Sitka

We went to see Fortress of the Bear.

What would a Nelson holiday be without a critter experience?!

We against all odds even managed to get there close in time to be with Shannon and family.

She was quite the show off.  We all had so much fun watching her.  The staff say she loves the attention.

Definitely a poser ;)

I found this nativity set last Aug.  I couldn't carry it home in my backpack and it felt a bit like an unnecessary want.  I had regret about not getting it.  Lili, Fei and Jia found it and showed me.  Too funny.  So I bought it from the store right near the ship.We discussed opening it up to make sure none of the bears were broken.  Then discussed that they were probably safe in the packing and just came back on board.

I opened it up in the room just to take a picture and discovered four kings and no Joseph.  I called Lili and alerted Eric.  Quickly packed it back up, gathered the receipt and my visa card and Eric ran out.  Wasted time in the kafuffle of Eric and Lili finding each other.  They ran.  Or Lili ran and Eric walked quickly.  They had twenty minutes to get to the store, fix the problem and get back on board for the gangway closing.

Oy.  Stress.

They made it!  Phew.  The king was exchanged for a Joseph from another set.  I thought for sure they were going to be doing the dock run.  Our room was on the wrong side to see.

Eric wasn't impressed with the whole ordeal.  Thankyou Lili for taking care of the situation.

Our wee bear set will come out every year and we'll always remember the day in Sitka and the bears and the last minute drama.

Several ships are in Port.

Our Royal ship looks puny next to the other Royal ship ;)

We enjoyed our day.

The big take aways are,

all stated times with Royal are suggestive and

Sitka was majorly woefully unprepared for the number of visitors dumped on their little town.  The season is only on week two.  

There is an Eagle in a tree above Jia's head.

The two on the left are both full grown boys around 900lbs each.

These are Pacific Brown Bears.  Bigger than Grizzlies and smaller than Kodiaks.  There are five at the sanctuary all rescues.  There are also three black bears but Eric and Luk were the only ones to see any of them. They just came out of hibernation two weeks ago.  The brown bears don't hibernate.

Nikiski.

Eating carrots like spaghetti.

She is juvenile and lives with her brother.

Playing.  We even watched her chase a duck out of her pond.  Her brother was laying in a shelter rolling around on his back and playing with his toes.

Eric's proof they saw one of the black bears.

The three I didn't see.

Love. Omg, the pouty bottom lip.

Reminds of Disney's Big Al.

Morning view from bed.

I wanted off the boat.  We had a 1:15 shuttle time so we waited around.  Only to get off and find out there were no actual shuttle times.  Tickets and reservations completely useless. Grrr.  

Waiting for a city bus.  

That only holds 14 people.  We didn't get on.  We used a cab.  It worked out.

This Russian church was widely talked about as an attraction.  It was closed when we went.  It looks incredibly uninspiring to us.  Haha.  Might have to go online later and see if there are pictures of the inside.

The rain held off.

We didn't freeze.

We're on the move again.

It was pretty rocky again and Lili was feeling sea sick again instantly.

We're finding lots of good food on board.

We finally met our room guy today and got robes and ice.  

It is fun running into people we know on board.  Here together but everyone doing their own things.

Luk just came in for the night.  He reports they are making friends and hanging out in a little gang.  Pretty sure he's having a great time.

Kai sticks with us.  He is seriously doing sooooo much better than I anticipated.  We've had a lot of funny moments with him.  He's so clearly challenged that overall most people are enjoying him. A few have been annoyed at him walking into them, or touching, or being loud or asking questions they can't understand.  He ignores everyone who talks to him.  I think he simply doesn't realize they are talking to him.  He's tired.  Falling asleep during shows.  Snoring within seconds of hitting the pillow.  Crashed on the shuttle bus today, and in the taxi.  We even had to wake him up for breakfast today.  Possibly the first time ever he slept longer than us.  He even said he was full today and rejected more food.  That has NEVER happened before.

Overall things are pretty good.