This morning we sat out on the beach and drank our morning coffee. It was low tide and we watched people walking on the beach with their dogs.
There were even 4 horseback riders with their dogs out enjoying the beach. The temp was in the mid-50’s and breezy and quite chilly.
We met a couple with a young daughter and 2 dogs who were walking on the beach. They decided to move their travel trailer from the end of the park to a site near us with a better view of the bay. Mike & Sally are from Anchorage and took a week off from work to come here.
We decided to reheat and eat the grilled burrito we brought home from Don Jose’s last night for lunch. After lunch we drove down to the end of Homer Spit to the Land’s End Hotel.
We stopped in at the Salty Dawg Saloon
and had a couple of Alaskan Amber beers.
The Salty Dawg began as one of the first cabins built in Homer in 1897. In 1909 a second building was built and later it was joined to the original. After the 1964 earthquake the Salty Dawg was moved and the lighthouse was added to cover a water storage tank.
We spent the afternoon checking out the shops on the Spit and stopped at the Harbor Grill Restaurant to check it out to see if we wanted to eat dinner there. After looking around and reading the menu, we made a reservation for 6:30 for a booth with a view of the Homer Boat Harbor. We found out that the same people who own the Harbor Grill also own Don Jose's Mexican Restaurant where we ate dinner last night.
We also went into town to a large gift & souvenir shop and bought a couple of things and saw these beautiful peonies outside the store
and saw this 1957 Corvette in the gift shop.
We went back to the RV and fixed a pot of coffee. The tide had come in and we spent our last afternoon here sitting out on the beach drinking our coffee. The temp was still in the mid-50’s and very windy, so we were bundled up.
We visited with Mike and Sally, our neighbors here, and their daughter Lilly until it was time for us to get ready to leave for dinner.
We arrived at the Harbor Grill a little before 6:30.
We had a nice booth looking out on the Homer Boat Harbor at the Harbor Grill restaurant. I ordered the Baked Alaskan Halibut (I’d been told if I liked salmon that I would really like halibut) with lemon olive oil, bread crumbs and Parmesan ($29) and Mike ordered a 14 oz. rib eye steak ($28). We both got a salad, steamed vegetables, red potatoes and focaccia bread and a glass of pinot grigio. I REALLY enjoyed the Baked Halibut – thanks, Chris (Mike’s brother) for suggesting I try halibut. The bill for our dinner came to $91.38 before our tip – we don’t indulge like that very often.
Colin, our waiter, brought around the dessert tray and I ordered the New York cheesecake and Mike had a chocolate and berry cheesecake.
On the way back to the RV, we saw this green tour bus, the Green Tortoise, and a large group of young people setting up tents on the bay. I looked up Green Tortoise and found out it is a backpacking adventure tour.
Tomorrow we leave Homer and go north up the Sterling Highway to Soldotna for one night before heading back up to Anchorage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
and Mt. Redoubt (54 miles away).
We found this turnoff with a great view of Mt. Iliamna and stopped there to fix lunch.
We arrived in Homer at 1:30 and drove out on to Homer Spit to look for a campground.
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.
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.
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.
