Trips

June 16 - Sitka - another new town to visit. Unfortunately, today it chose to rain (and sometimes pour) all during our visit. That, however, did not stop us from going out in our rain gear to wander around the town and visit a couple of museums.

	St. Michael's Cathedral - Russian Orthodox
St. Michael's Cathedral - interior	St. Michael's Cathedral - interior dome of wood slats
St. Michael's Cathedral - Russian Orthodox	After visiting the church, we walked down (in the rain) to the site of the Baranof Castle near the harbor.
Harbor	Our next stop was the Russian Bishop's House, one of the most important centers in 19th century Sitka. We stayed to take the ranger-guided tour of the upstairs living quarters. It is amazing the trouble they went to in making their interior spaces as much like their original Russian homes as possible. The National Park Service has done a wonderful job restoring the building and its contents.
	Original wall construction
The Bishop's second floor private chapel	We again braved the elements for a several block walk to the Sheldon Jackson Museum. This turned out to be a wonderful place full of beautifully displayed Alaskan Native Ethnographic material, most of which was collected by the Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian missionary and the General Agent of Education for Alaska.
Sheldon Jackson Museum	Sheldon Jackson Museum - bead-work
Sheldon Jackson Museum - snow shoes	Sheldon Jackson Museum
Sheldon Jackson Museum - kayak and kayak paddles (on the wall)	Sheldon Jackson Museum - varieties of balls
June 18 - Victoria, B.C. - After another day at sea, we arrived in Victoria around 1pm. Another day was spent walking to the town center and just wandering around looking at a number of things we have seen before. It was mostly a day to get some much-needed exercise.
Parliament of British Columbia	Nice sculpture along the harbor
Totem poles in Thunderbird Park	Totem poles in Thunderbird Park
Totem poles in Thunderbird Park	Totem poles in Thunderbird Park
Totem poles in Thunderbird Park	Houseboats or floating houses
June 19-20 - We disembarked the MS Amsterdam in Seattle around 9am. It was a wonderful cruise and we were very sorry to see it end. We took a taxi to the Budget rental place in the shadow of the Space Needle and then set off to find the Edmunds-Kingston ferry terminal. I-5 was a parking lot so we cut back into the city and took old Route 99 up to Edmunds. We arrived at the terminal just in time to be the last car onto the boat. After a nice ride across Puget Sound, we headed off to Forks, WA on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula to walk on some of the beaches of the coastal section of Olympic National Park. A stop was made in Port Angeles for lunch and a stroll and then on to Forks
Washington's Olympic Peninsula - the green is Olympic National Park	Olympic National Park - Ruby Beach
Spruce gall on trees at South Beach	Spruce gall on trees at South Beach
Third Beach - LaPush, WA	Tide pool - sea anemone
Tide pool - sea anemone and crab	Tide pool - sea anemone
Tide pool - sea anemone and starfish	Tide pool - starfish
Third Beach - LaPush, WA	June 21 - Today we headed back to Seattle for our next-day flight home. On the way we stopped for a couple hours in Sequim, WA to have lunch with Lela June Stoner, Emeritus Professor of Biomechanics from the University of Minnesota. Lela June was a graduate student at Minnesota while I was an undergraduate. Later, after we both specialized in Biomechanics, we met many times at professional conferences.

June 22 - Seattle to Estes Park - It was a reasonably uneventful flight until we caught up with the afternoon thunderstorms along the Front Range of the Rockies and had a very bouncy descent into Denver. Taking off out of Seattle, however, was a special treat as it was clear and you could see Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams (southern WA), Mt. Hood (northern OR), and the mountains to the south of Mt. Hood - very special. It was very nice to land in Denver in the daylight (2:40) and be able to drive home while you could still see.

      Another great trip concluded. Now it is on to Kenya, Tanzania, and Namibia in August. How different will that be?!