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...