Moved from Fishing Hole Campground to Mariner Park

Mike saw these 2 bald eagles sitting out on a rock in Kachemak Bay this morning. As the tide started coming in, their rock got smaller and smaller and they finally flew away.

From Homer

We left the RV a little after 11:00 to go to the Homer Visitor Center and saw this bald eagle sitting atop one of the tsunami warning sirens. Yesterday we had seen an eagle sitting on the same siren, but didn't get a photo of him.

From Homer

We drove past the Mariner Park campground (a City of Homer campground) and noticed that there were a lot of vacant campsites, so we stopped to check it out. We turned around and went back to the RV so we could move to Mariner Park. By 12:15 we were at Mariner Park and had the RV set up. At Fishing Hole campground we were facing north towards the end of Kachemak Bay and at Mariner Park we are facing south where Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet meet. Since both the Fishing Hole and Mariner Park are City of Homer campgrounds, we didn't have to pay an extra fee for camping.

From Homer

After lunch we went to the Homer Visitor Center to check on a couple of the scenic drives here. At the Visitor Center we picked up some brochures and bought some postcards.

From Homer

We also got a map of Homer and were shown the route up to the bluff overlooking Homer where we could take some great photos of the town and Homer Spit.

From Homer

That little spit of land jutting out in the bay is Homer Spit and that is where we're camped.
While we were up on the bluff taking photos we met a couple from Florida and a couple from New Mexico who had stopped to take pictures.

After taking photos from the bluff, we drove out to the east end of Skyline Drive before returning to the campground.

This afternoon more and more people came into the campground including this family who are tent camping next to us.

Our neighbor on the other side of us is Jim and Kenobi, his Karelian Bear Dog. Jim is a K-2nd grade teacher in Nanwalek. The only way to get to Nanwalek is either by boat or seaplane which Jim takes to get to Homer. He leaves his truck here so he has transportation when he comes to Homer.

From Homer

This afternoon there were some kitesurfers out in Kachemak Bay and we sat out on the beach and watched them. The temp was about 58° with a strong wind coming off the bay.

From Homer

From Homer

Late this afternoon a woman from the City of Homer came around checking the campground to be sure everyone had paid. Mike was outside and she commented on the fact that we had moved. She had a paper indicating where everyone was camped and knew that we had moved. We figure they must have the license tag number down (the tag number was needed for registration) on the paper she had for registered campers. There wasn't any problem about us moving, she just updated their information.

Yesterday when I got groceries at Safeway there was a coupon on the back of my receipt for the Don Jose Mexican Restaurant here in Homer. The coupon was for a lunch or dinner entree for half price with the purchase of one at full price. So at 6:30 we drove over to Don Jose's and ordered 2 Grilled Burritos with Carne Asada beef. Since we wanted to have Fried Ice Cream for dessert, we just ate half of our burrito and brought the rest home to eat tomorrow.

A little after 10:30 Mike went outside to take some photos of the sunset.

From Homer

Seward to Homer

Last night after I updated our blog for yesterday, we went back outside and sat by our campfire until a little after 11:00. We took photos of the sunset over the mountains a little before 11 p.m.. – so I’m including them today.

From Resurrection River

From Resurrection River

We got up this morning at 8:30 (I forgot to turn on the alarm for 8 a.m.) and we were on the road by 9:30 and headed north on the Seward Highway.

We made a quick stop alongside Kenai Lake to walk Tinker.

From Seward to Homer

We drove through the towns of Moose Pass, Anchor Point and Soldotna – just to name a few.

We stopped at this pull-off to take photos of Mt. Iliamna (52 miles away)

From Seward to Homer

and Mt. Redoubt (54 miles away).

From Seward to Homer

We found this turnoff with a great view of Mt. Iliamna and stopped there to fix lunch.

From Seward to Homer

We arrived in Homer at 1:30 and drove out on to Homer Spit to look for a campground.

From Homer

We stopped near the Homer Spit Campground and Mike walked over to the office to check for a campsite. They had one that was available just for tonight, so we decided to check on the city-owned campgrounds. We unhitched the car and Mike parked the RV in a parking lot and we drove back up the Homer Spit.

We drove down to the Fishing Hole Campground (suggested by the woman at Homer Spit Campground) and found a campsite there. I drove Mike back to get the RV and by 2:30 we were parked in a campsite facing Kachemak Bay.

Fishing Hole Campground is a self-registration facility and we drove up to the kiosk and filled out the registration envelope and paid $45 for 3 nights’ stay. There are no hook-ups here and the campground is a large rocky parking lot.

From Homer

Mike drove the RV forward into our site, so we are facing the bay. We have a great view out our windshield of the bay and the Kenai Mountains.

From Homer

After getting settled in Mike got our folding chairs out and we sat in front of the RV watching the fishing boats until about 6:00. Then we went in to have dinner and then we drove back into the town of Homer to look at the town.

We stopped at the Safeway to get a few things we needed before heading back to the RV, when we saw these bald eagles in their nest. Several people were already there taking photos and we found a place to park so we could get some photos of the eagles.

From Homer

Seward Resort to Resurrection River

We got up at our usual 8:00 this morning and the skies were clear and sunny. After breakfast we got ready to leave Seward Resort. Mike filled our fresh water tank before we left our campsite. While he was dumping the tanks at the dump station, I went to the Resort office to check out, get our receipt and turn in the bathroom & laundry keys. We left the Resort at 11:20.

From Seward

We didn't hitch up the car because we only have a few miles to drive - a total of 3 miles. I led with the Vue while Mike followed in the RV. We headed north on the Seward Highway to the Exit Glacier Road and then headed west to a pull-off on Resurrection River that we had seen when we had visited Exit Glacier a couple of days ago. We had decided then to come back here and dry camp for a night.

We arrived at the pull-off at 11:30. There were a few RV already staying there and we found a place to park with a great view of the river and the mountains. We met a French couple, Arno & Caroline, who had bought a class B motorhome in California and were spending a couple of years traveling around the U.S. and Canada with their young daughter, Rose. After talking with them for a little while, they left to go up to Exit Glacier.

We leveled the RV and put our out slides and then had lunch. There were a lot of flies when we got here and I got to practice my skill with a flyswatter because several got in the RV.

From Resurrection River

After lunch we got out our chairs and set them out near the river.  We spent most of the afternoon just enjoying the scenery. There was a really good wind coming up the river from the east and it kept the flies away from us.

From Resurrection River

From Resurrection River

One of our neighbors came over to tell us that there were some mountain goats up on one of the mountains. We got out our binoculars and could see them, but they were too far away to get a good photo.

I did see this bald eagle fly over the motohome and we managed to get a few photos of him sitting in a tree near us.

From Resurrection River

While we were eating dinner a man knocked on our door and wanted to know if we wanted some salmon he had caught and cooked. He and his wife had just parked behind us in their class C motorhome about an hour before. He said they had caught it yesterday and that they had a couple of pieces left over. So much for the turkey sandwich I was eating! The salmon was delicious. Tinker really liked the smell of the salmon and I gave him a small bite. I don't see how he could have tasted it, he just gulped it down!

We're spending just tonight here before we head on over to Homer. We've already hitched the car up and it won't take long to get ready to leave in the morning after we put the slides in and stow the jacks.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous posts about Seward Resort. The laundry and bathrooms/showers looked fairly new, but we were surprised at the layout of the showers. There was no dressing area in each of the showers. There was a long bench between the showers like the ones we used to have in high school in the gym showers. We were surprised that a resort would have that kind of layout for showers - I think most people would prefer a little privacy.

Alaska SeaLife Center, Seward Museum & Murals of Seward

This morning we stopped by the Resort office to purchase tickets to the Alaska SeaLife Center here in Seward. The regular admission price is $20 per person and with the discount here at the Resort we paid $15 per ticket.

From Alaska SeaLife Center

We arrived at the Alaska SeaLife Center on Resurrection Bay a little after 11:00. We saw aquariums with fish that are native to Alaskan waters. We especially enjoyed watching the Stellar Sea Lion.

From Alaska SeaLife Center

We went into the Seabird Habitat and watched puffins, eiders and ducks swimming and preening themselves. This one fellow was as curious about us as we were about him.

From Alaska SeaLife Center

By the time we left the SeaLife Center, it was time for lunch and we looked for a place to eat lunch. We could smell hamburgers from somewhere and it was coming from Alaska Nellie's Roadhouse where we had eaten breakfast on Monday. 

From Seward

We checked the menu that was posted outside and Nellie's claimed to have the best burgers in town. Mike ordered the Cajun Burger with a cup of broccoli soup. I had planned on having a burger, but I saw that they had a salmon burger with provolone cheese on the menu and decided to order it with fries. Both of our burgers were served on ciabatta buns and they were great.

After lunch we drove around town to find the murals that have been painted on some of the buildings here.

From Murals of Seward

Our next stop was at St. Peter's Episcopal Church to see the painting of the Resurrection painted by Jan van Emple in 1925. He was a well known Dutch artist who was living in Seward. Instead of painting the Apostles the artist painted the people and natives of Alaska and painted Resurrection Bay for the background. The door to the church wasn't locked and there was a note on the door telling you where to get the key in case the door was locked. I went inside and took photos of the painting and the sanctuary.

From Seward

From Seward

Our last stop was at the Seward Museum located in the Seward Senior Center. After paying the $3 a person admission, we looked around the museum. We saw artifacts from the early days in Seward and saw a 49-star American flag.

From Seward Museum

We even saw photos of Alaska Nellie and learned about her life in Alaska.

From Seward Museum

As we were driving around Seward we took photos of some of the houses that caught our eye. One house was the Ballaine House which is now a bed and breakfast.

From Seward

When Mike came back in from walking Tinker, he said that the skies were clear and got the camera to take some photos. He took this photo at 11:16 tonight and you can see how light it still is even at that hour.

From Seward

Exit Glacier and dinner in Seward

After lunch we drove a couple of miles north of Seward to visit the Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. There is no charge for visiting Exit Glacier. We drove up the Exit Glacier Road that goes alongside the Resurrection River. We drove by 2 turnoffs where RVs were dry camping.

From Exit Glacier

After parking our car at the information center, we headed up the 1 mile trail to Exit Glacier a little after 1:;30. Most of the trail was fairly easy, but there were a few places that required a little more effort. The first part of the trail was through a wooded area and there were a lot of flies (at first we thought they were mosquitoes) that were annoying.

Once we got up higher on the trail and out of the trees, there weren't so many flies. The scenery on the trail up to the glacier was beautiful and was a great excuse to stop catch your breath - which I needed to do a few times.

From Exit Glacier

We saw a bench near the edge of Exit Glacier and stopped to share it with one of the Park Rangers. She was nice enough to take a couple of photos of us before we continued on down the trail to the edge of the glacier.

From Exit Glacier

We had gotten warm walking up the trail, but once we were down by the glacier edge we quickly cooled off. Unlike the glacier at the Columbia Icefields that we visited in June and was able to walk out on the glacier, Exit Glacier isn't flat like the Columbia Glacier. But we were able to get pretty close to this one.

From Exit Glacier

From Exit Glacier

It's just amazing to stand so close to something this huge and that dates back to the Ice Age. There were signs all along the trail and even on the road leading to the Visitor Center showing how far down from the mountain the glacier used to be and the date of its location.

We spent about 45 minutes up at the glacier before we headed back down a different trail to the Visitor Center. We bought some postcards at the Visitor Center and a much needed bottle of water (we normally bring some water with us, but we forgot it today). It was after 3:00 when we left the park and headed back to Seward.

When we got into Seward we drove down to Resurrection Bay and saw several campgrounds  right on Resurrection Bay.

From Seward

We stopped by the Lowell Creek Waterfall on the southwest end of Seward and Mike made a movie of it. He also managed to get a photo of a bald eagle flying over the waterfall.

From Seward

From Seward

By now it was after 4:00 and we decided to eat dinner in town. We had seen a restaurant that had Italian, Greek and Seafood and decided to go there for dinner.

We went to the Apollo Restaurant and no sooner had we sat down than it started raining. I ordered their Monte Mio which is a Wild Salmon fillet with Mediterranean herbs, olive oil and lemon garlic sauce with Pasta Alfredo and carrots (vegetable of the day).

From Seward

Mike, who doesn't eat seafood, ordered spaghetti with meat sauce and added meatballs and we both had iced tea.

We both enjoyed our food and just as we were finishing, our waiter came by with a plate of desserts. Mike ordered the Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake and I had the Kahlua chocolate cheesecake. Ummmmm - delicious!! Our bill for dinner and dessert came to $66.00.

From Seward

We stopped by the Seward Chamber of Commerce to pick up a few brochures before we came back to the RV.

From Seward

We had rain off and on until about 9:00. Our high temp for the day was 55°.

It was 50° this morning when we got up and still raining. We decided to drove into Seward to look for a place to get breakfast. We passed by the Seward Chamber of Commerce and saw this mural of the Kenai Fjords.

From Murals of Seward

We saw Alaska Nellie's Roadhouse on 4th Avenue and decided to eat there. I ordered the Captain's S.O.S (biscuit & gravy with an egg, and bacon) and Mike had been craving pancakes so he ordered the tall stack and we both had coffee. The total for our breakfast came to $24.61.

From Seward

After breakfast we drove around Seward just to get familiar with the town and then we drove back to the campground.

From Seward

We spent the day inside since it rained most of today. I worked on getting our blog and photo albums caught up and put 6 days' worth of posts and photos on today.

The weather finally started to clear up some late this afternoon and the rain finally stopped. After dinner we took Tinker and went for a walk around the campground and resort.

Across the street from the resort we saw these 2 plaques. One was for Fort Raymond that protected the railway and harbor during World War II.

From Seward

The second plaque was for the Seward Sanatorium (1946-1958) that cared for natives who had tuberculosis.

From Seward

We next walked around the grounds of the Resort and walked past the yurts which can be rented

From Seward

and one of the Fish Houses where guests can clean the fish they've caught here.

From Seward

Mike went inside Seabolt Hall and took photos while I waited outside with Tinker.

From Seward

It's not supposed to rain tomorrow, so we should be able to do some sightseeing. We didn't see much change in our temperatures today - the highest it got today was 54°.