Monday, June 30, 2014

A Great Day To Turn 65...

June 29, 2014

Photo

What a great day to celebrate my 65th birthday in Alaska.

After a leisure start to the day and a breakfast of Blueberry Waffles, we decided to take a drive.  From the campground in town, we drove to the top of East Hill Road and Skyline Drive...

What a beautiful view of Homer, Kachemak Bay, and

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the mountains.

From this view,

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you get a real perspective of the Homer Spit.

We decided to continue our drive on East End Road, making a stop at the

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Fritz Creek General Store, Post Office, and Deli.  This place might merit a return trip.

As we continued on out the road, we found a great

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photo opt for the glaciers across the bay.

As we traveled on, we found several places where

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road construction brought us to a stop.  At one of these stops, while waiting on the pilot car, we learned that with the jeep we could

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take the road to all the way to where the road ends.  This road led us

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down, down

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and down...landing us on the beach at the East End of Kachemak Bay.

The only others on the road were

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these guys on horseback and a few ATV's!

There was a point, we thought about turning around, but, if we had, we would have missed this

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view from the beach at

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the end of the road!

Thanks to each of you for the birthday wishes that also made this day special.  I am so blessed to call each of you friend and family.

It truly has been a great day to celebrate turning 65!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Homer, Alaska

June 26 - 28, 2014

After our day trip earlier this week to Homer, we were all anxious to make the move 30 miles down the road.  Our original plans had us traveling on Thursday, but, once again the rains came and stayed with us all day.  Along with the rains came temperatures that pretty much stayed in the high 40's and low 50's.  We decided the best plan would be to spend another day in Ninilchik.

Yesterday, when the morning dawned with beautiful sunshine, we knew it would be a great day.  Just when we thought we were ready to roll,

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Molly, the Rhubarb Queen, decided we needed to pick just a little more to take with us!  We certainly aren't lacking on our Vitamin C.  I see a pie or two in our future!

Now...on to Homer...

The drive was uneventful and within the hour, we arrived in

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Homer a day earlier than our Oceanview RV Park reservations start.  So, our plan was to

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  head out to the Spit to stay at the

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Fishing Hole Campground.  This is a city park, no hook ups, but,

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a great view from the front window overlooking Kachemak Bay.

Once, we were settled in, we took a walk

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to check out the little shops on the boardwalk and take a stroll by the

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harbor and before we made our way back to the campground.

Once, the tide was out, we could take a

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great walk through the tide pools and down to the

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rocks overlooking the

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Fishing Hole.

  Curiosity finally got the best of the guys, so they

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decided to test the waters to see if the fish were biting.  However, this afternoon, they only lucky fishermen seemed to be the

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gulls hanging out by the cleaning station and the

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eagle that guards the Fishing Hole from

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the top of the light pole in the parking lot.

During the afternoon,

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while the tide waters were in, the guys

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made their plans for a little night fishing.  And, by 9:30 last night

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they were ready to try again.  We all watched as the water swirled and the salmon came...but, Bob,

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was the only one to reel one in.  And, a beautiful King Salmon it was.

All was not lost, because, it was a

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beautiful night and sunset on the Homer Spit.

  And, oh, how we were wishing we hadn't made reservations in town.  But, we did, and, this morning, it was time to head that way.  And, once, we arrived

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and looked around, we decided we could live with

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this view for the week!  And, as for the fishing, the guys will just have to drive to the Fishing Hole.

So, welcome to

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our Homer Adventure.

It is almost July and the fireweed has

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  started to bloom.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Beautiful Days...

June 22-24, 2014

Since our soggy summer solstice day, we've dried out and enjoyed a couple of

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sunny days and

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beautiful sunsets.

The guys fished the river Sunday afternoon for Salmon, without much luck.  Bob caught a Red, and Rich caught a baby King that he had to throw back, but, that was about it.  They said it was a pretty boring afternoon.  But, to be honest, I think they like the challenge of Halibut fishing better...so,

Yesterday, they took the early boat

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out to try their luck one more time.

Thanks to Mark Nemeth, we have verification that while

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Bob,

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Wallace, and

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Bennit, were busy catching Halibut,  Mark, with Seth's help,

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was busy reeling in his

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catch of the day!

After getting this prize, which Seth was glad to keep for bait, he was able to

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bring in this Halibut.

Not the 70 pounder from the other day, but, still a beautiful keeper!

Thanks Mark, for sharing this side of the trip, and by the way, looks like

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you have a keeper too!

And, when all was said and done and they returned to camp.  They were

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pretty satisfied with the day!

Great job guys...and, thanks one more time

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for providing dinner!

In addition to the Halibut that was

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fried to perfection, we tried a new dish...

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Poor Man's Lobster....which is Halibut boiled in sugar and salt water, covered with butter and sprinkled with Old Bay!  It was mighty fine eating!

Both served along side Bea's

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jalapeƱo cornbread made another great meal.

But, after a meal like this, you have to take a walk.  And, just across the road from our rv park, Ninilchik offers not only a great place to walk, it also offers

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some beautiful

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views...even at 10:00 p.m.

These boats are waiting for the tide to come in so they can get into the small harbor.

A beautiful evening in Ninilichik and Cook's Inlet.

This morning started out on the lazy side.  Since the guys are giving the fish a rest for the day, we decided to take a drive.

  We made a stop at our favorite spot at

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Deep Creek, where we had a clear view of the volcano, Redoubt.

  A closer looked

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shows it venting.

Since we were given such a beautiful day, we decided to drive on to Anchor Point, where we found

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verification that we reached the Most Westerly Highway in North America.

From here, we were able to see and identify

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lliamna and Augustine Volcanoes, which make up part of The Pacific Ring of Fire.

While, we enjoyed watching

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the tractors bring in the fishing boats, the

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eagles were doing a little fishing of their own!  The poor gulls didn't have a chance.

We decided it was time to find some lunch of our own, so we headed on down the road to

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Homer.

However, lunch would have to wait just a little while, because, we found this

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beautiful overlook, where Cook's Inlet and The Kachemak Bay meet...

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breathtaking!

Finally making our way into Homer.  We made a quick drive through the Oceanview RV Park, where we will be staying when we leave Ninilchik.  Then, it was on to lunch at Two Sisters Bakery.  We enjoyed soup, sandwiches, and savory pastries...of course, we had to try the sweet ones too!  I am sure this will be revisited during our stay in Homer!

Afterwards, we made the drive on out to the Spit.  We found a great place to boondock right on the beach for a couple of days prior to going to the RV Park.  Hope the rest of the gang likes the plan.

Once we made it to

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Land's End, it was time for us to turn around and head back home. After our day in Homer, we are looking forward to a new adventure starting in a few days.

  I think it might be promising!