Last Day in Homer--July 19

I compose this blog as I type and I do try and spell check when I am unsure of a word but I used to be a good speller but Bob said some things didn't make sense so I guess I should start rereading them.It takes me a lot of time to do them and many times have not been able to do them due to bad internet connections and I never professed to be a professional writer so I hope things are not too disconnected. Sorry.

Yesterday Bill & Marilyn Kern and I went out together to do some birding and to a couple of museums. Bob is not a birder and he rested again. Our first stop was the Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center--it is partnership with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. They have a beautiful museum and their video was very good. They do lots of things with kids also. Their Beluga Slough Trail right behind their building leads out into a wonderful area for birds. I took my scope and we saw a number of sandhill cranes and their colts ( that what they call their young ones, I did not know that). I had never seen the colts before. We saw a greater yellowlegs. It was not too busy out there. By the time had looked inside the museum and the walk it was time for lunch so we headed out for Duncan House--recommended by one of the other caravaners. It was ok and it filled me up but not great.

We went on to the Pratt Museum which was also very good. It explored the cultures of Kachemak Bay, the fishing industry, anthropology, history, art, earth sciences, biology plus historic photographs of the region and local quilts. They had videos that would have the real people talking to you about their lives. We had noticed how so very many of the cabins everywhere had all kinds of stuff or junk scattered all around them. In the museum they had an explanation that helped me understand this. From very early times when they either had to carry their stuff up here and then later it would come in by boat and then they had to take it from the docks to wherever they lived--it was a big deal and they might only get things once or twice a year. They never threw anything away because they were the original recyclers. If they needed something they would make it out of whatever they had around that they had saved. We saw some of these things in the museum. I suspect this still continues to some degree. The museum also had a scale model of the "Time Bandit" from the TV show " The Deadliest Catch". Lots of neat stuff. On another floor they had some tanks where there was some fish and other underwater anemonies, etc. but the best was the live feed from Gull Island. You could move the camera around with a joy stick to see different locations and zoom in and out. You really had wonderful close ups of the puffins, the common murres,and the glaucous gulls all nesting and even saw some young ones.The young girl that was manning the area was very informative and we asked a lot of questions--come to find out she will be a senior in high school this coming year--were we shocked. She looked young but she was so knowlegeable. As we were leaving we ran into Barry and Monique and they were going to take a walk on the trail out back.

We had to hurry back over to the first museum for a birding van tour. When we were there the first time they said we did not have to sign up but when we got back they said that they had done so because so many people wanted to go. Luckily they had remembered us and counted us because the 15 seat van was packed. The first place we went was down to The Spit and the rangers showed us where there were some black legged kittiwakes nesting on some pilelings and crossbars and we had the joy of seeing some young chicks. There were also lots of people fishing down below us on the rocks. We all piled back into the van and went down toward the airport where there was a boardwalk out into a marshy area unfortunately the ducks were too far away even with a scope to really identify. I did see a grebe and then back into the van. I think I mentioned about the eagle nest near the road but anyway we also stopped there on the way back for our last stop and we had a great view of the fledgling which is about 4 months old and getting ready to fly. There were probably about 5 people there with spotting scopes and large scopes on their cameras and at a good distance was one of the parents sitting on the top of a light post.

We just returned to the RV park and Marvin and Dee were getting ready to go to Anchor Point so I jumped into their car--this is the most westerly drivable point in North America. And Alaska has the most northerly, westerly and easterly point in the United States because the Aleutian Islands cross the International Date Line. Just a bit of trivia. Now back to Anchor Point. Outside the town there is a park with a large beach when the tide is out and boats come in and go out from there. The boats and their boat trailers each have a number put on them and there is a small building with radio communication. These people have a contract with the state and they charge $58 for a round trip of launching and retreaving them. They have this very large thing that kind of looks like a tractor and it hooks up to their trailers and backs up way out into the water and launches them and later does just the opposite. One guy drives this thing and on the back there is someone who hooks the trailers onto it and then cranks in the boats as the boats drive onto their trailers. It is very quick and efficient and there is no way people could use their own vehicles and do this. I don't know how this machine does this and doesn't get water into its engine. I forgot to tell you. Just a little way out of Homer on this outing Dee spotted a moose but it went into some trees but we didn't give up. Marvin backed up until he got to the end of this patch of trees and backed into a pull off and before long this big huge bull moose with a huge rack of antlers still in velvet came out just munching on grass and he just kept walking and munching. He had this long beard and was so beautiful. It was the best look we have seen the whole trip. What a treat.

The staff prepared our meal tonight: grilled chicken, small pieces of fish for us to sample, pork and beans, corn and clam chowder then some of the caravaners added fresh pineapple pieces, pasta,cookies and marionberry pie. This was followed by our briefing and home to secure the fort for a quick departure in the morning.