We had a very leisurely Sunday morning in Sitka’s Thomsen Harbor.  Since we’re tied up near the fuel dock we always have some kind of activity going on around us.  Here is the Handler coming into the fuel dock.  We were a little worried for the fuel dock.

It’s a fish processor with a lot of colorful bumpers!

Shortly after the Handler tied up, this big red boat came by and decided it needed to get in to one of the many docks around here.  It looked like a tight fit!

Not long after that, an even bigger blue boat decided it needed to be in the same place as the red boat…

Amazingly, it made it and tied onto the side of the red boat. I guess there was a lot more room than it looked like!

After lunch, Ann and Roger picked us up and we went up Harbor Mountain to pick blueberries.

Not very far up the trail we found some great berries and everyone got in to picking.

Even Rio got into the mix.  He really liked picking blueberries but they never got into a bucket.

We got lots of  beautiful blueberries.

Even after we filled all of our containers it was really hard to stop since there were still so many more blueberries left to pick.

After we finished picking, we headed up the hill to a scenic overlook.  As soon as we sat for a rest, look what happened…

It’s not just kids, we are a connected bunch!  We had a nice little break before heading up the trail a little further.

And a little further up we found my favorite, steps.

They were nice, people sized steps and at the top there was a great view but it was a little too cloudy to see it.  I did see these beautiful blue flowers.

When we got back to town, Roger grilled some scrumptious ribs for dinner.  It was a tasty way to end the day.

Monday morning we woke to rain! 😦  It has been nice and dry for so long we were beginning to take it for granted.  Monday fixed that.  Roger came by the boat in the late morning and gave us ride to town which was perfect.  After lunch with Andrew, we walked to the Sitka Sound Science Center where Roger works.  It’s in this cool, old building from 1929.

He took us on a tour of the center.  We got to see an octopus trying to get a crab out of a plastic ball where the two halves were twisted together. By the time we left, he had the two halves of the ball apart and was moving in to catch (and eat) the crab.  It was fascinating.  I think I could have stayed there all day long, but we had more to see.

Outside the Center they had a fish ladder and some pinks and chums (salmon) were heading up the ladder where they end up in a holding pool.  From there, the center takes the eggs and milt from the fish and incubates the fertilized eggs and raises the baby fish (fry/smolt) until they can be let loose into the ocean.  If you’re ever in Sitka, you should definitely go to the Sitka Sound Science Center.

After the Science Center, we were pretty soggy and Roger let us use his truck to go back to the boat for a rest.  We were also invited up to their house after dinner for blueberry pie!  Ann made a pie from the blueberries that we picked on Sunday afternoon and it was fantastic!

We ate pie, watched some Olympics and then it was time for bed.  Since it was still raining, Roger let us take his truck back to the harbor (thank you Roger!) where we collapsed into bed.

Sitka is really fun!