We left our campsite at Starrigavan, 7 miles north of Sitka at 7:30 am. It was overcast. We decided to take the Estuary Life Trail not far from our campround. This is a quarter mile trail along a wide boardwalk through woods and an esturary. There are several benches and lookouts for viewing birds and other wildlife. This is a fairly new trail and connects with two others; the Forest and Muskeg Trail and the Mosquito Cove Trail, which was still under construction. Just a little ways south of here is Old Sitka Park. This is the site of the first Russisan settlement, founded in 1799. It was destroyed by the Indians in 1801. The site overlooks the ocean and there are plaques describing how the Russians lived, and how they treated both the Aleutians they brought from Kodiak and the Tlingit natives on Sitka. About two miles farther south is the Halibut Point Park, with three sites for picnics/barbeques, just a short trail from a rocky beach littered with logs. We drove through town and took the O'Connell Bridge to Japonski Island. There is a hospital, airport, high school, Coast Guard Air Station, R.V. Park and branch of the University of Alaska Southeast on the island.
Then we went to the Sheldon Jackson Museum ($3 for adults and free for kids). This museum is located on the campus on fthe Sheldon Jackson College. It's housed in a round, cement building painted brown. It was buildt by Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson in 1885 and is the first cement building in Alaska. He buildt in out of cement to protect his collection of native artifacts. Sheldon was the first non-native to collect artifacts from the Eskimos, Aleutians and American Indians for display in a museum within the state of Alaska. This museum looks small on the outside, but the space is well used and organized. Besides the usual displays of clothes, jewelry, canoes, and baskets, he had collected everyday items and not just one but several examples (ie visors, sunglasses, children's games, sewing needles, harpoons). This was one of the best museums we went to. There was also a giftshop and a visiting artist making wood carvings.
The Sheldon Jackson Institute for kids began in 1881 and trained kids in occupatonal and academic training. The institute started a high school program in 1917 and in 1967 changed that to a college education degree. In 1934 they built a sawmill in two years from driftwood and rebuilt old machinery parts from the old Millmore Mine. 
They were able to build their own furniture, some residential houses and also a couple fishing boats. The sawmill burned down in 1940 only to be rebuilt withen one year. I see it more as a culteural education with the differant group of kids from the area and providing them with a skill when they leave. You can walk on the campus as we did. The buildings are very close to the musuem. They also worked very close with the armed forces during World War II, letting it be used as hospital, layover and relaxation.
Going back into town we took Lincoln St. until it ended at the Sitka National Historical Park. We did not stay long because there were a lot of tourists there from the cruise ships. The visitor's center is free. They have a short movie on the history of the area, 4 rooms where visiting native artists were working on woodcarvings, totems, silver jewelry and clothing. Only two were at work when we were there. They allowed people to get close and ask them questions. There are lots of totem poles and trails here, but we decided to come back when there weren't so many tourists. Just before leaving Dale asked a gal who was giving tours via a carriage she powered by pedaling a bike, where we might be able to go and not find tourists. She laughed and then suggested the Raptor Center.
At 11:30 pm we drove south on Sawmill Creek Blvd. to the Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center. 
This center tries to rehabilitate those raptors or birds of prey so they can be released back into the wild. Those that can not fly or take care of themselves in the wild, live out there lives in this protected environment. For an admission fee ($10 for adults and $5 for kids) you can view a short filmstrip, seat in on a question and answer session, take pictures of the birds and walk around the grounds. They brought in a live bald eagle for the question and answer session. We thought it was a lot of hype. They were looking for funds and volunteers. They have a glass enclosed area where you can view the veternarians working on the birds, however they were not working on any while we were there. They also have trails on the grounds outside to view birds under wire netting, but they were closed because of a bear in the area. They did have a nice giftshop.
We continued on Sawmill Creek Blvd. and stopped at Whale Park which has a boardwalk along the cliff overlooking the ocean. Stairs went down to a rocky beach. They had a play area with whale sculptures for kids to play on and several picnic tables with views of the water. This is suppose to be a good place to see whales. We drove to Sawmill Campground. This was a small campground. No one was around. We liked the campground we were staying at better. It looked like it could rain at any time. We kept going south on Sawmill Creek Blvd. and got a glimpse of Blue Lake before the road came to a gate and we had to turn around.
We went back into town and split up to do some shopping and to eat lunch. We stopped in the Sheet'ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi Community House, buildt by the local Tlingit tribe.. It had some carvings on the outside and a large, open interior with terraced seating and an open firepit. Some teenagers were rehearsing for a play they were performing tonight. Around 2:00 pm we drove out on Sawmill Creek Blvd. to the Thimbleberry Trailhead. It was hard to find where this trail started. We finally figured out that we had to walk along a creekbed that was pretty dry to start out. Then we took a narrow boardwalk. Lots of berry bushes were along the sides of this trail which ended at a lake. It started sprinkling on our way back. We drove to the Sitka National Historical Park and took the trails. Just as we got to the part where the totem poles were it started to really rain. Even though there were lots of large trees to form a canopy, we still got soaked. So much for taking pictures!
Back in town again it started clearing up and the sun came out. We ate dinner at the Bayview Restaurant above the Bayview Trading Company on Lincoln St. 
They serve Russian and American food (lots of different kinds of hamburgers). Their prices were quite reasonable. The waitress noticed Dale's WSU shirt and told us she was going to school there. We told here the waitress at the Mad Greek was also a WSU student. She said she knew her. Of course, this is a pretty small town! While eating our dinner we overheard conversations about the traffic on I-5 (in the Seattle area), North Bend and the Mariners. This restaurant has a great view of the harbor and mountains. We saw a double rainbow while we ate dinner. It kept coming and going. Dale ran to get the camera and got some good pictures of both the marina and Russian Orthodox Cathedral.. This Cathedral was rebuilt in 1968 after the first one caught fire on January 2nd, 1966.
After dinner we walked around the harbor. 
It finally stopped raining. A band was rehearsing under a covered area near the harbor. We decided to catch the sunset on top of Harbor Mountain. We went til the road came stopped in a large parking lot. Lots of vehicles were parked there, but not a soul was around. We figured these people were on the trail that takes you to the very top of the mountain. We had heard it takes several hours to climb. On the way down we took the next pull-out, and walked a boardwalk past a picnic table for a better view. When we started to leave the parking area Dale backed up too far and his back wheels stuck in a gully under soft dirt that would not give him any traction. We were stuck! At least we weren't near the edge of the mountain ready to slide down it. 
I We just couldn't get out of this soft dirt in a parking area. We waited for someone to come up or down a mountain. Finally a couple showed up in a rental car. They seemed to have a lot experience with this and tried lots of things, but nothing worked. We tried calling AAA but we couldn't get through on the cellular phone. We finally decided to go down the mountain with them. Half way down we stopped some guys in a 4x4 who had been drinking. We weren't sure how helpful they'd be, but they thought they had a tow rope. They followed us up and we stopped another truck on their way down the mountain. They turned around and followed us too. With the help of 5 guys and 1 women we got out. We got back to the campground at 10:15 pm only to find the gate locked. So Dale walked to the camp host's trailer to get the combination for the lock. What a long day!