Farewell to Homer as We Return North to Cooper Landing

Eagle with food in talons

(July 10) – We awoke to enjoy our last morning on Homer Spit and to celebrate Mike’s birthday. Outside our window the sun shone on the peaks across Kachemak Bay. Outside our window, the fishing boats moved out across the water and gulls and a lone sea otter were bobbing along.
Bill had arisen early to go on a half-day fishing excursion. Judy slept in and Mike and I met Mark and Ellen to have breakfast at the Fresh Sourdough Express Bakery and Café. We were impressed yesterday with their menu and decided we had to try them for breakfast.
None of us was disappointed with our choice. The food was really tasty and filling and we were lucky enough to get a table without much of a wait, despite the completely full parking lot and the obvious popularity of the place. In addition to good food, we entertained ourselves sharing tales of our travels.

Eagle Pair

As we headed back out to the hotel, we saw a pair of bald eagles atop a tall pole by the road. Mike and Mark got out of the van to take pictures. There appeared to be some nesting materials under the eagles, but we were unable to see any chicks, if any were there.
We picked Judy up at the hotel and went into Homer proper to wander among some of the galleries there. Once again, we found that there are quite a few local artists here with prodigious talent in every imaginable medium. In one shop, we saw a sculpture made of eating utensils and other commonly available metal objects, all combined to look like a very detailed motorcycle. It was so realistic, it almost appeared rideable.

Beautiful cranes

While I was in one of the galleries, I heard a woman say that she had seen a moose and two babies earlier as she walked down from her shop up the hill from the gallery. We got in our van and headed up there to see if we could see our first moose of the trip. Sure enough, I spotted her a block away and Mark was able to turn the van into the street so that we saw her as she ran behind a house into hiding. Although we didn’t get her photo, we were excited to see a moose at all. Mike did get a picture of two large cranes that were walking across a yard, the red on their faces marking them as sandhill cranes, we thought.
It was time to pick up Bill from his fishing trip, so we went back out to Homer Spit, found him and took him to the hotel to take a shower. While he cleaned up, some of us went into the hotel restaurant for tea and coffee. We learned there that the cleaning staff we had seen in long dresses are from the Russian community up the bay. Their distinctive dress is part of their culture.
We left Homer and made our way north to Anchor Point where we stopped at the Blue Bus Diner for lunch. It’s a pretty rustic little diner with an old blue school bus built into one end of the building. The woman who owns and runs it moved to Alaska from Minnesota and has stayed because it’s a warmer climate along the coast. I guess most places are warmer than Minnesota in winter, even Alaska.
She made good hamburgers and sweet potato fries and we all ate without a care for any diets. As we left, she was asked by a potential customer about the shrimp on the menu. She went into the kitchen and brought out a bag of frozen shrimp to show him. I left without seeing his reaction to this revelation of her culinary secrets.

Ninilchik's Russian Orthodox Church

As we drove on, we stopped in Ninilchik to see their church. It is the Transfiguration Church of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church, set high on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet with four little onion domes atop its roof. After an initial wrong turn that took us into the little village that has only walking access up to the church, we found our way back out to the highway and along a different road toward the church.
Ellen spotted a moose feeding in a field just off the road. Mike and Bill got some pictures before Ms. Moose ducked deeper into the woods out of sight. It thus became a two-moose day.
A nice lady offered to tour us in the tiny church filled with icons. The building was originally finished in 1901 and has been raised since then, but kept virtually intact, covering the log walls inside and out with other materials to preserve it. Some of the icons within the church are old, but no records are available to tell us just how old they are or when they came into the church. Some newer icons were commissioned in recent years by a member of the congregation.
Apparently those attending services can be as few as four or five on some occasions or too many to fit into the tiny building on feast days. The priest assigned to the church was away today, fishing. He supports his family with commercial fishing and the family fishes to store food to get through the winter months.
We have now arrived at our hotel for tonight, the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge on a mountainside above the Kenai River in Cooper Landing. We have lovely cabin rooms with wood stoves and wood to burn in them. We'll have dinner in the lodge and enjoyed a quiet night here before heading for Anchorage tomorrow. With each day full of activity and traveling, we got to bed weary and sleep soundly.
[Photos by Mike Lumpkin]