Homer

The day we left Seward, it was raining and pretty chilly…. In fact the whole trip we barely  made it into the 60's  most of the time it was in the 40's and 50's...

The drive to Homer was fairly uneventful… but a very beautiful drive.  As we were driving along the Kenai river, we noticed a lot of people fishing and floating the river.  The traffic in this area was very heavy and as I said before, it was a two lane road the whole way.  We stopped in the town of Soldotna  for  lunch before continuing on our way… we got to Homer and were amazed by the views from the town….  The mountains across the bay are beautiful!!! It was still a little rainy and cloudy… but still beautiful..



This is one of the views from our room towards the Homer Spit.



 Our motel is right on the beach and we can walk down on the beach, especially when the tide is out.  It has a big picture window that we can look out all the time from our room.  We also have a balcony that we can sit out on when the weather is a little warmer.



One thing that is a must in Homer is to go the Salty Dawg Salon on the Homer Spit... Inside there are dollar bills tacked all over the ceiling and walls.  A pretty electic group of people in there also. 





These pictures show what the Homer Spit like from a road high up on the mountian in Homer.

The spit is a land mass that just out into the bay.  We found resturants, shops, charters, boat trips, small boat
harbor, a hotel, camping, and a condo complex, all crowded on that strip of land. We went out there a couple of times but like staying in the quieter main part of town.

The beach was just below our motel... Here, Don is looking for unusual rocks on the beach at low tide.  It was interesting watching the tide go in and out.  Each day it seemed that the tide got lower and lower, showing more of the beach.

Notice that while walking on the beach, we have on jackets.  The water is cold and the air tempature is cool, so no swimming here.  Just lovely walks on the beach... This is at low tide.  At high tide, this rock in under water.

Exit Glacier and Seward

After we had a great weather day on Friday for the Fjords tour… we woke to cloudy and threatening rainy weather.  The rain held off while we went to explore Exit Glacier… It is a part of the Harding Ice Field…. It is a glacier that can be seen by taking a trail up to it.  Being up close to a glacier is really interesting… It acts like natures air conditioner… when the wind blows over it, it gets really cold.

As it melts, it creates little waterfalls all through it…  It is a blend of white, blue and kind of a dirty look to it.

It rained the rest of the day… so we just drove around town and walked a little down town…

We then went to the restaurant  at the lodge… we ordered the nachos… and got a mountain of nachos.. We ate some then and the next morning, but still couldn't finish them all.  The biggest plate I have ever seen… They were very good also..

Fjords boat tour….



Otters playing in the water.






This is all I got of the dall porposies,  their little water spouts.. They are like little orcas and were very quick... we never knew where they would come up next....

 

Glaciers -- all a part of the Harding Ice Field



The above 2 pictures are part of the series I took of a glacier caving... when the ice hit the water it made a loud crashing sound.


 

Seals resting on a rock...


 

This guy looked like he was actually posing for the boat!




Some of the beautiful spire formations.



Luck was with us again…. Beautiful, warm, sunny weather for our boat tour… and the sea was not rough so we did not have problems with sea sickness…  this is a beautiful place and the only way you can get to see it is by boat.  We had a great tour.  One of the Park rangers was on the boat telling about the interesting things along the way.  He would also walk around and visit and answer questions about the area.    We had inside seats but spent most of the day out on the deck viewing all the sights there were to see.

Our captain would slow down and turn the boat so everyone had a good view of something interesting.  We saw a lot of birds, (even puffins…, otters… cute animals that float out in the water, seals sunning themselves out on  rocks, and one young humpback whale feeding close to the shore.  ( :( but did not get a picture because the did not come out of the water much…)  We also saw dall's porpoises.. No pictures of those either because they were so fast… but cute!

Most of all… the coast line was beautiful… of course the day being sunny helped a lot.  This was a 7 and 1/2 hour tour with lunch to it was a full day.
These pictures are just a few of what we saw that day.....

Now that we have done the "inland Mountain" tour… we are on our way to Seward to start our "seaside Mountain" tour…   There are even more mountains on the Kenai penn.   Pretty drive to Anchorage with Mountains and forests…

Once we get to Anchorage, we start the ocean part of the tour…. We make our way around Cook inlet with mountains all around.. Probably one of the prettiest part of the trip… however, it is also one of the most congested areas.  There is a single lane road around the inlet with no passing and lots of traffic.  There are many turn outs to view the scenery… inlet with mountains in the background.

We go around the inlet then start an interior highway through the mountains towards Seward.    We thought there was a lot of traffic in the Denali area, but it doesn't compare to the traffic the we have now.   It is the 'Salmon run season' and there are a lot of people of fishing,  or going fishing.  

We get to Seward and got checked into our room.  We have another lodge type room and actually got upgraded to a balcony room which was sweet.   (none of the rooms up here have air conditioning because it gets cool at night. )  Our room is nice here and we have a wooded view.   The view from the front of the lodge is of the mountains.

Seward is not a really big town.  The activities here consist mostly of doing a Fjords tour, fishing, and viewing Exit glacier (which is a 7 miles from our room)

We found a good place to eat that wasn't too expensive… call the Train Wreck… small restaurant built in an old rail car… good hamburgers, and pulled pork sandwiches…



This is one of the glaciers we saw on our drive.

  



The above are some of the pictures of Turnagain Arm just outside of Anchorage driving towards Seward.



Talkeetna

After we did the lake kayak trip, we drove into Talkeetna.  It is about a 45 minute drive from our hotel.  Talkeetna is a quirky little town with lots of artist type of people and tourists.  We had a fun looking around the town and looking at some local art.  We did walk down to where three rivers come together with a view of Mt. McKinnnley... We have been lucky with the weather for this part of the trip.  Sunny and warm.... in the upper 60's.  (when it gets 70 degrees, the Alaskin's call it HOT)  We bought a few things in the shops and then had dinner in a place called West end Grill... we sat out on the patio because the weather was so nice.  The food was pretty good there... let me say something about the food here, it is expensive..even for fairly normal food.. we have gotten creative with our dinning by eating off the appetizer menus a lot. Even though the food is pricy, we get good portions so that is a plus.  The pictures are of the "moose" that are around town and the resturant where we ate.

After we got back from Talkeetna, we walked around the grounds of the lodge and then sat down outside our room for "happy hour".  We visited with the people who walked by.  Most of the people here are on some kind of tour, bus, train, cruise or all of the above.   There are a lot of tour busses here picking up and letting off people.  Tomorrow we drive back down through Anchorage and on to Seward.

It is Alaska

We are now in Homer... I do have Wi Fi.... but don't seem to be able to down load any pictures..... We have a beautiful view here from our room of the ocean and mountains across the bay... we will be here for 4 nights...
Will probably have to finish the blog when I get home...  I don't want to write too much with out pictures..

Lake Kayak trip

 We were very lucky to have a nice sunny day for our trip on Byers lake.  This made it all the more enjoyable.  Love the sun in Alaska!

 Don't we look cute as we get ready for our lake kayak trip.  We are wearing splash pants, crocks shoes and a PFD.  We are all ready to go...
This trip was very relaxing.  The lake was beautiful and smooth as glass.  It is part of the Alaska State Parks system...

 Here we are in our Kayaks...... lots of fun..

 The lake is beautiful and not used too much so it was nice and quiet and peaceful!!



We could actrally see Mt. McKinnley from this lake.
We had a wonderful time here and wished we could have stayed even longer here.



They have three cabins that can be rented on the lake.  The only way to this cabin is by canoe or kayak.  Probably very peaceful...