The town of Homer, Alaska is at the end of the Sterling Highway. The Homer Spit is a 4.5 mile geographical landmark on the south tip of the Kenai Peninsula that goes out into the Kachemak Bay. Marinas, restaurants, shops, a hotel, and a few campgrounds fill the Spit. It was enjoyable checking out shops on the Spit and we had a wonderful halibut lunch at one of the restaurants. We also booked a wildlife cruise with Rainbow Tours for a 7 hour trip to Seldovia, an island in the Kachemak Bay.
Our tour started at 10:30 from the dock in Homer. An hour and a half cruise checking out wildlife before we were to dock at Seldovia. We headed out to Gull Island to check out the birds. We were anticipating seeing a few puffins and we weren’t disappointed. We saw several Tufted Puffins and a few Horned Puffins. We were so excited. They were tough to get pictures of but Joe managed to capture a few. We also so Common Murre which look like penguins because they like to stand up unlike most birds. Of course, the Island is called Gull Island for a reason. It had many, many gulls on it. After leaving Gull Island we kept our eyes open for a whale but none was spotted. We did see a Black Oystercatcher on shore looking for food and many sea otters in the water with their young. The momma sea otters float on their backs with their young riding on their tummies. They were pretty cute to watch.
The scenery was beautiful and we passed many homestead homes along the shoreline far away from everything. We saw one that sat up on a bluff and had a unique system to bring things up from the beach. It is amazing how some people love to live in such remote areas and make it work.
We docked in the charming little town of Seldovia and had about 3 hours to walk around. Seldovia is a community of about 300 people. The original town was built on piles/stilts at the edge of the water and a boardwalk ran along the outside of the buildings. A high tide destroyed most of the buildings around the mid-1960s but they rebuilt and managed to save a small portion of the boardwalk. A walk through the boardwalk area was fascinating with the old buildings, beautiful gardens and a few shops. There isn’t much in Seldovia except for a few restaurants, a visitor center, a few businesses and a grocery store but not like the grocery stores we are used to seeing. The store is very, very small with handmade wood shelves and a little of this and a little of that. It was fun to investigate. The Russian Orthodox Church, St. Nicholas, was built around the mid-1800 and is a landmark sitting on top of a hill. Very pretty!
There are no roads connecting Seldovia to other communities so the only way in or out is either airplane or boat. Water taxis run between the island and other communities. It is about an hour ride between Homer and Seldovia. We really enjoyed our time on the island exploring. It was another great day in Alaska.
We are leaving the Kenai Peninsula and heading back to the Wasilla area to have one last visit with my friend Wendy. The net fishermen have taken over the Kenai area. From July 10 to July 31 the Alaskans can net fish for Salmon. I won’t even begin to explain the rules because I don’t understand them and really don’t care to understand them. But I do know that they can stand in the rivers (only certain rivers on a certain side of the river) and put these huge 4 ½ ft. nets in the water and pull out salmon. They are allowed 35 fish for the season. I guess where they do this is a circus. We tried to find somewhere they were net fishing to take pictures and watch but couldn’t find it. The campgrounds were busy with fishermen and so was the highway. It was a good time to leave the area.
Stay safe! Love to all!