sitka

so the day after juneau we were scheduled to stop in Hubbard glacier bay, but thanks (well really no thanks) to high winds and large chunks of ice in the water, we weren't able to go in the bay!! we were soo bummed! this was as close as we got (outside of the bay obviously) to the giant wall of ice 6 miles wide. bummer.

as close as we could get:

to make up for the disappointment the captains got us into our remaining ports early, which was a kind gesture- can you tell i'm still bummed? so the next day we arrived early to Sitka, which was my favorite destination of the trip, it was the epitome of alaskan beauty!! green rainy, fresh and dewey, it was perfection! here's a pic of humpback bay, which sadly i saw no humpbacks, but it was still beautiful!

we decided to tag along with grandma lil, clarke, diane, shauna and alyssa and go to the Fortress of the Bear. it was awesome!! there's a law in alaska that says they can euthanize bear cubs if the mother bear is already dead, but this group takes in the cubs, which are usually malnourished, and rehabilitates them. it was so cool to see these bears up close, they're huge!!

a 1000 pound bear standing tall

some video of the brown bears

a helpful sign for guests:

these three black bears are siblings and they reminded me so much of our boys and they way they "play" together.

After the bears we took a bus back to town and explored a bit, we learned that groceries are superbly overpriced so a box of frosted mini wheats costs $6.85, i kid you not! we also learned that sitka get 13 feet of rain a year and their local pub, victorias, has the BEST halibut fish and chips, seriously, it makes my mouth water to think of the lunch we savored there!! after lunch justin's family, all 21 of us, went on a kayaking excursion together, it was incredible! here's some of us getting ready to paddle away:

out at sea:

we kayaked out in the ocean past the cruise ships, around some little islands, caught up with a huge sea lion and went by this cute lighthouse.

i feel like our kayaking trip was this like unreal experience, everything seemed so perfect, it was so pretty and you're just out in the ocean looking around and feeling so amazed and grateful that you get to be somewhere so breathtaking. here's a little family pic after kayaking: