Today would have been my late mother’s 86th birthday and I’m thinking of her today.

Sitka is the only Inside Passage community that fronts on the Pacific Ocean. It is located on Sitka Sound, Baranof Island, and has a population of about 8,500. It is known for its Tlingit culture and remnants of its Russian heritage, including the onion-shaped domes of the beloved Saint Michael’s Russian Orthodox Church. Sitka was originally inhabited by the Tlingit people who called the area Sheet Ka, which means “people on the outside of Shee” with “Shee” being the Tlingit name for Baranof Island. When the Russians arrived, they named the area New Archangel and it became the capital of Russian Alaska in 1808. Russia sold Alaska to the United States on October 18, 1867, with a transfer ceremony held in Sitka.

We took a ten-minute shuttle bus from the ship’s terminal into town where we arrived at the Heritage Centennial Hall. The hall is a very modern building with a visitor center, a museum, meeting rooms, a performance hall. From there we walked the very small three-block long town filled with shops, food establishments, a few churches and hotels.

The 50-degree weather was a bit chillier than the beautiful day we had in Ketchikan the day before. Not only was it cold, but it was wet and drizzly. In the center of town, we visited St. Michael’s Cathedral which was the first Orthodox church in the Americas. The church is a replica of the original from the 19th century as it was destroyed by fire in 1966. The church has an active congregation and is filled with detailed artifacts and icons believed to date back to the 17th century.

We visited Totem Square, a small park with a 40-foot totem pole that displays the double-headed eagle of Sitka’s Russian Heritage. Across from the square is the Sitka Pioneer Home built in the 1930’s on the site of wooden Russian barracks. The building is an assisted living facility for 75 elderly Alaskans. In the front of the building stands a 13-foot-tall bronze statue titled “The Prospector.”

The town was packed with tourists as there were four or five cruise ships in town again today including the Anthem of the Seas which holds 4,200 passengers plus a huge crew. This small town is filled with all types of art shops, fur shops and souvenir shops.

For dinner, we dined in Jacque’s restaurant which is the French inspired specialty dining room. The menu once again was very extensive making it difficult to select just a few items to try. Fresh French bread and creamy butter to begin. Next came a warm cheese ball and a mini tartlet of creamy eggplant. We enjoyed a thinly sliced scallop starter, a crab salad, escargot, rack of lamb, a scallop dish and crepe suzette. All very nice.

The evening entertainment was a Neil Diamond tribute show by the Riviera cast of singers and dancers. They had a radio announcer who announced the songs as if you were listening to a radio show as the cast performed the songs accompanied by the dancers in outfits from the years when the songs were popular.