As much as we would like to sleep in after our kayaking adventure, there is a ten am flight to catch. Our final days will be spent in Sitka, a small fishing town on one of the outer islands of the southeast. Once again, the flight is quite short, just 30 minutes and we are landing on the small island that serves as Sitka’s airport. It is connected to the bigger island by an impressive bridge. From the air we can see the bridge and can glimpse, through the cloud, the snow covered volcano that rises behind. A picturesque place for sure; it is a shame about the weather.

After collecting our bags, we head out to find a taxi, standing a little while in what we assume is a queue. A cab pulls up, people get in, taxi drives off. This repeats a couple of times before we realise all these people have ordered their rides. We ask and are pointed to a phone on the wall. Oops. Luckily, the next cab to appears seems to have lost her ride and she seems happy to take us instead. Fifteen minutes later, after passing through the main part of town, we are dropped at the Cascade Inn. A hotel with about twenty rooms, all of which have balconies over the water. We are early for check in and find the lobby empty except for two Texan gents who are enjoying a cold beer – it’s pretty clear it’s not their first of the day. They greet us with gusto and regale us with tales of their fishing adventures, asking if we are going out the next day. This is what the Cascade Inn specialises in – game fishing. My dad would love it, in fact these two remind me of him and his brother in law, Ross, especially when they start offering us beer too. We later discover this beer belongs to the inn, not the men…oh well.

It is raining quite steadily but we enjoy having the doors open over the water…this would be gorgeous in clear weather…and spend a glorious few hours just relaxing, reading and dozing. The rain eases in time for a late lunch so we walk a little way back to town, through a pretty park, to the big supermarket complex. As we are a little tired of restaurants we stock up on items we can prepare in our room, dinner included.

The next day is again rainy and overcast but we set off regardless, determined to see at least a little of Sitka and learn about it’s interesting Russian and Tlingit history. We have a card from the cab driver, so call and her husband comes in his taxi. We get a short tour through town, past the original buildings to the national park. This small park is on a little peninsula that juts out into the bay. It is heavily forested and dotted with totem poles along well maintained pathways. The visitor centre is staffed by helpful and informative rangers who direct us first to an introductory movie before we set off on the historical trail. A grassy field sits at the end of the peninsula, the site of a major battle between natives and the Russians who were to settle here. It is marked now only by a plaque. As we turn to go back to the visitor centre, we walk along the banks of the Indian river, salmon are jumping, clearing the water and splashing back over and over. Suddenly, we are looking for bears, surely they can’t be far? The rangers said they have to close the park once the bears appear – it wouldn’t be a good place to meet one.

Leaving the park, we walk back into town along the foreshore, past the main harbour – lots of trawlers and past many locals out fishing. The salmon are even jumping here – big ones too. Lunch is at a friendly local pub, good food, Alaskan beer and a view out over the bay. We finish our day with a little souvenir shopping and then jump in yet another taxi back to the inn.

The trip out of Sitka to Seattle the following day is uneventful and smooth. Seattle’s main airport terminal is beautifully designed and an easy place to kill some time before our onward flight to LA. In LA we have to leave one terminal, check in at another and then walk to yet another to join our flight home. Airport renovations are causing havoc, so allow plenty of time for transfers. It is always jarring just how quickly your holiday is over, on the jet and whisked away, you’re back home and reality before you know it – a wonder and a drawback of modern travel rolled into one, another adventure over.