HOMER ALASKA [A BEAUTIFUL PLACE ON THIS EARTH]

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SUNDAY THE 22ND

… first off, thanks for all you notes and comments … keep them coming … we enjoy hearing from you …

… yesterday, sunday, we drove from seward to homer - a distance of probably 180 miles … we had an “out of the van” lunch along the kenai river … a beautiful place … the water in the river is the most phenomenal blue … guess it could be called kenai blue as i think it is unique unto itself … in addition to the wonderful lunch something else happened - i broke off a tooth that i have had a root canal capped with a permanent crown … here we were in the middle of nowhere and I called my dentist on the cell phone and he said to hold on to the crown and to keep brushing what was left of the tooth so that it wouldn’t get plaque on it and he would re-glue the tooth when we got home … i was concerned about getting bacteria where the root canal was and he said that it was filled with a rubbery compound and that bacteria couldn’t penetrate down into the tooth … betcha you really wanted to know what to do if you broke a tooth when you we camping in the boonies … and now you know the rest of the story …

... we stopped at soldotna, a town large enough to have a couple of major stores, and bought food and another folding chair as we had only brought one along …

… here in homer, the cook inlet has voracious tides, as all the water in the turnagain arm passes through it … the cook exits into the open ocean a couple of miles past homer …

… one of my favorite places in the world is the little fishing village of ninilchik which is back up the cook inlet about 30 miles from homer … two years ago i camped along the beach there and fly fished the ninilchik river, a stream about the size of the galen river back home … it is one of those places where you didn’t care if the fish are biting or not, because the setting is so fantastic …, however beautiful it is, you do need to keep an eye out for bears …

… we stopped at the little russian orthodox church on the bluff above ninilchik and took pictures … … and then drove down to the state camping area when I had stayed 2 years ago … we found the camping area was all closed off … the land there must be settling as the high tide mark was about 10 feet higher than 2 years ago … i had secretly hoped that marilyn would dearly like the camping area and would suggest that we stay the night … however, it was closed and I wouldn’t have wanted to stay there with the high tide line so close to the place we would camp … there were big warning signs all over, “no camping --- no parking” … this is too bad because the beach stretches out for maybe a half mile when the tide is out and it is one of the best clamming beaches in alaska, and now, in effect, the clamming area is off limits to everyone because the “no parking” signs run up the road for a half mile or so …

… it rained quite hard as we came into homer … we tried a city park up the hill side that had camping for $15 a night … however, it had no showers, and I’d promised myself marilyn would have showers every night … yes, there were no showers at ninilchik, but I was hoping she would be so overwhelmed by the beauty that she would forget about showers …

… we settled on a rv park with a view beyond description … we are up on the top of a bluff overlooking the cook inlet here at homer … we can see 4 massive glaciers across the bay … you would have to search far and wide to find a more majestic setting, and the showers and bath rooms were new, clean, and first class …

it was raining slightly last night and then suddenly the fog rolled in … dense fog … we were both glad we were in for the night as it would have been next to impossible to drive in that fog … i fell asleep for a half hour while marilyn prepared a chicken soup , with additions of fresh broccoli, cauliflower, and onion … fabulous … we had a dessert of nutella on bakery bread … oh, are we ever suffering in the food department …

greg and i were judicious about not eating in the camper … we didn’t want the food smell at attract those little furry creatures that inhabit the canadian and alaskian wilderness … marilyn and I will be in larger campgrounds … we have on a couple of occasions cooked in the camper …

…because of the warm meal, the dense fog, and the fact we were very tired we retired early … at least I did, I don’t know when marilyn stopped reading …

MONDAY THE 23RD

… I was up about 730 and read some in the van … the next thing I knew marilyn handed me a mug of steaming hot coffee … the day was one of those beauties that comes only a few times in a summer on the coast of Alaska … a crystal blue sky with a few clouds up over the peaks of the mountains … before breakfast we called the danny j and secured reservations for the trip across the inlet to halibut cove … the docking for the danny j is right behind the salty dawg saloon out on the spit … this may be one of the 10 top day trips in alaska … the danny j is a beautiful reconditioned wooden boat and usually has a all lady crew … today was no exception … after the obligatory safety instructions the captain’s daughter told us about the area as we chugged along at 10 knots … we spent a good 20 minutes very slowly viewing a rookery on a group of islands just at the mouth of halibut bay … the danny j has a very limited capacity and we were close to the max at 16 passengers … we all asked questions and the captain and her daughter gave beautiful explanations of what we were seeing … I have much of this on video so you will probably get to see and hear just as we did today … am going to work with benjamin’s melanie when we get back to develop a video for all of you …

... halibut cove is really a unique experience … the houses and all the walkways are on pilings out over the water … it is an artist’s colony with perhaps a few hundred summer residents and 15 to 20 year round residents … we had a delightful lunch when we disembarked … the setting and food were beyond description … I had fish chowder and a salad … susie knows that one of the things I don’t eat is beets, however, today’s salad was a red cabbage with thinly sliced red beets, …and I devoured all of it … it’s amazing how the beauty of the surrounding environment changed my taste buds … between us we probably took 200 to 300 pictures of the island alone …

… we picked up a little spray on the way back and the captain invited marilyn and me into the wheel house … what an experience … it was like we were talking to a good friend …

… we wanted to post blogs and look at our pictures so we are saving the salty dawg and the rest of the homer spit for tomorrow …

-lookingoutovertheawesomecookinletrichard

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Comments

[Aunt Rosemary]

I have enjoyed every one of your epistles. Keep them coming. I am leaving Thursday for a trip up to the UP, but will look fwd. to reading all your next blogs when I get back. Glad you are having such a wonderful time, especially with Marilyn. Hi Marilyn. Aunt Rosemary