Homer

The Kenai Peninsula: Beluga Point, in Kenai and Homer Alaska

August 6-9, 2013

Day 24 saw us in yet another incredibly beautiful area of our 49^th state.  This Alaska Adventure continues to thrill us, we know we really are “living the dream” on this trip.  We now are on the Kenai Peninsula it is 150 miles long by 70 miles wide and yes with more incredible landscapes to be seen.  Our first stop was Beluga Point in the town of Kenai. On the route to our night’s stop we visited the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center – we were able to drive through (yes w/ the MoHo and dolly and Prius) There were nice pullovers where you could get out and view the rescued critters up close. We got to see several moose, caribou, elk, bison, musk ox, black bears, bald eagles, and barn owls up close and pretty personal. The only residents we missed were the 3 brown bears (grizzlies) that are there, they were being quite shy during our visit.  Just a few miles down the road we stopped at the Portage Glacier Interpretive Center. It was rainy, windy and pretty darn miserable so we skipped the boat ride that would have taken us out to the glacier (it has receded so much that you can no longer see it from the center on Portage Lake). We did see a good movie about the area and got a sense of how it was.  Into camp at Beluga Point we watched for whales off the point, saw some otters and seals, but no whales. Across the Cook inlet we had a good view of the 4 Sleeping Giants: Mt. Redoubt Volcano (last erupted 3-23-09), Mt Spurr the tallest volcano in the Aleutian Arc, Mt. Ilamna, and St. Augustine an island formed by Augustine Volcano, last erupted in 1986. The sun was just shining on the tops of these mountains through the clouds and giving us a gorgeous view.

Black Bear - "What are you looking at?"

Sunset on the Kenai Peninsula

Mt. Redoubt, Kenai

Miles for the day: 173   Total miles for the AK Adventure: 2084.2

Days 25-27 – Homer - a place we have anxiously waited to visit. Our daughter Kristin has been here twice and has always told us how much we would enjoy it. SHE WAS RIGHT!  Today’s route was a relatively short drive with only a couple of construction hold-ups, and a few bumps along the way, but again there was such amazing scenery to distract one from any road concern. We made camp early in the afternoon and were overjoyed at our accommodations. All 23 rigs are parked on the spit of Homer, sitting less than 30 ft. from the water at high tide on Kachemak Bay. This place is simply WONDERFUL, many of us think we are done with the trip - we will just stay here!  Guinness and Corona are in 7^th Heaven. They got to run on the beach, smell the smells, run through the water and enjoy a bit of rough and tumble play that they miss most days while on this trip. After enjoying our beautiful campsite we went down on the “SPIT” and walked along the shops, restaurants and waterfront. We had happy hour at the famous Salty Dawg Saloon. kind of a fun & funky place – dollar bills, bras, hats, panties decorate the walls, ceiling etc.  Dinner was great; we ate at the Fresh Catch, recommended to us by a couple of locals at the bar. We ordered king crab legs (market price – nope didn’t ask what the $$ was – YIKES $70. A pound) they were GREAT as were the much more reasonable mussels we also shared. PB&J tomorrow J!

Homer Spit

Salty Dawg, we are regulars!

Mike went on a half-day fishing excursion for halibut and brought home his limit!! He caught two 15-20 lb. fish that gave us over 10 pounds of cut and flash frozen fillets. Phew the little freezer is stuffed with the CATCH. Mike said it was hard work, glad he did it, but it was pretty chilly, the water was rough, and the labor of pulling up the fish was pretty intense. So glad he caught some for all of his effort.

Halibut, Mike's two are third from the right

Eagle spotting was good – we had one right outside our MoHo on a light post and saw a nest with a couple of birds in a tree downtown. Breakfast was at the Spit Sisters Café’. What fun: we walked in and Mike said “we know Melissa Keevel” and we were supposed to say “HI”.  They all knew Melissa and said she had been in Homer to visit but was working up north.  We then told them we were friends of Melissa and her family and our daughter had been there a couple of summer’s ago to visit Melissa. When we mentioned Kris—they all immediately knew our girl.  “Funny Kris?”  They asked, “from Oregon?”  Yes that’s the one. 2 more women walked in and the shop owner said, “Kris’ parent’s are over there”—pointing a finger towards us, well my gosh one might think we were celebs.  Laughing hugging and chatting took place as we all agreed what a great person Kristin is.

Spit Sisters Cafe, Homer

Bald Eagle outside our motor home

Took a drive to see the spit and beautiful surrounding mountains from a good vantage point above the city. Nice to get a general lay of the land, enjoyed seeing some of Homer proper too. Definitely is much more of a tourist influence here than is some of the other towns we have visited. Guess it won’t be long before the visitors and support network are gone and all that will be left are the “sourdoughs” that call Alaska home all year long.

Glacier on the bay near Homer

Miles for the day: 95   Total miles for the AK Adventure: 2179.2