Day 8, August 7, Saturday
Last breakfast together. We had to get our stuff packed and ready so the checked bags could be taken to the airport. Special arrangements had been made with Alaska Airlines to check our luggage all the way through, straight from the boat. By nine o'clock they had us loaded onto buses, and we did the grand tour of downtown Sitka. Eventually we ended up at the Raptor Rehabilitation Center, where they took in injured birds to be treated and released. The birds that couldn't be released back into the wild because the injuries were too severe were kept at the center and used for education purposes, or just housed where they were safe in a natural environment. We saw American and bald eagles and great horned owls. I was surprised to learn that the huge eagle one of the lecturers brought in on her arm weighed only seven pounds. Because of their extraordinarily light, hollow bones, the weight of the feathers is actually greater than the weight of the bones.
I bought an eagle teeshirt, and we climbed back onto the bus, heading downtown. We got a brief tour of the first Russian Orthodox church in Sitka, a place chock full of Russian icons, shaped in a circle with no chairs because the congregation stands during the service.
We then wandered among the shops in Sitka for awhile, among them a bookstore and several art/craft places, finally ending up at the local Chilcoke Indian lodge for a soggy box lunch and a quite lively demonstration of Indian dancing, this time by the real thing. The narrator was interesting, using his native tongue, then translating for us. I got most of it on video tape.
Eventually, we were carted to the airport, where we were told the plane had missed the runway on the first try and would be delayed (ulp!). The ride back was long and tedious, and it was good to be finally home at about 6:30 on Sunday morning.
But while I feel physically worn out, with some quite spectacular bruises, I feel mentally refreshed, as though I had lived a whole different life, something lovely and rich to remember all my days.
