Halibut Cove on Kachemak Bay

On Wednesday, June 29, 2016, after our hike to Grewingk Glacier, Captain Carl, our water taxi man from Bay Roamers Water Taxi, picked us up at the trailhead for Saddle Trail where we exited from our glacier hike, and motored us to Halibut Cove, where we had reservations for dinner at The Saltry Restaurant, a quaint and quirky place on stilts:

Halibut Cove is an artists' colony that has a number of residences for those seeking some privacy and an exclusive slice of nature.  Our boat docked in front of Saltry, where we climbed the steep access ramp --

-- then laid aside our backpacks under the trusting gaze of one of the local residents, who struck up a conversation with Kathy:

We ate a scrumptious seafood dinner beside a warm, crackling fire, and then set out to walk around the margin of Halibut Cove.

The Cove is breathtaking:

Some of the buildings float on the water, including the local post office, with peaks of the Kenai Mountains in the background:

Most of the buildings along the shore sit on stilts and are connected by a single community boardwalk, including this quaint little coffee shop:

We passed through the town proper and out across a berm separating the cove from Kachemak Bay.  The Bay's beach was fetching both in the view northeast --

and the view southwest:

Further along the peninsula from Halibut Cove we encountered farms and cottages that reminded us of the Irish countryside:

We spent nearly two hours exploring the Cove and its neighboring areas before we returned to the dock to catch the Danny J, the ferry from Halibut Cove back to Homer Spit.

As it happened, we sat in the ferry with a doctor and his family, who had recently relocated to Homer from Tennessee.  The two teenage girls and their friend were hysterically funny as only teenage girls can be, and they entertained their parents, their granddad and us the entire trip back to Homer.  We waved them goodbye and headed back to our lodge to get a good night's sleep for our drive north to Soldotna the next day.