IT HAPPENS ON THE SPIT

The rain returned yesterday, and as a result, our destination was the Pratt Museum.  This is another outstanding local museum, well worth the $6 admission price.  I didn't take many pictures inside, but I did get a shot of this whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. 

The Homer Spit is a narrow piece of real estate, that sticks out into Kachemak Bay for about 3 miles. The Spit is where all things "fishing" take place, from charters, to the boat harbor, to the many seafood dining establishments.  The Ferry Terminal, deep water dock, multiple RV parks, and many tourist related businesses all call the Spit home.  Even though we didn't make our way onto the Spit yesterday, these pictures are from previous visits.   As you can see, there is a certain sense of humor associated with this Homer landmark, that can best be described as "different".

 

 This place is on our list for a future meal.

When one of the local charter boats brought in it's catch, we watched the Halibut being displayed for the proud fisher persons.  Fresh Halibut is $20+ per pound, so perhaps the going rate of $120 for a half day fishing charter is a good deal, if you can catch the limit of 2 Halibut, and you come away with over 10 pounds of fresh fish.  We talked about doing it, but since I'm not much of a fisherman, Nancy is prone to sea sickness, and Patty was kind of on the fence, I don't think it's going to happen.  Our freshly caught Halibut is most likely going to come from the local fish market on the Spit.
 

The quilt, yarn, and fabric stores need more of these benches outside their businesses.

Baycrest RV Park - $44.61  Cumulative - $1,082.44

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.

Baycrest RV Park - $44.61  Cumulative - $1,037.83

NINILCHIK, AK TO HOMER, AK

Faced with a tortuously long drive of about 35 miles, we procrastinated at Ninilchik, before finally getting on the road to Homer.  It was mid morning before we joined the long line of folks headed west on the Sterling Hwy.  Having already secured our parking spots at the Baycrest RV Park, we were eager to get parked on the bluff overlooking Katchemak Bay. 

And what a view it is!  Instead of backing in like the class C next to Nancy, we pulled straight into our reserved sites (42 & 43), so that the incredible panorama of the ocean and mountains is directly out our front windows.  This park is situated on a bluff several hundred feet above the beach, and coincidentally, it's the same park where we stayed 12 years ago.  Our view last time wasn't quite as good, as we were parked back away from the cliff.  After checking out the possible RV parking locations on the Spit, we all agreed that Baycrest was an all around better deal, particularly the "to die for view".  The only comparable park on the Spit was $70 a night, and like I mentioned before, everything down there is "Sardinesville".

 We got creative with the hookups, using the water & sewer in between our rigs.

Another great thing about this park is the almost constant show that the Eagles put on right in front of us.  Soaring at the top of these cliffs is similar to what we watched at the Grand Canyon, as the Condors, & other birds would ride the thermals rising from inside the canyon.  I'm not sure about warm air being the cause here, but I suspect that the winds coming off the ocean create updrafts, as they hit the land mass, allowing the birds to stay aloft without much effort.  Whatever the case, it's fun to watch, but not easy to capture with the camera.

Gracie likes the view, and the big birds.

 

After getting parked, we drove into town, and captured images of a few of the many eagles on the Spit.  This first one was parked on the top of a large pile of dirt.   With all of the sport, and commercial fishing activity, this seems to be the ideal habitat for Bald Eagles, and they are everywhere!

This guy was posing for several wanna be wildlife photographers.

Wildlife photography is all about that one moment which captures a special event, or special behavior.  It usually takes a lot of patience, often hours of waiting is part of the formula.  Well, even though I didn't plan it,  and I didn't wait for hours, I did capture something that this eagle decided to do, before it flew away.  How many photography novices like me, can say that they snapped a picture of our national bird, just when it decided to take a dump!

Later, more pictures of the "Spit", and other Homer sights, as we settle into the 4th of July weekend.  Happy Birthday America!

Baycrest RV Park, Homer - $44.61  Cumulative - $993.22
Miles driven - 33  Cumulative - 5,226

SEWARD, AK TO NINILCHIK, AK

Leaving Seward under cloudy skies instead of a downpour, was more what we had in mind.  The weather had cleared, and the drive toward the end of the road in Homer, was under much better weather conditions than the day before.   We stopped at a Fred Meyer store in Soldotna, before continuing the relatively short drive on the Sterling Hwy toward Homer.  WalMart always gets a lot of attention for being RV friendly, as they should.  However, the Fred Meyer stores deserve equal credit for having the same welcome mat out regarding RV parking.  This particular store in Soldotna is mentioned in the Milepost, as allowing RV's to overnight in their parking lot, and there were a few rigs taking advantage of the hospitality. 

 The Homer Spit is visible, sticking out into Katchamak Bay.

With the 4th of July long weekend on the near horizon, I decided to stop in Ninilchik, about 35 miles from Homer.  The Alaskan Angler RV Park is a Passport America (PPA) member, one of only a few in Alaska.  We were a couple of days late, as they don't accept PPA in July, but I wanted to take the Jeep into Homer, and scout out a parking place.  So, we quickly got set up in 50 amp, full hookup spaces, then drove the Jeep into Homer.
  

Parking on the Homer Spit was a possibility, but the choices ranged from more dry camping at $15 a day, to a full hookup space in the $75 a day range.  Not wanting to be in Sardinesville with no hookups, and not wanting to use most of my social security check for a few days of camping, we chose the Baycrest RV Park.  Located up on the bluff, a few miles before you get into Homer, we reserved a couple of spaces that have views of Katchamak Bay to die for!    

When we got back to Ninilchik, I drove down to the tiny harbor, where we watched eagles soaring overhead, and several on the beach.  It's almost impossible for me to get any good closeup shots of eagles flying with my little point and shoot Nikon camera, but I think Nancy got some good pictures with her not point & shoot Nikon.

These juvenile Bald Eagles were keeping the Seagulls away, as they worked on a couple of fish.

Before returning to the motor homes, we checked out the small (I mean tiny) Ninilchik boat harbor.  The tide was out, and these fishing boats were packed in so tight, most of them could not get out, even if it was high tide.  The only thing we could figure is that they all leave at the same time, and do the same when it's time to re-park all of the boats.  The exit to the harbor was nothing more than a small creek, so all of the coming and going has to be done at high tide.

This morning, we're moving to Homer, where we'll stay parked through the 4th of July weekend.  The girls found a couple of quilt shops in Homer, so guess where I won't be during those excursions.

Alaskan Angler RV Park, Ninilchik - $39.00  Cumulative - $948.61
Miles traveled - 133  Culumlative - 5,193

SOAKED IN SEWARD

Our decision to stay put in Seward for one more day was probably a pretty good one.  It rained all day, so instead of dealing with wet roads, we dealt with lots of water puddles around the motor homes.  It was definitely a pop corn and movie day. 

Our only venture away from the lakes surrounding the RV's, was to our Internet cafe, Safeway, and to the start of the trail up Mount Marathon.  Judging by the steep rocky cliff where the runners have to first ascend the mountain, this is one unique, and very tough race.  Last year, one runner disappeared on the slopes, and his body was never found.
  
This morning, it was still cloudy, but the rain had subsided, so we pulled out of Seward around 9am, destination Ninilchik or Homer.

Seward Waterfront RV Park - $15.00   Cumulative RV Park fees - $909.61

AN AQUARIUM PLUS

The Alaska Sealife Center in Seward is one of about 6 world class aquariums on the west coast.  Two others that come to mind are the Monterey Aquarium in CA, and the Newport Aquarium in OR.  We spent a couple of hours at this facility, that not only displays all types of sealife, but it's also a rehabilitation center for marine animals and seabirds that can eventually be nursed back to good health, and returned to their natural habitat.  I didn't take a lot of pictures because the flash against the glass caused most to not turn out.  See Nancy's blog for some better photos.

We awakened this morning to a constant rain, which is predicted to last for another day or so.  As a result of the not so good weather, we decided to stay another day here in Seward.  Not being on a fixed schedule is a good thing for times like this.  We need to get to Homer before the crowds start building for the 4th of July weekend, but we can easily do that tomorrow, or even the next day.

We don't have any Internet capability where the motor homes are parked, so we've been frequenting the Sea Bean coffee house in down town Seward.   In addition to free WiFi, the mocha's are pretty darned good.   Patty snapped this last picture of the two bloggers hard at work on their latest post.

A couple of folks have asked how to get to Nancy's blog.  Simply scroll down past CHP Memories on my blog, and there are several links to other blogs, one of which is Nancy's - KISSACK ADVENTURES.

Seward Waterfront RV Park - $15.00  Cumulative - $894.61