Homer, AK

Last Friday (6/17) we drove down to Homer (75 miles) for the day.  We had heard that it was an interesting town to visit and we weren't disappointed. 
We followed the coastline (Cook Inlet) all the way and had great views.  Near Homer the road took us up into a mountain (I guess).  Anyway, from up there you can overlook the city, the bay area, and the mountains on the other side.  We stopped at a viewing point and took pictures but they didn't turn out due to the haze.

We went to the Visitor Center and loaded up on brochures about the area.  We got a map of the city from them and they showed us the main roads to take.  The first road was up on the mountain and the views were great.  From there we drove down to the town itself and then out to the Homer Spit.  The spit is a 4.5-mile long piece of land jutting out into Kachemak Bay.  The spit is also home to the Homer Boat Harbor. The harbor contains both deep and shallow water docks and serves up to 1,500 commercial and pleasure boats at its summer peak.

There were several campgrounds on the spit, ranging from tent sites to RV parks with no facilities and then some with facilities.

There were restaurants, shops, hotels, the Salty Dog Saloon, tour guide shops, etc. 

This is a view from Wikipedia.

This is another view from the mountains.

These buoys look alot larger out of the water.

These reminded us of the TV show "Deadliest Catch."  The boats actually use Homer as a base, but they were out now.

There were a couple of monuments remembering those lost at sea.

We parked and walked up and down the boardwalks and bought a couple of things.  This looked inviting but I decided against it.

We found a Fish & Chips restaurant and I had halibut for the first time – very good.  Judy had crab cakes which were exceptionally good.

We drove back into town and did some more shopping.  Later we drove back out on the spit and watched halibut being cleaned.

Some of those weigh over 40 lbs.

We got thirsty watching them, and, since the Salty Dog was right there, we went in for a beer. 

Extremely busy place but we found a picnic table and struck up a conversation with another couple there.  Seems they had just come in from an all day fishing trip.  They filled us in on their day, and, after that, we had the ‘fever.’

When we got back home, we searched the internet and found the fishing guides that they had gone on earlier in the day.  The full day trips were $240 each, plus tax.  A little steep for us, but then we noticed that they had half-day trips for $95 (senior rates) plus tax.  So we called them (at 9:30 PM) and got a reservation for Sunday afternoon!!  More on that later…