Homer

July 5-7, 2004

Homer is located on Kachemak Bay, which is off Cook Inlet. Finally we had some beautiful weather; the rain of a couple of days ago and a shift in winds cleared the smoke from the forest fires up north.

The Kenai Mountains, across the bay from Homer, provide a scenic backdrop. Homer Spit, visible on the right,  is a 5 mile sand/gravel/rock bar sticking out into the bay. Most of the tourist-oriented businesses are located on the spit, leaving the main part of the town for the local people.
 

Homer is well-known for fishing, especially halibut.
 

We took a cruise of Kachemak Bay. Gull Island was covered with birds. The dark birds with the long necks are cormorants.
 

A couple of murres.
 

Puffins are funny looking (unless you are another puffin), but are excellent swimmers under water and can dive to 300 feet.
 

We saw a couple of sea otters out in the bay, but the best view of a sea otter was provided by this fellow, who was waiting for us as we returned to the Homer harbor. They float on their backs and hold their front paws and feet out of the water to keep them warm; the rest of their body is covered with very soft and elegant fur. The Russians hunted sea otters extensively for their fur and almost exterminated them in the early part of the 19th century. But the sea otter is making a good comeback.
 

After Homer we camped one night at Anchor Point, where Captain Cook is reputed to have lost an anchor. At a longitude of 151.9 degrees west, it has the distinction of being the point furthest west that one can drive to (using regular roads) from the lower 48 states. There are no roads to any towns further west than this.