Tuesday, July 29 - Driving to Homer

Bob & I slept in until seven and then went over to the hotel restaurant once again.  We split an order of scrambled eggs with hamburg and spinach and tri-colored potatoes which was very good and enough for the two of us.

Exit Glacier 

We checked out of our hotel and drove up the road to the National Park entrance for the Exit Glacier.  You are supposed to be able to walk right up to this glacier and touch it.  We passed signs on the road with dates starting in the late-1800s where the lower edge of the glacier was back then.  As we drove closer we saw more current dates showing how the glacier has been retreating.  We started walking on a trail and reached an overlook where you could touch the glacier in 1998, but it has retreated 500’ back and become steeper and more dangerous so falling ice would now clobber you if you stood at the base.  So lovely as it was, we actually had better views yesterday from our boat!

Kenai River

Blue Bells, Campanula rotundifolia

We retraced our drive 29 miles to Moose Pass where we turned west onto the Sterling Highway which crosses the Kenai Peninsula to the Cook Inlet.  We drove along the very long twisted Kenai Lake stopping occasionally to watch for birds and look at the fantastic scenery of mountains and water.  Fishing camps and fishermen were everywhere and every time we looked closely at a stream if was full of fish!

Salmon Berry

The highway left the mountains and entered the rolling west coast which is more populated than the Seward side.  As we got closer to the coast we passed through a few messy towns which were stretched along the highway with no evidence of any zoning or planning, which is the case for most of Alaska we have seen so far.  In Soldotna we turned off to the Kenai Nat‘l Wildlife Refuge which has boardwalks, trails, and a nifty visitor’s center. Everything the national and local government does in regard to parks and preservation is first class, but the rest of human activity is pretty chaotic!

  We did come upon an old Russian Orthodox church overlooking the large Cook Inlet, surrounded by a lovely cemetery full of overgrown wildflowers.  Several huge volcanoes appeared across the water: perfect snowcapped cones!

Homer overlook

As we approached Homer we came to an overlook which totally charmed us.  It had a spectacular view of the huge Kachemak Bay lined on the far side with snowcapped mountains (actually the backside of the mountain range we were seeing from our boat trip from Seward) and below us the town of Homer with its several mile long sand spit stretching out into the water.  The overlook itself with full of flower and vegetable beds and a lovely entryway into town!

We found the Bay Ave B&B which overlooks the Spit and met Lori and her husband who run it.  We settled into our room with an amazing water and mountain view. We heard some squawking and saw several Sand hill Cranes flying by!

As we had skipped lunch and it was already 6:30 we drove out on the spit to find the Fresh Catch which Lori had recommended for dinner. The spit has a harbor and clusters of tiny knick-knack shop, cafes, fishing guide stalls, one of which had a dozen halibut of various sizes hanging up to be cleaned.  We both had fettuccini with scallops and salmon for RR and salmon and the world’s sweetest mussels for me.  It was way too much food but really good and we managed to split a rhubarb crumble for dessert!

Today's catch!

Homert has a Santa Cruz off-beat charm in a stunning location.  Tomorrow we are going to take a three-hour boat tour with a birder for a couple of lifers Bob needs.  It’s 10 PM and the sun is still shining on the marsh and mountains outside!