More from Homer...

In addition to my tour around the Homer spit, I also had my first opportunity to go berry picking...there are wild raspberry bushes within walking distance of Jeanne's house so we grabbed a bucket and picked some berries...

Duncan & Dave are fans...

 view from Jeanne's house

Jeanne's neighbor loves to garden and generously shares everything she grows so we walked over to see what goodies she had growing....

 she had a greenhouse, filled with tomatoes, cherry trees, and peach trees just to name a few...

 fresh peaches

 beautiful flowers too...

 another view of one of the glaciers...

 the next morning, those wild raspberries topped homemade sourdough pancakes - SO good!!

Another fun thing for me on this trip to Homer was getting the chance to meet my computer / blogger friend, Ashley, in person.  I found Ashley's blog several months back when I did a search for 'Alaska blogs'.  Like me, she is a transplant to Alaska and her blog shares many of her Alaskan experiences.  We began exchanging emails / commenting on each others blogs over the past few months and I had hoped to get to meet her in real life at some point.  She and her husband moved from Anchorage to Homer a couple of months ago, so I emailed her to see if she was planning to be around for the weekend...not only was she around, but she had some days off, so it worked out great to connect.  I realized I didn't get any pictures of her...but you can see her blog here...

She took me around to some of the shops, the Pratt Museum, wine tasting at the Bear Creek Winery, and to a great spot in the hills of Homer that overlook the whole town.

I'm not usually a big museum person, but this one was actually really interesting; there were a lot of hands on exhibits / displays about everything Alaska, the Natives, the homesteaders, the fishing, the oil, the animals...the above and below pics were a nice visual demonstration of why Alaska receives the amount of daylight / darkness it does in the summer / winter months...

This was a real octopus...she put on a nice show for us...

There was a display sharing info about the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill as well...something I remember for sure, but definitely did not fully appreciate at the time it occurred...certainly not for the effect it would have on those who's livelihoods were dependent on the fishing in that area...

This small amount of oil in the thermostat looking thing below would make a slick on the surface of the water as big as you see in the following picture...

and some hindsight perspective...
Outside of the museum was an old outhouse and homestead house...

Visit to the winery...

 views of the glacier from the winery...

we were able to taste as many wines as we wanted...they all tended to be on the sweeter side but I liked these three...

Views of Homer from up in the hills

 The spit

the smaller 'lake' in the foreground is where many of the float planes dock

 the boat harbor in the spit...

 another glacier

 more 'spit'  :)

Jeanne's house (my mom's friend) is in the photo above...beautiful area...

Back on the spit, there is a memorial for any person who has lost their life at sea...

There's No Place Like Homer

The memory of my long road trip to Alaska has faded enough that I felt I was up to spending 4 hours in the car to visit Homer and the 3 day weekend provided the perfect opportunity to go.

I don’t even really know where to begin…Homer is beautiful…the pictures don't do it justice…and I didn’t even get to see it at its absolute best on a sunny day…I can only imagine how much more beautiful it is when the weather is completely cooperative.

This is the view just before coming into the town...

The Homer Spit

My mom has a friend from college who lives in Homer.  She and her husband have had their own fishing business for more than 40 years.  She offered me and the dogs a place to stay for the weekend and was my tour guide on Saturday.

She took me down to the Homer Spit…(a 'spit' is a small piece of land that juts out into the water) to show me where they store some of their fishing pots and gear…they do salmon fishing (with nets) in the summer and then cod fishing in the winter...

She took me to the boat harbor and showed me one of the fisheries...definitely not the most pleasant smelling area of Homer...

Her husband is currently in Juneau to bring their boat back to Homer.   It is a 3 day journey across the water but he was currently stuck there until at least Thursday because of poor weather conditions.


Here are some of the sites around Homer...

on the spit...

many charters...for fishing...for bear watching...

Fish from a fishing charter, they filet and weigh your catch and ship it to you...

bumper sticker in one of the shops...

for fans of "The Deadliest Catch"...they have two 'stores' in  Homer...and I was told that they had come in to town that weekend but I did not see their boat...one of their pots is set up outside this shop location - tall enough for me to stand in...Jeanne's husband actually went to school with some of the guys...

someone got creative with wood...that's a big whale...

The Salty Dawg Saloon...
Right next door though, is a rather non-descript restaurant called The Happy Face...this is where we went to dinner Saturday night and according to Jeanne where you get the best fish 'n chips in Homer...

as you know, I am not a seafood person, however I have been willing to try everything - this was the first time I'd ever ordered fish 'n chips in my life...so I have no other fish 'n chips to compare it to, but I CAN tell you it was REALLY good...so good, that when I woke up the next day I was still thinking about it and wouldn't have minded returning for it again...

It was breaded halibut and it was delicious...Jeanne said this is where many of the local fishermen go for lunch and it's some place I would definitely go back to the next time I visit Homer.


I have A LOT more to show but this post is long enough for now...these last few pictures were mostly taken around the spit as well - 

Hide and Seek

The first thing I usually do in the morning is open the window blinds in my bedroom and check to see if there are any moose or bears in the yard.  Up until the other day, there hadn't been...I think they are usually earlier risers than I am.  But the other morning, I raised one of the blinds and saw a female moose lying in the yard.  I didn't want Duncan to start barking at her (Dave hadn't noticed her), so I shut him in the bathroom, but by the time I got downstairs with my camera, she had stood up...

I waited for her to leave the yard before letting the dogs out...they immediately ran over to the area where she had been laying in the grass...

They ran around in the yard for a couple of minutes and then ran into the bushes...Duncan disappeared for a minute...and the next thing I know...the moose was back...chasing Duncan...

I kind of froze...not sure what to do...I knew I couldn't get out there fast enough to do anything...so I decided to do the only thing I could do...hold my breath...and take pictures... :)

She chased Duncan off and then Dave decided to have a turn at her...dumb dog...

This picture is blurry b/c I decided I'd better see if I could get them inside and was running and taking the picture at the same time...here she is chasing Duncan again...she finally ran back off into the bushes...they went from playing hide and seek to a game of tag...I'm hoping they've learned their lesson!