The first two times we visited Hoonah, it was a tender port, meaning you got off the ship onto a smaller boat that would take you to shore.  Last year they opened a new and beautiful dock which made it so much easier to get on and off the ship.  They told us it paid for itself in the first year with the fees the ships pay to dock.

LJ and I had planned a second whale watching trip this morning with a company he found on Trip Advisor.  Jamie was our shuttle driver and was a Native Tlingket.  She talked about the area and about her life, living off the land and also that the brown bears outnumber human on the island 5 to 1.  She also talked about Alaska Bush People being filmed there and had been in an episode (more details about that off-line if you are interested).  We were soon at the dock to meet Captain Paul.  He was born in Ohio and had lived in several states over the years.  He is a retired police officer from Juneau where he and his family lived for 20 years and now had been in Hoonah almost 10.  They have three children, the oldest is 24 and the younger two are his daughters who attend boarding school in Sitka.  He said the K-12 school in Hoonah had a little over 100 students.  They had very little in the way of electives or advanced courses so in order to have a good foundation of education, people across the state from small towns had the option to send their children to this state run boarding school.  He said last year his daughter took both Chinese and Marine biology and that while it is sad to basically “send them to college” in 9^th grade, it was important for their future.  He had such great information about the area, the bears, salmon and of course, the whales.  We found a raft of otters in a kelp bed – they were so cute and fun to watch.  They definitely are one of my very favorites to see.  Soon we found our first whale and he quickly showed us his tale and went down for a bit so we headed on to search out others.  We found about six in all and the final one was our closest by far, he was right between our boat and the shoreline and LJ was able to get some great photos.  Even with some rain, the water was so much calmer and it was a much better ‘watch’.

After our whale watch, back on the ship we went to procure a Numie.  Then we headed out for a Hoonah City Tour and an opportunity to see a live Tribal Dance.  Our guide’s English name was Melanie, she was also a Native Tlingket and we really enjoyed all her stories about the area.

We had three stops and she gave us history about the area at each one.  We learned so much about Hoonah and the people that live there.  School had just started today and some of the kids also are part of the Tribal Dance presentation.  We saw them walking out of the school for their lunch and then they waited for the shuttle to pick them up.  Melanie our tour guide also was a part of the dance presentation.  After our tour ended they dropped us off at the building where the dance would be, which was a beautiful log building with stadium type bench seating inside.  We each had been given a Trival clan name, which is always done by the mother and grandmother’s name Mom and I were Wolf Eagles and LJ was a Raven.  You must marry the opposite tribe so an Eagle would marry a Raven.  No West Virginia relatives here!

The kids did such a great job with the presentation and spoke to us in Tlingket as they introduced themselves at the beginning of the dance.  Can you guess what happened at the end?  LJ joined the dance and was The Sun!  He came through injury free and the video will be available soon on YouTube for his fans.

Back on the ship, Numie was hungry so we headed up to the lunch buffet and filled her up.  She decided this would be dinner for her so we changed up our plans and planned to go to the 7 PM show instead of the 9 and give her an early night.  We’d miss dinner with our friends but they would understand.  The couple had seen the duo before and said they were awesome.  We quickly agreed!  They did both comedy and acrobatics and had competed in Ukraine’s Got Talent as well as performed for America’s Got Talent.

LJ made reservations for us at the Tuscan Grille, which is one of the specialty restaurants on our ship.  It was really delicious.  We started off with appetizers of crab cakes, meatballs and pork belly to share.  Then we had goat cheese and arugula salads with toasted pine nuts, followed by a caprese flatbread pizza.  Then we had a pasta course, I had the lobster rigatoni and LJ had the three meat lasagna and the chicken parmesan.  They offered “small” portions which still seemed huge for us.  Then we had our filets which were delicious.  I got tiramisu to go for Numie and LJ got one too but he also sampled the limoncello cheesecake and pistachio crème brulee at dinner.  They also gave us each a small glass of limoncello that is made directly on the ship.  They said it is excellent for digestion.  LJ drank all of his but it was much too strong for me.  Dinner was a very nice treat and we enjoyed it.  Off to bed to prepare for our last port day!