Following The Foreman's: Alaska Day!!!

Every year on October 18th, Alaska celebrates what is considered to be a holiday called Alaska Day. It is the anniversary of the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States, which took place in Sitka on October 18, 1867. The original ceremony for the transfer included 250 uniformed U.S. soldiers, who marched to the Governor's house in Sitka at "Castle Hill", where the transfer was made. It was here that the Russian troops lowered the Russian flag and the U.S. flag was raised. Although the formal transfer of Alaska took place on October 18, 1867, the signing of the treaty for the purchase of Alaska from Russia by the U.S. occurred on March 30, 1867. Alaska Day is observed statewide, and is a paid holiday for State of Alaska employees. The official celebration is held in Sitka, where schools release students early, many businesses close for the day, and events such as a parade and reenactment of the flag raising are held. Even though this is a statewide holiday, most of Alaska does not actually celebrate the day with events the way Sitka does.

Castle Hill has a beautiful view of the town, the ocean & some islands, surrounding mountains, the O'Connel Bridge, the Coast Guard Cutter Maple station & part of Japonski Island (where we live). Here are some pictures I have taken from the top of Castle Hill.

Here are some pictures of Castle Hill that I got off of the internet:

View of Castle Hill

Stairs leading up to Castle Hill

This is the top of Castle Hill

And the view of the town from the top of Castle Hill

We experienced our first Alaska Day last year after we had just arrived in Sitka. The bank that I worked for at the time, closed their Sitka branch & Kolt had the day off but was required to march in the parade. This year, as usual, the Coast Guard marched in the parade & I of course went to watch with the rest of the town. This was Brinleigh's first parade & even though she isn't old enough to be interested in any of it, I thought she might enjoy all the movement & noise of it all. She slept through just about the entire thing, including the soldiers who were shooting as they marched by. Of course it was just air & smoke coming out of the guns, but it was still very loud & I thought for sure that the bang would wake her up. Not a single movement. The Coast Guard is usually at the front of the parade line & so once they reach the end of the parade route, they walk back down the street & watch the rest of the parade with their family or what not. Brinleigh woke up towards the end of the parade & we were able to take a few pictures with her.

Getting bundled up to go watch the parade