Homer, AK

The scenery here in AK can be just amazing, but for us seeing the wildlife is just as amazing.  Anything that we don't see in the Lower 48 just amazes us, we are easily amazed.  So here is our story of our encounter with a small town located on the Kenai Peninsula.  

HOMER, AK

During our travels through the Yukon we decided that our trailer is just too big.  We needed to sell it and get a smaller one.  We did not realized that trailers up here are a very coveted possession.  We listed our trailer on Craigslist and it sold within a week.  We got nervous and started frantically looking for a smaller one.  We had looked at several when we came across an ad for one for sale in the small city of Homer.  On Johnny's day off we booked it down to the tip of the Kenai Peninsula to look at the trailer.  It was just what we needed so we bought it.  The seller told us that we needed to visit the Homer Spit.  "Spit" really??? He said that the fishing was great and we needed to take it all in.  

We have learned that no matter where we go to always stop at the visitor center.  They always have great "hidden treasures" or must sees.  We came to learn that Homer is home to the Bald Eagles.  These amazing animals fly all around, they land on buildings and lamp posts.  

Homer also has a big fishing industry. 

Look on the building, it;s a bald eagle.

There's one.

There's another.

So the spit is a small piece of land that juts out into the water.  Like a peninsula. I guess Homer Spit sounds better than Homer Peninsula, definitely more interesting! I guess it does look like someone may have spit this land in the middle of all this water.  I guess the whole spit was only 2 miles long and about 200 yards wide. On one side is the marina and the other side is wide open ocean.  Homer is a birds paradise.  There is always an all you can eat fish buffet for them to feast on.  Because Homer has so many fishing charters it, makes it the perfect home to the Bald Eagles. Why ?? you ask.  When these fishing boats come in they clean all the fish and throw overboard all the leftover fish parts, guess you can say they 'spit' out the leftovers, which the birds swoop down to gobble up.

And another. The're everywhere, the're everywhere!

We decide to do something that we have never done before, CAMP ON SPIT! I just hope we don't step in spit.   So after we unhook and get camp set up we find a road off the beaten path that the visitor center said might make a nice drive.  It turned out to be a very scenic road.

We saw these awesome purple flowers, just growing on the road side.  Wish I could get these to grow back home.  Please don't ask me what they are.... all I know.... is that they are pretty and they are purple.

Ok, I really liked the purple flowers against the backdrop of the snow covered mountain.

We hound a Holstein horse.  

We spotted this bird animal just walking along the road side.  Don't know what it might be, but it's Alaskan and I took his picture.

Finally at long last we found an igloo here in Alaska.  We could not believe it, we thought everyone up here would live in igloos and wear fuzzy hats.  I have not yet to see a traditional Eskimo. Maybe one lives in this igloo.  But we did not stay to find out.  Had to get back to the spit to fix dinner.

This is what the post offices here in AK look like.  Not all, just the one here in Homer.  

Homer has a water way landing path.  Here sits a floating plane.  Sully the pilot landed his plane on the Hudson and did not need these float~y landing gear. 

Our fishing adventure out on the spit was quite a cool one.  Heston catches a fish and it jumps off the hook so Trent dives in and catches it with his hands.  My children are so talented!!!!

Heston catches the first fish of the day. Too bad no one wants to eat it.  We'll feed it to the birds.

Heston catches fish number two.  Lucky little thing.

Bryson catches the last fish of the day and it is the biggest.

My fishing boys, bringing home the "fishy" bacon. Not really, Johnny is the only one in our family that eats fish.  

The spit had a really cool beach, very pebbly with lots of drift wood.

Stopped by to take a picture with some buoys.

This is the Alaska Marine Hwy boat.  We watched cars come off. Very big vessel.

This is the Halibut that Bryson caught, NOT.  Some people do, but you have to pay to board one of the Halibut charters to get a catch this big.

This is a bald eagles nest.  Inside are two kid bald eagles.   We learned while at the visitor center that bald eagles don't get the white heads until they are mature.  Kinda like us humans, gray head means mature or old, either one I'm keeping mine hidden.

Here is the new trailer that we bought.  Worked really good while we camped in Homer! Guess it will now become the newest member of our family.

On our way back home we stopped in a little city called Anchor Point.   Of course we stop in at the visitor center and ask,  What is the one cool thing to do here in Anchor Point? Nothing she said sounded cool, we finally ask her what is one thing that we can only see in Anchor Point?  She directs us to a road that will lead us down to the water.  Here we are told we can see all the bald eagles that we want to see.  Sounds interesting enough we head out.

So what makes this area cool is that the fishing boats come in and have to be pulled out of the water with a tractor.  These fishing boats clean their fish and throw the left overs out to the birds, mostly which are the bald eagles.  

These are beach bald eagles.  They were all up and down this beach area.  They would let us get very close without flying off.   Really cool!

Oops, I guess I just got close enough and scared it away.

Some times our most impromptu trips are the best.  This trip to Homer was a neat experience.  We went down to look at a trailer and come back with the trailer and more great adventures.  On our way up we also stop in Seward, but that will be a whole new blog post.  I can't wait to share it with you also.  Another blog for another day.  Ive got to get busy though, Alaska proves to be one adventure after another.