Sitka day 1

 "What?!" you just said to yourself as you saw the above photo.  "Yes", I reply, this is Sitka. This is where I spent my first day during the Museums Alaska / Alaska Historical Society annual meeting.  I left in just the nick of time (flights after that were cancelled for days) and made it there to participate in the Angels project - where museum professionals volunteer at another museum.  It just happened this museum had some offsite storage at a re-purposed pulp mill. 

 It was freaky at first, but then I realized this is just the space that Kodiak so desperately needs.

 In this part someone is making paper. In another space someone was tanning furs...Kodiak artists sooooo need a multipurpose shared space like this!

 The doggie who loved us being there!

We finished with enough time to go see the Sheldon Jackson Museum and a little bit of evening to walk around Sitka.

Amazing fish skin pouches!

 I went to this old cemetery in the woods. Very cool.

 Most of the graves are all sunken in, leaning every which direction!

 Then, a beautiful sunset with a magic rainbow, followed by an awesome meal at a little cafe pictured in the lower right. Sitka too has "a bridge" just like Kodiak!

 This is Castle Hill, as in the Castle Hill with which ceramics I am familiar as we use the archaeological report from the site to identify archaeological ceramics from Kodiak.  I did not realize that this is "the Castle Hill" till the next day!

This is the cafe I loved - The Larkspur! One night they served (it may sound gross, but so delicious) coconut curry popcorn and we watched The Birds! It was awesome. Fond memory - two of my favorites - popcorn the Hitchcock. 

Overall, Sitka is ridiculously clean and organized. Even the canneries stack everything neatly.  It's weird! I just thought many places in Alaska look like Kodiak!  How wrong I was. Sitka is literally the nicest place I have ever been.  I didn't realize how much I liked Kodiak's bawdiness though! Sitka felt weird - sculptures in the harbor, designated bike racks, nice signage around town, heck, nice buildings! Crazy.

 

 

The only real bummer about Sitka is that there are no beaches!  Kodiak has such awesome beaches - so many, so close, and sandy!  It's a cold Hawaii, and really, the beaches in Kodiak are better!