They offered us warm hoods and gloves as well, which wasn't entirely necessary since it was so sunny out.

There was one other young couple with us. He's a physicist and she's a medical resident in California. They were happy to give us the front seats. And thank goodness, because I haven't had so much fun on the water in a long time! Talk about a wild ride. This isn't like your normal ski boat ride. We're talking large ocean waves at about 45 mph. Whoooweee! We were all screaming with excitement (and mild fear). Yes, even the men. Thank goodness we ride saddle style on half-inflated boat fenders, like these. It made for a nice soft landing.

There were many times when the boat was completely airborne because we could hear the roar of the engine as it left the water. Our guide, Gary, even said, "I'm used to older people so I'm glad that we can have some fun today!"  He was not kidding!

We rode 12 miles off the coast to see two islands. One has two dormant volcanoes, and the other is a bird sanctuary made completely of volcanic rock. Unfortunately, bird season had already ended so we only saw a few birds here and there. Normally they get thousands, including puffins and eagles. I'd love to do this excursion again in the summer with my Dad. He's a bird guy. But on the way, we cut the engines and followed a blue whale for a few minutes. It's so amazing to see their tale curve out of the water. If only we had a more powerful zoom. 

It was so exhilarating! And what beauty! It was one of the best 3 hours I've spent in a long time. Gary zoomed around the cruise ship before taking us back. At dinner that night we were talking with the other couples at our table and they mentioned that they had seen a small orange boat just before the ship left Sitka. We said that it had been us. They said, "Wow, you were going so fast!" What an amazing adventure!