There's No Place Like Homer

Hi Blog!

It has been a few days since we last blogged. You will be happy to know that Eileen and Tom made it home safely to Philadelphia having totally exhausted themselves taking in all that Alaska had to offer. We spent a day or two catching up on chores, and then we were off again on another adventure.

On Monday, June 27, 2016, we took a road trip (sans rig) down to the Homer, Alaska! Without the rig in tow, we are free to make frequent stops, like the one at St. Elias Brewing Company for lunch! We also stopped at the rest area on top of Homer Hill which gave us our first glimpse of the famous Homer Spit -  a narrow 4 and 1/2 mile long gravel bar that extends into the bay, on which is located the Homer Harbor. Homer is world famous for halibut fishing. It is also know as the "end of the road" for Alaska RVers, since you can drive no further south on the Kenai Peninsula from Anchorage than Homer. This is our turnaround point. From now on, we are reversing our drive back through Alaska.

After checking into the Beluga Lake Lodge, we jumped on our bicycles and headed over to the "Spit." Homer Spit is located in the Kachemak Bay near the entrance to Cook's Inlet. The first mile or so of the Spit is very rustic with lots of wide-open views. Kachemak Bay has a large tide swing. What appears as marshy bog one minute can be completely under 10 feet of water the next. We stopped to check out the Seafarer's Memorial looking out to Cook's Inlet.

As we approached the end of the Spit, we realized that we had reached Land's End. We could go no further.

We left our bikes in the parking lot and walked out as far as we could. If we wanted to continue to the far side of Katchemak Bay, we would have to go by boat.

There are hundreds of boats in Homer Harbor. They offer all sort of fishing tours. When the boats come back into the harbor, the day's catch is proudly displayed. The fish are then cleaned and the remains turned over to the waiting sea gulls and bald eagles. While we love salmon and halibut, sitting in a boat for hour after hour does not appeal to us, but we applaud those that catch their own supper and thank those that catch ours!

Not only is Homer home to numerous gulls, it is home to buoys, too.  (Dave says:  "Get it?")  The Coast Guard maintains a station on Homer Spit and they service over 160 channel and fixed markers in the area. They are also called upon for search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, marine environmental protection and homeland security. They are busy little buoys and gulls!

No trip to the Homer Spit would be complete without a stop at the Salty Dawg Saloon. The Salty Dawg started out as one of the first cabins, built in 1897, soon after Homer became a town site. After the March 1964 “Good Friday” earthquake, the structure was moved to its present location. The distinctive lighthouse tower was added to cover a water storage tank, thus completing one of Homer’s more historical and recognizable landmarks.

But the real reason we stopped at the Salty Dawg was to leave our signed dollar bill and challenge our friends to find it. We also had a good time reading all the messages that other travelers left.  If you read this blog, you'll know if this photo was taken for you.  :)

After wetting our whistle at the Salty Dawg, we stopped for dinner at Harbor Grill. Fresh seafood is great, but these prices are going to bankrupt us! We took our time heading back to allow dinner to digest. We stopped at the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon to watch the anglers try their luck.

The lagoon is stocked to provide so-called "sport" fishing. What this means is that baby salmon are released in the lagoon, they imprint on the location and then return when they are all grown up to spawn. Only there is no stream to spawn in. There are just loads of fisherman waiting to make them dinner.   We really aren't sure this is playing fair, and we wondered where the sport would be in that.

King salmon return mid May to early July followed by an early run of silvers mid July to early August and a late run early August to mid September. The park provides fish cleaning tables, which provides lots of action for the local sea gulls and bald eagles.

Speaking of bald eagles, this guys is ready to swoop down and claim his prize.

As we made our way back to the mainland, we learned our bike route is also part of the Tsunami Evacuation Route. With a row of volcanoes just across Cook's Inlet from Homer, we speculated whether or not folks would even have time to evacuate. Just saying....

Parts of the Homer Spit reminded us of the boardwalks on the Jersey shore. The other parts reminded us of some of the back bays in New England. It is equal parts industrial and commercial. All of it is funky and interesting. We didn't like it at first, but it sort of grows on you.

Doesn't this lighthouse just beg to be photographed?

As we left the Spit, we looked back. It is hard to even tell there is a huge harbor and lots of shops and restaurants out there.

We were up early on Tuesday, June 28, 2016. We had to be at the dock for our trip over to the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. More on that adventure in the next blog. We just wanted to give a shout out to the folks at Homer Hot Shots for getting our day started right!

Not a bad way to start the day.

More adventure awaits in the next blog!