BY CHANCE: 4TH OF JULY BBQ, PARADE, & A MOOSE

Friday, July 5, 2013

4TH OF JULY BBQ, PARADE, & A MOOSE

A view of the Homer Spit from the East End Road.

The 4th of July celebration in many small towns, usually includes a parade, fireworks, and other activities like BBQ's. No different yesterday in Homer, an Alaskan town on the Kenai Peninsula, population around 5,000. We started the day with a drive out the East End road, to the head of Kachemak Bay. Lots of properties with unbelievable views of the Bay, and the mountain glaciers on the other side.

On the drive from town out to the Spit, there's a large open area to the west of the road. Out in the middle of this grass field was a Moose Cow, grazing away like there weren't thousands of people within a half mile of her location.

When we got back to the motor homes, we had our own 4th of July BBQ, that included burgers, chips, and Nancy's super potato salad. After the meal, we had an hour or so to kill before heading back into town for the parade.

Arriving a half hour before the 6pm parade was supposed to start, the girls found a buddy on park bench, strategically located near the judges/announcers stand. I purposely stayed out of the conversation, but the girls scored a great place to sit while waiting for the parade to start.

Any local parade has to include politicians - right? This parade was no exception, but in addition to the local politicos, somehow Homer scored one of the big Washington fishes. Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski was the grand marshal, riding in the convertible.

The local Humane Society had several dogs in the parade, and for a minute, I thought Patty was going to run out and grab this beauty.

In my Harley bad boy days, I don't think I would have considered riding my bike with only a Kilt.

This 1957 Corvette was a beauty!

Back at the motor homes, I fired up the fake campfire, as someone insisted that the 4th of July celebration wouldn't be complete without some roasted marsh mellows. I don't do marsh mellows, cold, heated, or otherwise, so I'll leave it up to the reader to figure out which one of the girls had to eat a bunch of burned sugar.