We’ve seen the library in Sitka, Alaska; what about the rest of the town?

Previously in this space… Sitka, Alaska Public Library

Here’s a report on the rest of our late May 2026 visit, planned by ChatGPT:

Take the free shuttle from the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal into downtown; the terminal says its complimentary shuttle runs during port hours and averages about 10–15 minutes.

Then walk to Sitka National Historical Park. The NPS describes the park’s Totem Trail and Russian Memorial Loop as 1.6 miles total, through Sitka spruce/western hemlock rainforest, with vistas of Sitka Sound and the intertidal zone. Travel Alaska describes the Totem Trail as a mile-long path with 18 Tlingit and Haida totems, connected to the Battle of Sitka/Russian history.

This is the port where I would not book a standard bus tour. You can make an excellent day from shuttle + walking: downtown Sitka, St. Michael’s Cathedral exterior/interior if open, Totem Trail, beach/intertidal stops, and maybe the Alaska Raptor Center if the boys are interested.

Arrival:

Here’s Eurodam, capable of holding 2,000 passengers and looking like a personal yacht compared to Norwegian Joy:

Downtown includes a working marina:

As we walked toward ChatGPT’s suggested totem trial, it began to pour. We took shelter at a cost of $40 in the Sitka Sound Science Center, a one-room aquarium.

The aquarium maintains a full COVID-19 sub-site. Here’s my favorite page within the sub-site, “Thank you to the Sitka Assembly for supporting science” (September 28, 2021, a year after Ron DeSantis cruelly prevented local governments in Florida from enforcing mask orders (by banning fines)):

The page links to a bunch of papers, but not “Unmasking the surgeons: the evidence base behind the use of facemasks in surgery” (2015): “overall there is a lack of substantial evidence to support claims that facemasks protect either patient or surgeon from infectious contamination”.

After the rain subsided, it was on to the National Historical Park.

It’s a beautiful forest, even with the totem poles:

The visitor center is crammed with humans, many likely infected with respiratory viruses. The ranger, however, is protected:

Next stop was the ChatGPT-suggested Raptor Center:

On the way back to town, we passed a public school building. Their COVID-19 war never ended:

We walked by a lot of humble houses with beautiful flower gardens. This one made me nostalgic for Maskachusetts:

It apparently is possible to grow tulips in Florida. The bulbs, about $1 each, need to be refrigerated for a few months and then planted as annuals in December or January. Everyone who holds stock in any company valued at more than 100X earnings should be required to plant tulips!

(It looks like tulipworld.com, fireflyfarmandmercantile.com, and menagerieflower.com sell pre-cooled bulbs for Floridians who lack extra fridge space due to (a) no basements, and (b) the spectacular inefficiency of high-cost built-in refrigerators.)

Sitka was the principal town of New Arkhangelsk, the site of the transfer of Alaska after Seward’s Folly, and then the capital of the Department of Alaska/District of Alaska until Juneau took over in 1906. The Russian heritage lives on in a beautiful cathedral:

The gift shops that branded themselves “Russian” are now tempering that with public support for Ukraine:

If you need to decorate a corner of your living room…

My favorite local business? Flipside Arcade. Here’s my Google review:

Perfect spot to spend a couple of hours if it is raining (i.e., more or less any time in Sitka). The owner, Scott, is plainly passionate about preserving America’s pinball legacy. Machines are generally priced at whatever they might have cost when new, e.g., 50 cents/game for 90s microprocessor-based machines. Maintenance is excellent. Photo below is of a new Stern SPIKE 3 Pokemon machine being delivered.

(Remarkably quiet inside, at least if you’ve been accustomed to cruise ship crowds!)

How did ChatGPT do? Poorly, in my opinion. I’ve asked it a bunch of pinball questions. It should have suggested the arcade as a rainy-day possibility. ChatGPT’s ideas were similar to the overview one might find in a paper guidebook.