Day 18 - Homer

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Had a good night sleep at the RV Park. Took a drive along the spit and snapped a few photos of the area before heading over to the visitors centre for maps and info on the local area.

Geoff is keen to take some good quality photos of eagles and other wildlife. So far he hasn't been lucky. The ocean and islands visitors centre at Homer is well worth as stop over. Lots of exhibits for the public and the staff are helpful too.

Headed over to the public library to use the wi-fi as the free wi-fi in the RV park was absolutely useless. Organised all our receipts to send to Celebrity Cruises for refund of expenses. Needed to get that done as it's too easy to lose the receipts. Very nice library here at Homer - free wi-fi, a good number of computers for guest use and a fantastic view of the mountains and water as well.

Took a short hike down to Bishop Beach. Walked along the beluga slough trail. This was a 1/4 mile scenic hike through woods and over a marsh area before ending at the beach.
High tides in Homer can reach 28 feet. It is another sunny day here but the breeze is quite chilly. We had a quick coffee and snack in the RV before heading to the Spit area to look out for eagles. We drove to Lands End (which is the end of the road at the Spit). Geoff found a fledgling sitting up high on a cell phone tower. He was able to get some good photos. On another tower there was a large eagle nest but no sign of mum. As we drove out of the spit area a large mature eagle flew above us carrying a descent size fish in its mouth. Another one of those times we didn't get a chance to grab a photo as Geoff was driving and by the time I grabbed the camera the bird was well gone!

As Homer is the Halibut capital of the world we decided we better grab some to try before we left the area. Found a cafe and ordered Halibut and chips $22. The fish was cooked in breadcrumbs and although it was meant to be a meal for one there was more than enough for both of us. The Halibut was good - a mild tasting fish.

Homer has its own brewery in town. The Homer brewing Company is the smallest brewery we have come across in our travels. They have a tour of the place - from the front door o the customer counter is the whole tour! That is around 20 feet!!The brewery opened in 1996 and sells its goods to local businesses in the Homer area. You can take your "growler" (1/2 gallon jar to be filled up with the local brew). Fantastic to hear that the brewery is well supported by local businesses.

We needed to head back towards Kenai so we left Homer around 6pm - which will give us around 4 hours of daylight to make the journey. Along this part of our adventure we have to back track along the same roads - no choice here. It is a Took a short hike down to Bishop Beach. Walked along the beluga slough trail. This was a 1/4 mile scenic hike through woods and over a marsh area before ending at the beach.
High tides in Homer can reach 28 feet. It is another sunny day here but the breeze is quite chilly. We had a quick coffee and snack in the RV before heading to the Spit area to look out for eagles. We drove to Lands End (which is the end of the road at the Spit). Geoff found a fledgling sitting up high on a cell phone tower. He was able to get some good photos. On another tower there was a large eagle nest but no sign of mum. As we drove out of the spit area a large mature eagle flew above us carrying a descent size fish in its mouth. Another one of those times we didn't get a chance to grab a photo as Geoff was driving and by the time I grabbed the camera the bird was well gone!

As Homer is the Halibut capital of the world we decided we better grab some to try before we left the area. Found a cafe and ordered Halibut and chips $22. The fish was cooked in breadcrumbs and although it was meant to be a meal for one there was more than enough for both of us.

Homer has its own brewery in town. The Homer brewing Company is the smallest brewery we have come across in our travels. They have a tour of the place - from the front door to the customer counter is the whole tour! That is around 20 feet!!The brewery opened in 1996 and sells its goods to local businesses in the Homer area. You can take your "growler" (1/2 gallon jar to be filled up with the local brew). Fantastic to hear that the brewery is well supported by local businesses.

We needed to head back towards Kenai so we left Homer around 6pm - which will give us around 4 hours of daylight to make the journey. Along this part of our adventure we have to back track along the same roads - no choice here. It is a spectacular drive anyway apart from the stops for roadwork between Homer and Anchor Point. At the roadworks cars line up to wait for the pilot car to take traffic through the works. Sometimes the wait is up to 30 minutes...time to catch up on the blog.

The highways are lined with wildflowers - mainly fireweed and cows parsnip. The fireweed has medicinal purposes and can be found tossed in with salads.

Around 8pm we stopped for fuel at Ninilchik. RV took $175 to fill up @ $4.11 gallon. Over the road a charter boat had arrived back from a day at sea and was hanging the days catch up for weighing...this was an amazing sight. Some of the Halibut were huge. Couldn't wait to get over the road to photograph them. The largest fish weighed in at 115lbs! We watched as they filleted the fish with such precision and skill. This sight really made our day.

Continuing along the highway we saw a beautiful lake with reflections from the sun. It was around 9pm when we turned off to Arc Lake near Soldotna. It was so peaceful by the lake but we needed to keep moving. Arrived at Soldotna around 9.30pm. Set up camp for the night at Fred Meyers car park. RV's can park at certain grocery stores along the perimeter of the carpark. It is free and there is also a dumping station and drinking water for use as well.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Seward.

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Photos

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Welcome to Homer. The Halibut capital of the world

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On the boardwalk on the spit

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Halibut and chips

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Halibut caught by charter boat...big one is 115lbs

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Filleting the halibut. They make it look so easy

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Shops along the boardwalk on Homer Spit

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At the homer brewery

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Homer Brewery

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Ship graveyard along the spit

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A fledgling up on a cell phone tower

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Condominiums line the beach front on Homer Spit.

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Arc lake

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Fireweed along the side of highway