Two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven nautical miles so far

Made it to Sitka. A welcome and familiar town. We were relieved to see they still allow liberals here... !

But also important for boaters - they have a Coast Guard training base, too. This bouy tender was parked  and the crew joined the 4th of July Parade.

In the docks, we have been shopping for our second boat. We figure something along the lines of Sequoia here. A stout and handsome wooden troller. Though Blain has told Monique several times that she can divorce him immediately (and really should) if he ever buys an old wooden boat.

We made a pilgrimage to the National Historic Park to check on one of our favorite places. The wooded trails criss-cross through totem poles and the historic battleground between the Russian fur traders and the Tlingit natives in 1804. The park itself is 100 years old this year - the oldest in Alaska.

Monique designed the landscape planting plan for historically important regional plants, and was glad to see they have begun to get there. We saw lots of native species like goatsbeard and beach wild rye, but they have a way to go to get rid of the foxglove, and a few other invasives. Still, it's great to see. We'd love to do interpretive name placards for visitors, though.

The totems were as stately and beautiful as ever in the rainy forest.

And the dancing. Yes, well, we watched the contra dancers thump it up in Xtra-Tufs and carharts. The band was great, though it should be noted. Sitka has a very talented music community. The party really kicked it when 200 teens from the Sitka Arts Camp showed up in costumes, ready for the parade.

Chance thinks people are ridiculous, though he probably also was remembering his own puppy training classes where we marched around together in circles and stopped a lot, circled around, etc. He probably thought all these folks were being obedience trained.

Or he was just ogling my smoked black cod tips. As good as he is, he still doesn't qualify for a sample of this morsel from the gods. Note the glazed eyes and crooked hat. Blain likes black cod. Alot. Chance got some of the brown rice.

Chance did get some fun with a thorough examination by the fire chief. He wanted to know two things: 1) does he bite? and 2) does he poop?

After we answered in the negative on the first one, and the affirmative on the second, he checked "under the hood" just to be sure Chance had the necessary equipment. Then it was off to ride in the fire truck for the parade.

The whole town came out to watch the parade, rain or no rain. Rain, of course - it is Sitka.

The electric vehicle gang was out in force, followed by the lone Harley. Yes, that's an electric mazda pickup.  

This fellow pretty much summed up the day in the rain.

We were glad to see the Park Service was well represented in the parade with employees in full period costumes and their electric vehicle.

Though Blain was looking through his viewfinder at a group of costumed people marching by, and not really paying attention and yelled out, "Yay Park Service!", and got immediate feedback that they were, in fact, the Forest Service. Ooops how embarassing.