Sitka - Part 3

This is a "catch up" blog post.

I took so many pictures yesterday that my last entry only took me to part way through my day yesterday.

So.........playing catch up.

After seeing Swan Lake Park, and LC's mountain, and eagles, and my sea lion from Juneau (or maybe just a distant cousin sent to torment me down here in Sitka - do sea lions always get the last laugh?), and a boat harbor and fish packing plants I wandered back into town, and wandered some more through side streets in back of town.

I happened across a sign on a neighborhood street with an arrow pointing towards a Lutheran Cemetery.

I was born in Norway and all good Norwegian families (at least back then) were baptised Lutheran.

Apparently I am from a good Norwegian family, but truthfully I know nothing at all about the Lutheran religion.

So, although I did not know why I was going there I walked up the hill to the end of the road (as opposed to the End of the Road) to see this cemetery.

It was very small - only five or six grave sites, and I stopped there for only a few minutes before moving on.

The picture above, of an iron cross was taken at this place............

Only a few minutes from the cemetery, and still in a hilly residential back section of town I stopped at the bottom of a road to take a picture of this structure.

I had no idea what it was (my years spent in the south were showing, because my first thought was "old grain silo"), but it was intriguing, and I walked around to the next street to see if I could access it and get a closer look.

What this building is, not surprisingly given the Russian roots of this town, is a replica of an old Russian watchtower.......

It was only a small, quiet and grassy place filled with a few interesting artifacts and some plaques of explanation.

The tower, a monument to a Native Alaskan Russian Orthodox Priest, a few grave sites.

Interesting, quiet, a nice and good place to stop and visit for a few moments...........

A 6 inch breakfast sandwich from Subway does not carry a girl for many miles, so my stomach began to think about something to eat.

As I was heading back downtown I had a couple of minor missions to complete.  One was to find something to eat and the other was to......shop......cough.......for a Christmas gift.

Everyone at work is supposed to buy a Christmas decoration for the colleague who's name they drew.

While heading towards food and towards shops I stopped once more at the Pioneer Home, which is located smack in the center of town.

This facility makes an astonishing first impression on anyone who thinks that they are simply coming to visit a small podunk little fishing village in BFE Alaska.

I was one of those people, and am happy to have been proven wrong.

It is a beautiful town..............

One more look at the huge miner statue out front of the building..........

I walked the entire perimeter of the building.

It is not everyday that I see one of these signs on the outside of a building..........

While walking around the building outside, I came across a sign indicating that there was a craft store inside, featuring crafts made by the residents.

Curious to see inside, and also mindful that I still needed to buy a Christmas-something for a colleague I walked towards one door but it was locked.

I walked around to the front of the building and then walked inside.

It was absolutely beautiful inside - it reminded me of a very fancy hotel that is decorated in comfortable and expensive period furniture.

Absolutely beautiful, but I did not see anyone who obviously worked there and did not see a gift store immediately by the front door.

What I did see was a very elderly lady sleeping soundly and comfortably in a plush chair in the room adjacent to the hall.

And that is when I walked out.

I felt like, and without meaning to actually was, intruding on what was in effect now the home of many elderly people.

The view immediately inside the front door..........

Comfortable chairs and tables on the front porch on both sides of the main entry door.

When I am old I want to live in a place like this.............

My currently ADD brain shuffled along, and my body followed suit.

The welcome mat at the public library.

I stopped inside for a few minutes to check emails and read the Sitka newspaper and then moved to the outside of the building and close to the water............

There are three semi-circular concrete benches located behind the library that overlook the channel.

A breathtakingly beautiful view that is impossible to capture in pictures.............

My house over on the right side of the picture..

Yeah - I have already claimed it as mine. 

It is the same house that I photographed full-on and surrounded on three sides by crashing waves the day I arrived here in Sitka...............

All of the scenes above are visible from the wall of windows inside the library.

I have been to the library a couple of times since I arrived here in town.

I can get wireless internet at the Hostel but it is very weak.

OK for surfing and sending/receiving emails, but downloading pictures is very time consuming.

The first night I was here I spent 90 minutes downloading pictures only to lose them all when I lost the connection.

Four bars at the library, which makes downloading and blog-posting more efficient and faster.

This library is widely used, has many public access computers, and chairs and tables and very comfortable couches for leisurely reading.

A nice place to be................

I finally made it into stores.

They were busy with after-Thanksgiving shoppers.

But busy in that small town way.

Not busy in that wait-in-line-for-six-hours, take-your-life-into-your-own-hands, must-get-one-of-those-cheap-60-inch-flat-screens kind of ways.

Busy in this kind of way............

I walked into many stores and I only bought two things.

1.  A light to attach to Jamie's collar so that she is visible when I walk her after dark

2.  A very very large chocolate milkshake..............

When I got to the end of the row of stores I came across this painting on the side of a building. 

Absolutely beautiful..............

Still drinking my very thick and very good chocolate milkshake I turned left at the building and the radio station, and walked towards a small urban park located directly underneath the bridge.................

Temporarily full from my chocolate milkshake I headed back to the Hostel to grab my lap top and go back to the library.

I figured I would get something to eat when I was done there.

While at the Hostel I received a phone call from my boss telling me that she had broken up three fights between her dog and Jamie over the past 24 hours, and that unfortunately she felt compelled to take Jamie to a doggie-daycare place in town.

I had given my boss Jamie's papers just in case that would be necessary but I never really thought that it would be necessary.

Apparently my dog takes after her momma.

She doesn't play well with others.

It was the right decision of course, because I do not want my dog to disrupt the lives of a family, but I hate that that is where she now is.

She will be fine she will be fine she will be fine..............

After blogging at the library I walked out and went looking for a place to eat.

And found out that there is no place to eat in Sitka on a Friday night after 9pm.

That'll teach me..............

A very long, very busy, very eventful first full day in Sitka.

That is the end of my yesterday and I have much more to post.

Welcome to Sitka.

Indeed.............