RETIRED ON WHEELS: THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 77 July 31, 2009 Downtown Sitka, AK

We woke up in Sitka this morning to a fairly thick fog covering the entire city. However as the sun rose it quickly burnt off and the day turned out to be glorious. The sun was shinning and the temperate got into the 70’s. You do not take a sunny day for granted here as they get a lot of rain.

The RV park we are staying at is located on Japonski Island. The island and downtown is connected by a bridge and it is only a short walk from the RV park to Downtown. This morning we decided it would be a good day to head into town as there was only one cruise ship in the harbor. We had to cross to bridge and the view of both the city and the harbor was quite nice. Of course we had to take a few pictures.

Our first stop was the convention centre to take in the New Archangel Dancers. It is an all women’s group that performs the old Russian Dances in authentic dress. The 30 minute show was very lively and we quite enjoyed it. We did learn that the women all live in Sitka, it is done on a volunteer basis and none of the women are Russian. The group has been performing for 40 years.

After the performance we walked around town for awhile, had a bite to eat and then headed over the watch another group of dancers. This group is all native born Klingits and is the true indigenous people of Alaska. There authentic dancing and singing was performed by dancers from different tribes in the area. There dress was very colorful and the only difference from the original costumes is that these are made from wool while the others were made from animal skins.

The second to last dance is called an invitational dance and people are encouraged to get up dance with them. Kathy was very quick to get up and dance with them while I sat back and watched. Bum knee. Or if that excuse doesn’t work, someone had to take the pictures.