We woke up in Sitka.
We went for the formal breakfast this day. It was not in the main dining room, but in the Chinese restaurant. I felt like we were in the dining car on the Oriental Express! Service was quite slow, but breakfast was good.
We took a shuttle into town. I bought a few postcards in Juneau and had stamps with me, so we dropped the postcards off at the welcome center and then poked around the square for a bit before heading out for a whale watching tour! We were on a smaller boat with another group of three, so it really felt like a private tour. We were cruising along past some seals, and I stepped outside of the cabin for better views and photos. The captain announced that we would move to another area to look for the whales. I thought great! Until he put the pedal to the metal, and we went flying across the water! I flung myself onto a seat and was afraid to move. I felt like a bug on a windshield. One false move, and I would be flicked off! I finally decided that it was worth the risk to stand up and get back inside the boat! We saw seals, humpback whales, sea otters, puffins, orange sea stars, common murres, and more! (and I made sure I was back inside the boat when the captain announced any other moves!)
After our tour, we discovered a very long line to catch the shuttle back to the ship! It snaked the entire way around the Sitka History Museum. After standing in line for an hour, we boarded the shuttle and luckily, we made it back to the ship just in time for our departure!
See more about our trip here: