South to Homer

When planning our Alaska trip, we all agreed we could not go to Alaska without a trip to Homer.  It was a must!!!

Homer has one of the most interesting structures of land.  The Homer Spit!

The spit is a peninsula of land built up over time from sand, silt gravel and coal deposited by the currents of Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay.  It was reduced by over 200 acres after the 1964 earthquake.  As the sign states below, it is the Halibut Fishing capital of the world and what took us on annual summer excursions to Homer for our yearly catch of halibut!

As a kid, tromping around from our camping spot located near the end of the spit, I always dreamed of staying at the Land's End Resort.

Because it was already off season, I got to fulfill that dream.  Funny how it wasn't quite as exciting as I pictured it when I was 12!  Ha!  However, the view was phenomenal!!

We took lots of walks along the beach.

The boat harbor is quite a site!

We decided we couldn't leave Homer without some halibut!  Jerry and my dad took a half day trip out on the Irish and caught their limit.

Watching daddy and grandpa go out on the boat!

Jerry took some great shots while they were out on the water.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  One of the only ones we had!

Some people eat herring as a delicacy, we see it as bait!!  Ha!

 The polls are all ready to go!

The currents can be strong.  These weights keep the line on the bottom of the ocean floor where the halibut forage for food.

A good sailor and fisherman needs their instruments!

They saw this upturned boat in the water. Hopefully no one was hurt.  There had been lots of junk in the water, logs, seaweed and such.  We heard some of it had traveled this way due to the tsunami in Japan!

Mount Iliamna, one of Alaska's volcanos.

Look at this sea otter munching on a crab!  

The catch!! 

The limit is 2 halibut per person.  Each halibut was marked in some way for each person.

We were very happy they brought some halibut back with them!  It's nice having halibut in the freezer!

Filleting with an Alaskan Ulu knife.

We saw so much wildlife just in Homer!!  Like this young eagle.  Isn't it beautiful?!

What about this bald eagle!  Isn't he gorgeous?!

We saw lots of starfish.

A rainbow......

A graveyard of ships.

Glaciers.

Farmland with a view.....

The Salty Dawg Saloon,

The Seafarer's Memorial,

And gorgeous sunsets are just a few of the beauties you can see around Homer.

And don't forget to stop by the original Alaska Wild Berry Products!

Homer on Dwellable