After leaving the Russian River Campground, we drove south
to the City of Homer. We stopped along the way to take a few pictures.
Here is a view from the coast looking across Cook Inlet:
The flowers here were interesting also:
Forget Me Not
A Close-up of another
We stopped at a turnout to take these pictures on the
way to Homer.
Here is a nice picture of the kids.
Jennifer took this picture of me
In another test of the telephoto, I took this picture
of a boat heading back to Homer from a day of fishing.
And here is a picture of the Homer Spit, a natural peninsula
of sand that extends for 5 miles into Kachemak Bay.
The kids were not allowed in the saloon, but Crystal and
I took a quick peek inside. This saloon is the oldest building on
the spit and was built over 150 years ago. Even I had to duck to
get inside the small door. Inside was dark, so I didn't get any good
pictures, but the most striking thing inside was the number of people and
the amount of money tacked onto the walls and ceilings. It seems
nearly every visitor over the past century and a half put a dollar bill
on the wall with their signature on it. I would guess that the currency
inside is worth more than the building. I hope the owners have a
good insurance policy!
We camped in the RV on the spit for one night. We
didn't fish the "Fishing Hole" because there didn't seem to be much action
going on. The Fishing Hole is a "terminal fishery," meaning that
the Alaska Department of Fish and Game plants salmon fry into this pond
to enhance the sport and commercial fisheries. The salmon return
to this spot with nowhere to spawn. Anglers have a great time however,
often landing salmon over 50 pounds here. Typically, anglers harvest
over 10,000 king salmon per year here, plus thousands of silver salmon
and pink salmon. During our stay here, the first run of king salmon
had ended and the second run had not yet started.
