Destination Circle: Day 18

May 31, 2016

I have been having weather karma with yet another clear morning of sunshine and mountains and the ocean, beginning today in the form of the Cook Inlet. My first duty was to find the Title Wave bookstore in Anchorage. Dave and Ellen have mentioned this place so many times, and I never need urging to visit a bookstore. It is similar to Powell's in Portland. Most of the books are secondhand. It's huge. I got some treasures to add to my car library. And then had a raspberry scone and coffee at Kaladi's, an Alaskan alternative to Starbucks and just as good, and bought an iced ginger molasses cookie for later.

Homer, Alaska

My destination was Homer on the Kenai Peninsula, a couple hundred miles mostly south of Anchorage. But first I lingered at a lovely marsh and boardwalk on the city limits (Potter Marsh). Gulls, terns, eagles, ducks...

The route to Homer is along the north shore of Turnagain Arm, around its eastern end and then west and south. Anchorage is at the point of land at the far end of Cook Inlet where a peninsula from the mainland juts into the water, thus splitting the Cook Inlet into the Turnagain Arm on the south and the Knik Arm on the north. So the city has ocean on three sides. One has to drive around the Turnagain and then west and south to get to Homer, into the Kenia Peninsula moving through the huge Kenai National Wildlife Refuge with the Kenai Fjords and the Harding Icefield to the south. It's takes mindfulness to concentrate on driving safely with so much natural grandeur....including the roadless wilderness across the Cook Inlet. The land settles down near Soldotna, and for the last hour, I could be driving in Michigan, although as I got closer to the ocean, it was reminiscent of the coast north of Ft. Bragg, California.  

nesting Mew Gulls in the harbor in Homer, Alaska

Homer: Hmmm....where to stay? I wandered up and down the streets checking out options, half looking to camp and half needing to tend to business requiring the Internet (like paying bills). I happened on The Pioneer Inn, a two-story home with lovely perennial gardens. I decided to try to find the rates online and happened on a serendipity...the owners were Rich and Amy who had run this place since 1991. Rich was originally from Georgia and Amy was from Grand Rapids, Michigan. As I was reading this on my iPhone, she came across the parking lot carrying potted plants and wearing gardening gloves. I talked with her and then Rich who also appeared. They had one room available just for the night at a reasonable rate, like half what most motels were asking this time of year. Check it out next time you're in Homer.

A fishing boat was on a trailer in the yard. Rich and his sons (I think they were his sons) had built this according to a photo in the room: the Miss Amy. He had been a pilot for Eastern Airlines until that company was no more. He bought this place in Homer 40+ years ago, learned construction, did commercial fishing (Homer is the halibut capital he world) and still flies around Alaska. Amy home-schooled their kids.

I loved Homer. It does have tourist kitsch but also seems grounded and not self-conscious alternate. The small hippie businesses are borderline west coast shabby but in a nice way, along with the mainstream businesses, a large fishing harbor and hundreds of Mew and Glaucous-winged Gulls. Not many other birds, although the crow I kept seeing was the Northwestern Crow, not the American Crow; therefore, another life bird! I missed (by two weeks) an annual shorebird festival. Spring migration is mostly over and the bird have flown on.

Old town - Homer, Alaska

The Visitor Center for the Maritime National Wildlife Refuge was closed for the night. I'll check that out in the morning. The few blocks of Old Town were more eclectic and funky than the rest of Homer, situated a block from the Pacific, which hereabouts is Kachemak Bay. I ate at one of Rich's recommendations, Fat Olives, and had Gorgonzola Cheese and Rock Crab Mac 'n Cheese, tasty, caloric, expensive and lacking identifiable Rock Crab. The waiter with no hesitation or apology said, "Oh, it's mixed in with the sauce..." I just laughed as the wine was fine, the music nice mix of blues and I loved being in this fairly remote little town for the night. 

on the Homer Spit

Homer also has a Spit, a five-mile sliver of land sticking southeast into the bay. One can drive to the end, or walk or bike. Along the way are dozens of small tourist shops and bars and restaurants but also dirty sand and pebbly beaches where one can camp in a tent or small RV or camper, build campfires, hang out, be loose. Just offshore, Pacific and Common Loons were diving as I drove at 5 mph over the rocks and sand. In a tiny lagoon, a dozen people were spaced out around the perimeter, fishing. If I had investigated the Spit before coming on the Pioneer, I probably would have camped there. 

My room was basic but perfectly clean with large windows overlooking the back yard. The bed was incredibly comfortable, and I've slept in a lot of good beds recently. It was huge; the sheets soft and almost silky. Two of the pillows had white pillowcases and two had pillowcases the color of blue-green sea glass.