4th of July in Sitka Alaska

Because it stays light out so late in Alaska, they start their fireworks for the 4^th of July late at night on the 3^rd of July and finish early morning on the 4^th! 

So we caught a nap (so we could be awake for the fireworks) and had a late dinner and watched the fireworks beginning at 11:30pm AK time and finished slightly after 12 midnight!  The City of Sitka sets off their fireworks from the old airport landing strip which is across Sitka Channel which happens to be directly across from the marina where we have our boats!  Once the city fireworks stop the Alaskan Native fireworks begin.  These fireworks are set off from the O’Connell Bridge which is also within fine viewing from our boats!  We had a great time watching the fireworks and then calling it a night.

 

In the morning we were not too thrilled to find the remnants of bottle rocks on the docks and on our boat!

On the 4^th of July holiday we met up with Ron & Lynn for lunch and continued playing tourist. 

The cruise ships anchor in Sitka Sound and tender in their passengers into a visitors dock in Sitka near the O’Connell Bridge.  From the top of the visitors dock they stage all of the shuttles and tours.  On the 4^th of July the City of Sitka has an all day tour bus to shuttle visitors around to the various tourist events.  Being able to catch a shuttle helped make the choice of what we wanted to see for the day much easier – we choose the things that were farthest away from downtown so we didn’t have to walk or take a taxi later.  We were able to catch one of the shuttle buses out to the Fortress of the Bear and the Alaska Raptor Center. 

The Fortress of the Bear is a bear rescue center where they house five resident bears and find homes for orphaned cubs and displaced bears after the center has attended to the bear’s health concerns and introduce a training regimen so the bears are acceptable to either a zoo or a sanctuary to house them.

 

 

We learned that the Brown bears of Southeast Alaska are genetically dissimilar from any other bear.  Research has proven that these bears are remnants of a Polar bear population stranded in Southeast Alaska following the last ice age.  They have adapted to the rain forest environment and learned specific behaviors and survival skills to this environment.  They successfully hunt everything from mountain goats to seals.  These bears have genetically adapted from being white polar bears to now being brown Alaskan bears and have the genetic capability to change back into a white polar bear!  This is the only bear known to be able to adapt this way!

We were able to spend some time with Les Kinnear who is the owner & founder of the Fortress of the Bear and is so passionate about bears!  He talked with us about how they deal with new bears brought into the center and how the rehabilitate the bears and introduce their training program for the bears.  To hear him talk it’s all very common sense logic and he is someone who is truly thinking of each bears best interest.  This is certainly a cause that Bruce & I will be able to get behind going forward.

When the shuttle bus (a yellow school bus, with driver Karen) came to pick us up we were able to get her to go the Alaska Raptor Center with us.

The Alaska Raptor Center is a full-service avian hospital and educational facility.  They treat between 100-200 wild birds with a variety of injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to collisions with cars and electrocution.  Most of the injured birds are treated and then released back into the wild.  Some birds’ injuries are such that they cannot be released so they are kept at the center as resident birds and can become part of the center’s educational program & travel out to classrooms around the country educating students on science & natural world studies.

One such bird is a bald eagle named “Volta” who got his name because he flew into a power line on the Alaska waterfront in 1992 and became electrocuted.  Volta had a bone in his shoulder that did not heal well enough for flight so Volta became a resident bird at the center.  The wingspread of a bald eagle can span the distance between two power lines causing the power source to arch.  The Raptor Center has been working with power companies to “raptor proof” their lines ever since.

 

We also met Kily who is a Harlan red-tailed hawk who learned to associate people with food and when he was released into the wild he was found to aggressively beg for food from humans.  As he couldn’t be broken of this habit he too has become a resident bird.

 

The Raptor Center was really interesting and we spent quite a bit of time there.

We had the shuttle bus drop us off downtown Sitka and were able to see the last of the water wars between the US Coast Guard and the local Fire Department.  The kids in town certainly had a blast – but the adults were hectically trying to stay out of the line of the fire hoses!

 

Walking back to the boats we stopped into a tavern called the Rainier Pioneer Tavern.  The Pioneer Tavern has each of its walls covered with pictured of working fish boats & we wanted to see if our “Carolyn Page” was on the wall & the owner of the bar jokingly said sure you can look at all the photos while having a beer – so we did!

 

Once back at the boats it was an early dinner and early to bed night for all of us.