You might have heard that there were Tsumani warnings issued as a result of the recent earthquake that occurred in Russia last evening. Luckily, the warnings never affected our cruise ship as we made our ways along the coast of Alaska to Icy Strait Point.
We had landed at 7:00 am and ended up ambling down the walkway sometime around 7:30.
There was an entertaining orca statue in the distance.
Before we managed to get off the access ramp, Marty spotted a Bald Eagle sitting in a nearby tree, and I was able to capture a beautiful photo.
Such stately and magnificent birds!
I had to wait for Marty to stop taking 20 + photos of the same bird as he was obviously very excited to be so close to one.
We headed to the welcome center that had totem poles at the nearby smokehouse restaurant.
Then we decided to walk down to get a closer look at the Orca.
Icy Strait Point was the site of a large Salmon Cannery in years past, but it was retired many years ago. In 2004, it was designated strictly as a cruise port and the cannery was made into a museum as well as various shops.
We had decided to take the Hoonah Veteran's Memorial Sea walk which leads to the small fishing village of Hoonah.
Nothing like being greeted by a "Bear Aware" sign at the beginning of the walk.
No worries there, with over 3000 people invading the area from the cruise ship, the bears wouldn't have had a chance to make their presence known!
The Memorial Walk is dedicated to the veterans of Hoonah from past wars. There were several benches along the way, each of them holding a flag from one of the six US military branches.
What a wonderful tribute to the local veterans.
The benches offered a nice break as we made our way on the 1.6 mile walk into Hoonah. While I was relaxing for a few minutes, I spotted fish jumping in the water.
We soon realized that there were schools of Salmon just popping up into the air, randomly, over and over. It really was quite entertaining to watch.
We finished the memorial walk and headed on the road to Hoonah.
There really wasn't much to see here.
There were small homes obviously belonging to the local residents of Hoonah.
There was a totem pole in the parking lot of a business when we first walked into the village.
and another, standing at the top of a stream, at the other end.
There was a cute little church on the main street as well as a Catholic Church and a Russian Orthodox Church. I'd say that religion is obviously well represented here.
We were able to watch an artist intricately carving a piece of wood into a totem pole. It will stand near the entrance to the sea walk, along with a mate, in about 6 months time when they are complete.
I did manage to get a couple of scenic photos. We did have some rain drops falling, but, really not much when one considers that this area is actually a rain forest with an abundance of rain.
Hoonah was a bit of a disappointment to me. There really wasn't much there except fishing shacks, a boat launch and repair facility, and a few restaurants/pubs. Marty spotted a pink sign that said "Gift Shop" and we decided to follow the arrows. I found myself walking through a very large hardware store that held just anything anyone would want to buy for home improvement, with a "gift shop" at the end that had two aisles of souvenir shirts (obviously made on someone's cricket machine) and some magnets and knick knacks. Next to the hardware store was a very small grocery store which I'm fairly certain is all that this town has for food and supplies. Don't get me wrong....I'm not complaining...but I had expected a bit more after hiking over a mile and a half.
On the way back, we spotted a pair of Eagles perched in a tree.
We sat and watched them for quite some time before making our way back to the port. By then, the scads of people from the boat had disembarked, and the peace and tranquility was gone. Plus, my knee had had enough from walking over three miles, so we headed back to the boat to relax a bit on our balcony with this beautiful view greeting us.
Dinner was in one of the cruise restaurants where we sat and chatted for nearly 3 hours, just enjoying each others company.
I’ll keep you posted!
Tomorrow’s stop is in Sitka. It’s a city rather than just a port. We should have some exciting adventures ahead of us!
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