Homer, AK

July 5^th  to July 10^th

Homer, AK

Many very beautiful birds make their home here, but two of the grandest are Bald Eagles and Sand Hill Cranes. The cranes are nesting right now and the eagles are of course preying on their young. As we arose Tuesday morning an eagle flew up and landed in the top of a tree right next to the coach and flushed out a pair of nesting cranes in the field below. They got very defensive and began making a lot of noise as they sought shelter on the back porch of a house next to the field. Why the house….cause the people who live there feed the cranes cracked corn on a regular basis. The eagle sat there for over an hour not bothered at all by us and the cranes hid out for an equally long time. We eventually left in search of a more permanent parking place, so don’t know the outcome. But as we were leaving a woman happened by on horseback and told us of watching an eagle snatch a crane and fly off with it….amazingly powerful birds. Link to eagle pictures

We are parked at a city park campground up on the hill above Homer. The RV parks charge from $45-$75 a night depending on amenities….never the less beyond our means so we think $15 a night is great in the city park and the views are amazing. Of course amazing views are pretty much the norm where ever one looks. The blue green waters of the bay surrounded by mountains covered in alpine glaciers….Plus we have a lot of space, it is very quiet and there are gobs of wildflowers everywhere. In fact it seems like the whole area is in bloom. With such a short growing season, everything grows real fast  as soon as the sun shines for any length of time. Link to wildflower pictures

There are a lot of moose here too and they get killed by the 100s on the highway every year. You see signs everywhere asking driver’s to “Give a Moose a Brake” and tallying the number killed in a year ….something like 250 plus. Can you imagine hitting a moose…golly Bullwinkle….what a catastrophe?  In fact, one morning a cow and her calf walked right by the coach window while we were parked. She really startled Jim when he looked out and saw her and he in turn startled her when he jumped causing her to bump into the coach with her rump as she moved past. I scrambled for the camera and was able to take some cool pictures from inside the coach. I decided not to go outside for fear of  upsetting her with a calf. No way was I going to be on the other end of the moose vs human confrontation equation. Link to moose pictures

We spent some time being tourists in Homer, visiting the Spit and the local museums. The Islands and Oceans Visitor Center is really fantastic Link to Islands and Oceans Visitor Center. Also check out Link to Alaska Geographic. The Pratt Museum  is a great native culture and local history museum. Link to the Pratt museum

Had to checkout the “Salty Dawg”, a legendary bar out on the Spit. Groceries are real expensive, bars are real expensive, fresh seafood is real expensive, frozen seafood is real expensive …. You get the picture. We did find some nice red salmon for$15/fish. It weighed about 4 lbs so we felt that was a good deal. 

 Link to pictures of the Spit

We really wanted to go halibut fishing as Homer is known as the halibut fishing capitol of  the world but charters are ridiculously expensive…like $200.00 a day per person ….limit two fish…. plus processing and shipping. Granted some of these fish can reach as much as 350 to 400 lbs. and are referred to as being “barn doors”. There is an ongoing halibut derby one can pay to enter with weekly prizes and a grand prize in the tens of thousands of dollars for biggest catch of the season. But there just doesn’t seem to to be much sport in bottom fishing off a party boat in hopes of catching a fish that will make you weep while reeling it up. Plus we’d probably be the only ones on the boat who wouldn’t catch a thing. Besides $200 bucks a piece will buy a lotta clams, steak or ….. you guessed it ….GASOLINE ….. so we’ve decided to save our money!

On Sunday we took a boat ride to Seldovia, one of the oldest towns in AlaskaYou can only get there by boat. It is on the south side of Kachemak Bay. On the way there you get to enjoy a nature tour, seeing birds and sea otters and real closeup views of the coves and bays. We had a wonderful lunch of fish and chips (Halibut of course) and smoked salmon chowder. The town is very quaint and has a fascinating history. 

Link to Seldovia history All through town there are little pocket parks and chainsaw carvings. 

Link to Seldovia information, web cams and pictures. They have a competition every Memorial Day and they are amazing! Link to our pictures of Seldovia and Kachemak Bay

The plan now  is to invest in  fourteen day  fishing licenses….cost for a non- resident is eighty dollars…. and fish the lakes and streams  on  the Kenai Peninsula as we work our way up the Parks highway to Denali Natl. Park and on to Fairbanks.

Hard to believe we’ve been on the road five weeks and traveled over four thousand miles. Thank you Lord for bringing us this far safely and creating this wonderful planet we call mother earth. Stay tuned for part three coming your way soon….. same channel but who knows what time….