Alaska Day 7: Anchorage to Sitka

 

Day 7:  Anchorage to Sitka

Weather Report: Spectacular, clear, blue blue skies with snow capped mountains

Quote of the Day: Did Ludvig’s have a cancellation?

 

Up really early to catch a 6am shuttle ride to the airport. The shuttle driver talks non-stop the entire ride, 15 minutes. Do all Alaskans who were in banking for 15 years end up driving a shuttle? DB spent quite a bit of time the night before arranging a to-go breakfast to be assembled for us before we left; nobody on this early shift had a clue so one of the desk guys went back to the kitchen and came back with eggs, bacon and a biscuit dumped in a to-go box. We leave them behind with Brady, who is up early to say goodbye (and make sure we got up this morning).

We stand for quite a while in the first class/elite member check-in line; there’s a guy doing something (customs forms?) that takes a long time. We’re through the TSA pre line with plenty of time to sit in the Alaska Airlines lounge and enjoy coffee and a light breakfast.

 

From Anchorage, there is a stop in Juneau (THB stays aboard, DB gets off for a few minutes), then a 25-minute flight to Sitka. The plane is pretty much full on both legs. We’re met by an Uncruise person at the airport, as is one other couple, and dropped off after a very short shuttle drive at the Sitka Westmark Hotel.

 

The room in the corner just above the overhang may be ours...

It’s a little before noon and we walk the town and stumble into Beak (Be Alaska) and share 4 fish tacos and a massaged kale salad, one iced tea and one Arnie Palmer.  Lunch is excellent, $38; no tipping allowed except: if you leave a tip (in cash) it goes into a pot and at the end of the month the staff picks local charities to donate to. We leave a generous amount.

Retreat to the Westmark and do wash and THB does some blogging. We are waitlisted at Ludvig’s, the most highly rated place in town. No luck.

We have an early dinner a few blocks away, upstairs at the Mean Queen: share oysters and pizza, DB has a frozen margarita and THB has a local dark amber brewski, $70 with tip. Downstairs is the Dungeon (same owner as Mean Queen), a night club that hosts drag beauty shows. Ed. note: we find out later several of the cruisers who came to Sitka early also ate at Beak and Mean Queen…nobody got into Ludvig’s.