Life Happens in Homer

Good morning, my friends. Welcome to July! It was cloudy for a good part of the morning, and so it was a good day to do some laundry. We'd already planned on Egg McMuffins. Is there a better way to start the day? It took the sting out of doing laundry just knowing we'd pre-reward ourselves with a sumptuous breakfast. And while I'd ordinarily entertain you with pictures of our food, today I'll break with tradition and show you the inside of this particular McDonald's. I liked these simple murals on the walls mainly, I think, because I recognized the places:

We'd just visited these places a few days before. Above is this little shopping area out on Homer Spit.

And this one below. Remember this?

It's the Salty Dawg Saloon.

Okay, so this one is the harbor in Homer. I didn't take any pictures of the harbor here.

But here's one I took while we were in Seward.

Okay, so that was kind of fun. From there, we headed to the laundromat. Good grief, I've never been in a laundromat so luxurious...nor so expensive! Check out how sleek this place is (not my photo):

Usually I'll use the laundry at the RV park (which has still been expensive). Here, there were only two washers and two dryers. I wanted to wash three loads, and so we ended up going to a commercial laundromat. In any case...Holy $h*t...$7 for a single wash and $3.50 for a dry. We only needed two dryers, so we were able to do three loads for a tidy $28 (in coin). Sheesh. Seems like someone should have done it for me at that price. 

Probably that's why they put this little ash bin at the front door. At least I was smiling and chuckling when I went inside.

Okay, so that should hold us for the week. Back at the camper, I finished off the 6th block for the Raggedy & Friends project.

Certainly I could not have done this without my fearless purrtector at my side.

Sadie kept watch on things outside. She can be a furrocious fighter when she needs to be.

Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Okay, so we're headed for Soldotna this morning. We'll have two nights there. I mentioned yesterday that I'd lost track of our reason for stopping in Soldotna...and why two nights? Well, there is a quilt shop. I've already determined that. Today I did a little internet scrolling and discovered the visitor center for the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is there. They'll be able to give us some tips on hiking trails in the area, and so that will give us some activities to keep us occupied. 

Also, Soldotna happens to have a Fred Meyer. Now this may not be exciting to most of you, but you should know that Fred Meyer is our grocery store back home. Finding it here in Alaska has been like finding English speakers in a foreign land. Knowing that, I've created another several days worth of menus, and we'll do some grocery shopping while we're there. Sounds exciting, huh?

Alrighty then. Time to get going. As always, I'll see you on the other side.

Two Hikes and a Viewpoint

 Good morning, my friends. Just after posting yesterday, I stepped outside for a few minutes. While I was out, I heard the distinctive call of a bald eagle. Taking a look around...holy-moly!...there were two perched on a roof not 50 yards away. So I grabbed my camera with the telephoto lens and captured this image. We've seen a few bald eagles on our trip, but this was the first time we got a really good look at them.

Our goal for the day was to hike a couple of trails I'd bookmarked. When we visited the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge visitor center, we learned about the Beluga Slough trail that began in their parking lot, and allowed us to walk along the beach to our RV park. We walked a short distance down the road and met up with the trail just behind the visitor center.

Here's a map of the trail.

As we stood there, our friend the motorized paraglider, buzzed overhead. 

The trail took us out to Bishop's Beach, which is the beach we see from our window.

There, we had a great view of the mountains across Kachemak Bay.

The trail was mostly this steel grating. It was really the only way to keep the grasses clear from the trail...lots of weed-whacking, we assume.

The lupines have really captured my photographer's eye. It's hard to stop taking pictures of them.

We came across this sign. I always like the advice I get from animals and inanimate objects.

Now here's something you don't see every day. It's a bird wearing pants and holding up a wind sock. The airstrip is right nearby.

Also, this art installation. It looked like a lighting fixture, but we couldn't figure out the stuff below.

Sitting next to it was this large boulder. The QR code held the explanation.

When we reached the beach, the tide was out. (The tide is in now, and there is no beach at all.) From there, we had an expansive view of the mountains surrounding Homer and Kachemak Bay.

We walked along the beach headed for our RV park, which is where I've marked with the red arrow below. That might actually be pointing directly at our camper.

So that was a short and scenic walk. Moving on, we drove to another part of town to walk this Calvin & Coyle Woodland Park & Nature Trail. The ranger at the visitor center told us we might see moose or bear along this trail.

Prepare to be counted.

It was a densely wooded area with open meadows. We looked and looked and looked, but didn't see any wildlife along the way. It was still worth the walk.

Looking up, it looked like this. The shade was nice.

These are Sitka Spruce trees. I recognize them for their bark, which looks like alligator skin. We have Sitka Spruce on our coastal trails in Oregon, although ours grow trunks with much larger girth.

Most sections of the trail were covered in these planks. It was wet and muddy through here.

The forest floor was carpeted with these pretty ferns.

Occasionally, we crossed a stream on a wooden bridge.

This next image shows what's known as "shelf fungus."

Here's some information about the fungi and the insects that plague the trees here.

At the halfway point, the trail opened up to this overlook. Do you see any moose? Nah. We didn't either.

Looking a little to the left, it looked like this:

The only "wildlife" we saw along the way were hoards of these damselflies. We assume they were gorging themselves on mosquitos.

From there we drove up a hill to one of the highest peaks in Homer on Skyline Drive. I'm afraid my pictures don't do justice to what we saw there. The mountains appeared close enough to touch. Looking to my left, it looked like this:

Looking straight out, we had an expansive view of the Kenai Range, Homer Spit, and Kachemak Bay. You can see the airstrip running horizontally near the middle of the image.

Looking more to the right, it looked like this:

Moving farther to the left, we could see a glacier in the bowl of the mountains there.

Here, I zoomed in some to get a better look. This might be the Grewingk Glacier.

There were some new-to-me-this-trip wildflowers blooming on the side of the road. My phone identified these as "Fox and cubs." Cute.

And some more of the wild geraniums.

And that was our day. We might have taken another short hike here, but we felt as if we'd walked all we wanted to. We headed back to the RV for lunch and naps. After that, we made a quick trip to the grocery store. We needed all things cat-related, and so you can see that it was something of an emergency.

Today we'll do some laundry and have a "life" day. There's a McDonald's in town, and I am Jonesing for an Egg McMuffin. We haven't had one since before leaving home. From there we'll do our laundry and then just relax for the day. It's our last day in Homer. Tomorrow will find us heading to Soldotna for two nights, and then on to Anchorage after that. 

When I'm planning these trips, I'm using an app called RVParky. It has a space for making notes, but I've discovered it doesn't always work right. When I looked at my notes for Soldotna, I found them identical to the notes I'd made for Skagway (a stop we won't reach until the end of July). So now, I'm not sure why we're stopping in Soldotna. The Milepost has been an excellent resource when I'm looking for activities in a certain place, and so I'll let the Milepost tell us why we're stopping there. For sure and certain, there is a quilt shop, which would be reason enough to stop. I need just one more fabric to finish my Shop Hop quilt.

Okay, so Mike is just finishing up in the shower. My turn is next. Time to get going. Laundry awaits.

Making Ourselves at Home in Homer

Good morning, my friends. It was a beautiful sunny day in Homer yesterday. It was nice to see the sun after so many days of rain. I showed you the view from our back window in a previous post. Looking in one direction, it looks like this:

Turning to look in the opposite direction, it looks like this:

And if  you didn't already know it, I have a thing for Adirondack chairs.

So I mentioned yesterday that we were within walking distance of Two Sisters Bakery, although I called it "Three" Sisters Bakery yesterday. It seems there are only two sisters. Probably the third sister is too lazy to get up early for baking. 

Along our way, we passed by this rustic structure. It appears to be someone's home. (Sorry for the lens flare.)

On the left side were some murals and signs.

Just about a five minute walk down the road was the bakery.

This place came highly recommended in multiple Facebook posts. We arrived ten minutes before opening time, and there was already a long line. While we waited, a line equally long formed behind us.

We nearly changed our minds about waiting in such a crowd, but a man behind us said it went fast and that it was well-organized. He was right, and we were glad we toughed it out. 

In the display case were all these yummies. There were both sweet and savory options.

We each ordered a cinnamon roll and ate it outside.

They had a nice outdoor seating area with a pretty garden. These are known as Red Catchfly.

Having finished our cinnamon rolls, we walked back to the RV to fetch our Jeep. From there, we drove to the Farmers Market.

If you're packing heat, you'll need to wait here.

We were mainly just curious to see what kinds of things can be grown in Alaska. As it turns out, it was a lot like the stuff we see at our farmers markets back home. Most of it was hothouse grown. There were also homemade jams, jellies, and salsas.

Also, these sweeties.

We were especially interested in the fresh seafood selections. The oysters tempted us, but it seemed like too much trouble to prepare them in the tiny kitchen of our truck camper.

There were crafts. This wasn't a quilting booth, but they had a pretty quilt hanging in the background.

Okay, so we didn't buy anything at the farmers market, but it was still fun to look. 

From there, we drove out on Homer Spit. We drove about halfway, parked, and walked the rest of the way.

The lupin were blooming in abundance. They are at their perfect stage of blooming right now.

With the mountains in the background, I don't think it could have been any more beautiful.

As we walked along, we came on two of these little rows of shops. I've been disappointed to find everything in Alaska *very* expensive. I've been on the hunt for gifts for folks at home, but most everything is more than I want to spend. I did pick up a couple of things yesterday...some Spit salt seasoning and another t-shirt.

We asked a local man where all the eagles are. We've seen photographs of eagles in Homer, but we haven't seen them with our own eyes. He prompted us to look up, and yes, there were bald eagles sitting atop light fixtures. The nearest one was a juvenile.

Gazing out at the mountains again, I caught this passing fishing boat.

On my Homer Spit bucket list was to find the Salty Dawg Saloon. We weren't exactly sure what to expect from a "saloon."

If you have your dawg with you, you'll need to wait outside.

Inside, it turned out to be just a bar. Folks had written their names on dollar bills and pinned them to the walls and ceiling.

We turned around and headed back at that point, enjoying the signs for different businesses along the way. There were also businesses that would freeze your fresh catch.

This is yellow Indian Paintbrush.

Passing by the community theater, we noticed this mural painted on the side. 

It was a little hard to read, but it turns out to be Puck's final monologue from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream":

From there, we headed to our final destination for the day. The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge visitor center is closed on Sundays, and so we stopped off to hear about hiking trails in the area.

If you're riding a bike, you can lock it up at one of these bird bicycle stands.

Turning around from there, we walked to the visitor center.

Along the way, we noticed this one hiking trail that heads off right from the parking lot. There is also access to the trail here in the RV park. We'll definitely be doing this hike today. There were a couple of others we'll get to as well.

Inside, Mike was able to locate the small island where his brother Phil was stationed while in the Coast Guard many years ago. He was a buoy tender at this remote location.

Also, I liked this advice from a whale.

Armed with hiking information, we headed back to the RV for the remainder of the day. While we ate our lunch, a motorized paraglider flew by...back and forth, and then right over the top of us. That's something you don't see every day.

And that brings me to today. We're expecting another beautiful day with rain more likely tomorrow. It means getting out and doing our hiking today. We'll take care of some life things here, but one must make hiking while the sun shines...or something like that...making hay, or whatever.

So...off I go. Blueberry pancakes coming right up, and then we'll be on our way.