Homer Trip, Part 3

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Got up this morning just in time for free hotel breakfast. We sat out on the balcony for a few minutes enjoying the gorgeous view. A bald eagle flew within 20 feet of us. We continued to watch as this majestic bird soared high up into the morning sky. We noticed the sea otters on the bay and the many coastal birds atop the water. On the way out of town, we stopped at a couple of souvenir shops. Our only purchases were some fresh Washington apples from a local stand. Along the road toward Kenai, we spotted some type of lighthouse at the edge of a mountain ridge. We drove along the Sterling Highway to the north and on to Captain Cook State Park. It has some awesome views of the ocean. It is a very remote area. We probably passed maybe 3 other vehicles on the park's main road. We pulled into a parking area for a quick restroom break. However, as soon as I saw this sign I no longer needed the break. Luckily, we didn't encounter a bear but we did catch a glimpse of a bull moose along the edge of the woods.

Homer Trip, Part 2

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As we made our way on toward Homer, we took a slight detour to check out a Russian Orthodox Church. This beautiful older church was perched atop a mountain ridge surrounded by a white picket fence. The community of Seldovia, across the bay from Homer, was an early Russian settlement. We hope to charter the boat across to check it out next time we visit this area. In the meantime, visiting this neat church will have to do. Upon entering the city limits of Homer, we stopped at an overlook of Kachemak Bay and the city of Homer. This was breathtaking- the views were phenomenal. We tore ourselves away from the views and headed on into town to find a room. We drove down the Homer spit. The spit is a narrow 4.5 mile piece of land that juts out into the bay. During tourist season, the spit is packed with visitors and traffic clogs the single road down the spit. There are a multitude of shops and restaurants lining the shore. Today, however, there were very few people and most shops were closed for the season. Ahh, just as we like it. We decided to stay at the Lands' End Resort. This is the very last thing at the tip of the land- hence the name- Lands' End. The room was tiny and Greg swore he had seen larger walk-in closets. But to its credit, it had a balcony with awesome views of the snow-covered mountains and the beautiful bay. After dropping off our luggage we hit the beach. Greg picked up shells for the nieces while I looked for sea glass. As we continued along, we found several interesting things including dead squid, jellyfish, a string of mollusks, and many ravens and gulls with relentless appetites. Upon passing the squid, Greg picked up a large amount of string. He said we needed a soda can pull tab. I just happened to be standing by one so he took his multi-tool and fashioned a hook from the pull tab. He tied it on the string and then proceeded to tear off a piece of the dead squid (gross!!!). After throwing the bait in the water, it took him just 8 minutes to catch a small halibut. What a survivalist! He did throw the halibut back and we finished up our walk on the rocky shore. To top this great day off, we drove into town and had a delightful dinner at Crabbies. At the request of the neighboring table, the restaurant even put on a small laser light show- well, homemade and low tech laser light show- but amusing and entertaining all the same.

Anniversary Trip

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We have been pretty busy lately. Greg's leg is almost back to normal, just in time for our anniversary weekend trip. Our weather here has begun to cool off dramatically. In fact, we got the first taste of snow on September 26th. It is called termination dust because it signals the end of summer and warns that the first big snow is right around the corner. I know it is hard to see the snow in the pictures but it sure was exciting to watch. It didn't add up to any accumulation in the city but the mountain tops are tipped in white and we know that the snow will begin its progression down the slopes and into town soon.

We rented a car this Saturday morning and headed south. We decided to drive down the Sterling Highway and go wherever the road led us. We saw more beluga whales along the Turnagain Arm as we headed out of town. Oddly enough, we didn't see a single "tourist goat" on the mountain along this area. The tourist goats are the ones that come down the mountains near Beluga Point and stand near the road. This often causes traffic back-ups as people try to capture them with their cameras. Maybe since the tourists are gone, the goats have also gone to their off-season homes.

The fall leaves have begun to turn colors as you can tell from this photo. This picture was taken along the Kenai River between Cooper Landing and Sterling. We stopped in Sterling and ate lunch. We continued down the highway and decided to head on to Homer. This stretch of the Sterling Highway offered some beautiful views of the mountains across the waters of the inlet. We stopped along the way and took pictures of a couple of volcanoes. These 2 volcanoes, Mount Iliamna and Mount Redoubt, which had a small eruption in 2009, were the first volcanoes we had ever seen up close. Well, if you can call 52 miles away a close distance. Still, they were quite impressive and a little menacing! Mount Redoubt is in the picture behind me and Mount Iliamna is in the background of Greg's picture.

Fishing Trip, Part 2

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After leaving the sea lions we continued on to the sweet fishing spot. The water was beautifully clear along the pristine shores. By the time we arrived, it was fairly cool and windy yet sunny and beautiful. The seas were relatively calm and the outlook was promising. Paul set us up and it was a race to see who would land the first fish. We fished and fished and fished without any luck. On the plus side, Paul knew another spot where they always caught smaller halibut (in the 30 pound range). We figured a few smaller fish were better than nothing. So went to the new spot and fished and fished and fished. It was about at this point we decided begrudgingly to give it up. We did see a bald eagle and several porpoises as well as the sea otters and sea lions we had seen earlier. In a state of disbelief we headed for home. We stopped at the Visitor's Center at Portage Glacier. It is a nice facility with several exhibits, gift shop, and movie area. While driving home along the Seward Highway, a few miles outside of Anchorage, we spotted several beluga whales swimming along the Turnagain Arm. We didn't get that great picture we wanted, but it was rewarding just to see these beautiful animals. The Cook Inlet belugas' population has decreased over the last 20 years from a few thousand to about 350. Even though we didn't catch any fish, we had another great Alaskan day thanks to Mindy and Paul.

Sunday, September 19th

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We got up a little before 6 and headed for Whittier. You have to go through a tunnel to get there. This is a World War II railroad tunnel that was converted to use for vehicles and railroad cars in 2000. In fact, it is the longest tunnel in North America shared by vehicles and trains. It is also the longest highway tunnel going 2.5 miles end to end. It is only open to automobiles at certain times of the day. Cars wait at each end until the tunnel is opened for scheduled one way travel. You better be there in line or you'll have to wait about an hour before your side gets to go through again.

We arrived in Whittier and got the boat into the water. After loading up, we set out for the sweet fishing spot. It was a beautiful day in the harbor. However, as we began to get out into Prince William Sound a bit, we hit a wall of dense fog. This made continued travel unsafe. We turned into a cove to wait for the fog to lift. After a while, we attempted to make it through the fog again. We were successful this time. After traveling several miles we saw a rocky shore full of Steller sea lions. You could probably smell and hear them before you actually saw them! We decided to take a short detour and check out these cool animals. The average male weighs 1,245 pounds and is about 10 1/2 feet long. The females average about 580 pounds and grow to 8 1/2 feet long. They feast on fish, squid, and occasionally birds or true seals. As we drew near to the shore, instead of diving into the water and disappearing as we expected them to do, most of them continued to stay on the shore and bellow. The ones that jumped into the water swam out to the boat and put on quite the water aerobic show. We watched them for several minutes. It was really cool to see these animals up close in their natural habitat.

Saturday, September 18th

I had to walk to the Post Office by myself this morning as Greg is still not up to much exercise. After that built up my appetite, I decided to cook breakfast. I made grits, biscuits, and eggs with summer sausage (made from Dall sheep). The sausage was given to us by my friend at school, Terry. Her husband had killed a Dall sheep on a recent hunting trip and had the meat processed. The sausage was quite good and really spiced up the meal. Thanks Terry and Chris.

Later, we headed out to SBFs Mindy and Paul's home to spend the night. We picked raspberries from the patch in their backyard. Greg tried to befriend a beautiful jaybird. The stellar jaybird is large with beautiful coloring- its shape is close to the blue jay in Tennessee. However, the coloring is much different. We never got the exact picture we wanted because he couldn't quite stay still. The bird did come and get a peanut from Paul's hand. Mindy made a delightful dinner featuring Salmon Stacks. She created this after she had eaten something similar in a local restaurant. Salmon is served atop a crispy won ton with avocado, sour cream, cheese, and some other secret ingredients. Yum. After dinner, we visited for awhile and then turned in early to be rested for tomorrow's fishing trip.