Homer Post Three

The first thing on our agenda today was lunch with our friend Milli at the Fat Olive in town. We started with a grill platter of reindeer sausage and shrimp. Then we all had the salad, bread, chowder combo. Delicious chowder and homemade bread. We visited for hours with Milli and found out something very interesting. Milli had had a professional story gatherer from the museum tape Albert's stories (William's dad). We never got around to taping Al's stories and were sorry about that. Milli says she will find the tapes and have them put on a cd for us. About 2:30 Milli had to leave and so did we, because we wanted to go to the Pratt Museum walking tour of Homer Spit at 3.

Before the walking tour we saw that the landing boat was upright and being pulled up a bit further on the shore.

The tour started at the Salty Dawg Saloon. We will have to go back and have a drink there. Quite a fascinating place, filled with dollar bills written on and stuck to the wall. The saloon is made of some of the oldest log buildings on Homer Spit, moved to this spot and joined together. It was heavily refurbished a few years ago. We walked down on the docks and got a lesson in commercial fishing. Long line fishing is for halibut. Purse seine is for fish that swarm in schools. Gill nets are for salmon. We watched a commercial boat unloading halibut. Then we went through a processing plant for charter boat fish where the fish are filleted, packaged and boxed for freezing and shipping.

These were smaller than William's halibut

We asked a lot of questions and got a two hour tour instead of an hour and ½ tour for just the two of us for our $5 apiece.

Things have picked up at the landing boat. They are pumping out the rest of the water and many guys are around the back end of the boat. I guess they are calculating how to patch up the hole at least well enough to refloat the boat and get it into the harbor for more work.

Homer Post Two

Later yesterday the campground workmen put some cones around the broken electric post at site 87. 

 When I was wandering around the campground this AM I got in a conversation with an old man who told me about the sunken vessel in front of the spit. A landing vessel that normally takes cargo to villages that have no docks had begun taking on water last night. The Coast Guard brought them extra pumps, but the leak was too bad. Their sister vessel tried to get them into the harbor, but they were sinking fast so they ran aground.  The sister vessel took off their crew and cargo.

The grounded landing boat is the gray one. The sister boat next to it is blue and yellow.

The Harbor Master came out to see what was up.

Harbor Master

Harbor Master pulls up to the wreck

He goes on board to check things out.

William and I walk out for lunch. We stop for the obligatory picture in front of the Salty Dawg.

My Salty Dawg

After lunch at the Boardwalk Fish and Chips  and some shopping for just the perfect reindeer hide, we walk out to see what is up with the partially sunk lander.
The Harbor Master has had yellow caution rope strung around it and the sister vessel has removed all cargo and valuables from the vessel. They may try to repair it and pump it out enough at low tide to refloat it and bring it into the harbor at high tide.  We heard that a weld had failed from a retrofit.

The Harbor Master is leaving.

Yellow caution rope encircles the boat

Shows the relationship of the boat to the buildings on shore

We continue on down the beach to Lands End.

The sun is bright and you can see the far shore.  We will take a boat ride over to the far side one of these days to visit these little villages with no cars.

After I get back I work on the laundry.  Ben called me when he was getting ready for bed. We talked about how it was still broad daylight here and how it hardly ever gets dark here in the summer. Right now at almost 11PM it is still bright day. We have to close all the curtains to make it a bit dark to sleep.

When I get back from the laundry room the workmen are almost done repairing the electric post.  They had to do the repairs quickly as most of the RV spots are rented every night.  Fresh Halibut for dinner again. Tonight I put a fillet on top of a salad.  This is the life.

Homer AK

On the way from Seward to Homer we stopped at Exit Glacier. It drips out of the vast Harding Icefield. The front of the glacier is no longer visible from the viewpoint.

On the road from the visitor center we passed date signs which locate the end of the glacier back to 1815.

On the Sterling Highway we stopped to view Mt Redoubt, one of the nearby volcanoes that tower over Cook Inlet.

Volcano, Mt Redoubt

Mt Redoubt overlooks Cook Inlet

Welcome to Homer Alaska as we overlooked Kachemak Bay.

We drove out to the spit to look for the location of the boat William will go fishing from on Wednesday.

For lunch we stopped at the Harbor Grill.

After lunch we went to visit a real Alaskan pioneer. Milli moved here in 1979. She and her husband and two boys 10 and 12 felled the logs for their house and built a large log house on their 100+ acres. They bought the land from the original homesteaders. It is a large and quite amazing house that a family built essentially by themselves. The house is high on the hill overlooking Homer. Milli now has just one horse and a dog and most of the land other than the yard and garden is natural. Cow parsnips have over run the pastures. The alder have been heavily browsed by moose and show witchy broom tops. Spruce have grown tall over the years.

Milli and Pepper

A huge field of mostly cow parsnips. You can see the barn roof  in the spruce.

Pepper might smell a rabbit.

A Nootka Lupine getting ready to bloom.

View of the Homer Spit from just below Milli's.

Tuesday we began touring around Homer at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. Really nice interactive displays here. Lunch was at the Sourdough Express. Reindeer sausage sandwich. Very good.

We checked out a number of campgrounds on the spit and decided on one close to the small boat harbor. William will go out Wednesday on the Optimist to catch some fish. I made him a very nice lunch, all five pounds of it. Lunch, check, water, check, high rubber boots, check, water repellant clothes, check, warm layers underneath, check, fishing license, check, fishing derby ticket, check. I think he is ready.

This morning we heard some bumping then a crash bang right before the alarm went off at 6AM. I thought it was a garbage truck, but William looked outside and saw that the electric plug in post next to us was smashed flat. We thought that the vehicle next to us had backed over it and left. They had left alright, right down to the row of campsites below and in front of us. They had careened over the bank, bounced off a vehicle next to a tent trailer and come to a stop on a picnic table. William asked what had happened and they said the accelerator had stuck. The police have come and gone wishing them good luck. I guess they are waiting for a tow truck.

The Yellowstone rental RV was the culprit.

Came pretty close to us.

Smashed the power box flat.

Smashed our fire pit.

Landed in a picnic table.

A man from the RV rental place has showed up. The accident is being explained to him. Looks like he came from Anchorage.  No tow truck. But according to the campground manager the drivers of the rental RV are too spooked to drive it.  I could see everything better if it were not for the fog, light rain, mist on our front window.  

This is supposed to be good fishing weather.  Hope William has good luck on the Optimist.  They will fish for halibut and whatever else they can catch.

Seward

On the road down to Seward from Anchorage we stopped at most of the pull outs with informational signs. This stop had a short trail out to a point where you could watch for Beluga whales. Little white whales that are fewer with each passing year.

Nootka lupine on a roadside bank

We are camping in Resurrection Campground. This is a city campground.

This is a rugged land.

The Pleasure Way looks out at Resurrection Bay.

The various city campgrounds, mostly along the bay, hold an enormous number of RV's. Many people from Anchorage come down here for two weeks at a time to fish for silver salmon. Did you know that Alaskans have the most RV's per capita of any state? Part of the reason for that is because it takes so long to go from one part of the state to another that people will just camp along the way. Another reason is that residents just like to go off to camp and hunt and fish.

We will be back in Seward for the mad press of the fourth of July. Some 30-40 thousand people cram into this small town for the festivities. One highlight is the Mt Marathon Run.

 William is pointing to the treacherous trail up the mountain that people run up and down in about 45 minutes.

We walked around Seward from the port at one end to the SeaLife Center at the other. 

Near the SeaLife Center is a marker where the Iditarod trail began from Seward before the RR was built.

The wind had picked up when we were walking back and I got thoroughly chilled. So I mixed up a batch of mulled wine with ingredients I had on hand. Pretty good. I felt warm after a couple of glasses.

Today, Saturday June 9^th, we spent most of the day at the SeaLife Center.

 William at an outdoor balcony at the Center.

I finally found an affordable raven art print at the SeaLife gift shop. I will have it framed and hung in the living room at home. But it is too big to keep in the RV, so it goes home by priority mail.

The weather is nice. Cloudy, not too cool, not too windy, so we shop along the main street.

We happen upon a wall with lovely murals of stories about Raven. So I had to have pictures of them all. Raven!!!

Raven the creator

Raven releases the sun, moon and stars.

Fog Woman

Anchorage Alaska

Monday, after William's dental appointment, we drove around Anchorage a bit and checked out the Coastal Trail. Powers that be want to get rid of or reroute a large chunk of the trail for airport expansion.

Today, June 5^th, we are up and out semi early for a day at the Anchorage Museum. We are within walking distance from the museum down here at Ship Creek RV Park near the RR tracks.

The art here at the museum is mostly in the Goldilocks time frame for me. Just the right amount of romantic realism with a splash of impressionism. William and I both like it very much. We have bought combo tickets for the Museum and the Heritage Center. We will do the Heritage Center next month.

We catch two docent tours and then go back to enjoy the exhibits again. I like the use of pearl buttons as bead work.

 Lunch is at the upscale museum cafe.

We do the more modern exhibits on the top two floors after lunch. Mostly installations and photography. The wild plants and flowers all in white is a favorite of mine. William was impressed with the one about the food network. I think I did not read enough about it. Time to play in the Imaginarium before the show in the planetarium. The show is Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, with a very well done digital show.

Just a bit of time for the gift shop. I buy a book recommended by one of the docents, “Two Old Women.”

On the lawn in front of the museum we see some telescopes set up for the transit of Venus in front of the sun. I try a few times to see and finally see the spot of Venus on the sun.

William is happy that he saw the transit.

Since it is a sunny and lovely bright day even though it is moving on towards seven PM, we wander around down town a bit. I pet furs in a fur shop while William chats up the old native proprietor, or rather the old native proprietor chats up William. Finally we escape and find an Information Center. I escape the walls of brochures to snap a few pictures outside, including the Spirit Bridge.