Homer Harbor - 4/24/13

After our trip to the jelly lady (Sweet Berries of Homer), we drove to the Homer Marina on the Homer Spit.  The Spit is an irregular shaped piece of beach that has formed with the ocean tides and sand.  It was wiped out in the 1964 Good Friday earthquake (the BIG one here in Alaska) and was rebuilt. 

 Homer Spit

 The Spit has a harbor, marina and few year round businesses, but mostly is has tourist season businesses. We strolled around the harbor and watched the activity.  The Homer harbor is ice-free year round, so there were a few fishing boats and water taxis coming and going. 

Here are some of animals/sights we saw as we walked around the harbor.  You can see that is was still gray and cloudy (although it was not raining). But in Alaska, you do not wait for the sunshine. You just go!!

We saw loons, eagles, sea gulls and ravens.

Time Bandit (for you “Deadliest Catch “ fans)

            Boats at the Homer harbor with the mountains and glaciers in the background

            Same backdrop for baseball practice at the harbor – quite a practice field!!

 This is a photo I took last summer.  It is a hayfield across the bay from the same glaciers 

in the pictures above.  What a place to farm!!

 

Homer Inn and Spa Moose - 4/23/13

We arrived at the Homer Inn and Spa on Tuesday and got checked in.  By 6:00 PM it was still raining an Alaska rain – a very fine mist that you cannot see if you look out the window.  But if you are out in it, you will get soaked.  We decided to go in the hot tub.  After all, that is the reason we booked this place.  We were in about an hour and then returned to our room on second floor to have some cheese and crackers with the complimentary home-brewed blueberry pinot wine that was made by the owners.  We were sitting at the table when we spotted a moose crossing through the yard.  As you can see in the pictures, there is no vegetation in the yard, just rocks and pavers.  The moose passed through very quickly – too quickly for a picture.

We were quite sure that he would not be returning because we have been told that you cannot pattern moose like you can deer – that they do not follow the same trail all the time.  The next evening while we were in the hot tub, I joked to Doug to be sure and tell me if he saw the moose coming, since I had my back to the direction from which he came the night before. It was not 5 minutes after I said that to Doug that he said very quietly; “there’s the moose. He just jumped the yard fence.” We sat very quietly and he passed by us – six feet away from us!  After he passed we realized that we never even heard his feet on the rocks or on the pavers.  Again, no pictures because we did not have the camera with us in the hot tub.

View across the bay the day that we arrived.

View from our balcony. Note that the tree stump to the left of the tall tree is carved to look like a  breaching whale.  If even has a flipper on the side facing us.

The view as the clouds went away.

This couple was enjoying the swing in the Inn's yard, but they had to be all bundled up to enjoy it.  It was only about 45* and the wind was blowing.  

We enjoyed the same view from the hot tub at 104*!

Views from our balcony.  It always seemed to be low tide.  I did hear the waves crashing (high tide) at about 2:00 AM one morning.

Glaciers across the bay.

The moose walked on the pavers right beside the hot tub.

On Wednesday afternoon before our moose/hot tub adventure, we spent some time in the beautiful Homer public library and then drive a long way out East End Road to find the jelly lady so we could buy some of her awesome apple-habenero jelly.  We called her to get directions to her place.  A few minutes after we hung up, she called us back and said, “Since you are coming around lunch time, there is this place along the road to my house that has great food, homemade bread and soups….”.  Only in a small town would you get that kind of neighborliness.

Mountain goats on the Seward Highway - 4/23/13

We took a trip to Nebraska – South Dakota over Christmas.  Since we returned to Alaska in January, Doug & I both have been working in the schools quite a bit.  We have been doing standardized and individualized testing.  We are scheduled to test again for the next two weeks. I tell you that because this past week we had a truly exceptional week.  We kept remarking about it all week.  By the time Sunday rolled around, and our remarkable week was continuing, we figured out what was so different.  This was the first full week that we were both retired and acted like we were retired, with nothing to do and no schedule to dictate to us. 

 Migrating ducks have started landing in our yard and in our neighbor’s yard.  We have had up to fifty ducks.  They are eating the feed that is leftover from our bird feeders.  We have both stopped feeding the birds now because the bears are waking up.  Bird feeders attract bears, so we do not put bird feed out after the bears come out of hibernation.  

We have seen thousands of ducks, Canadian geese, snow geese and swans in their migration this spring.

I did start the week by going to work. I subbed in a classroom on Monday morning.  Then Tuesday we drove to Homer because we had bought a Groupon for a place to stay in Homer by the Kachemak Bay.  Tuesday was cold, rainy and gray. When we drove to Anchorage we saw about 10 moose, 7 of them in one group.  We saw a total of about 20 by the time we got to Homer. 

We were driving on the Seward Highway south of Anchorage and came to the place called Windy Corner.  It is called that for GOOD reason (think-- hurricane).  We passed a mountain goat and her kid RIGHT beside the highway. So we pulled over and got out of the car to take pictures. (To those of you who have visited, you know we call the Seward Highway the Death Highway).  But remember, we were retired people driving the highway in the middle of the week and it was not tourist season.  So there wasn’t nearly as much traffic as there was when you visited us.  I would most likely be posting this for you from the after-life if we had attempted this during tourist season!  Anyway, the goats pretty much ignored us and let us take all the pictures we wanted. An eagle floated overhead as I was taking goat pictures.

Dear Valerie S. – We thought of you twice this trip. Once when we stopped at the Moose is Loose on the way to Homer and once when we stopped at the Moose is Loose on the way home.  For everyone else – the Moose is Loose has the most unbelievable donuts in the whole world!!!!  You cannot drive by without buying some.  We bought enough for our stay in Homer and then we stopped to get some for our trip home.