Trip to Seldovia and Gull Island--July 18

I have been looking forward to this particular cruise the whole trip. This is a birding cruise and then to a small Russian village across the Inlet. Unfortunately it looks like soup out there. We had 2 days of beautiful weather and the clouds were dark last night so we will probably not get to see any birds very clearly. Between my left eye always being blurry and the weather being nasty every 2 or 3 days and not having much free time I don't get time to birdwatch so today is a real disappointment. Tomorrow another older couple who both like to birdwatch and I were going out on our own to do some but it will probably be equally bad tomorrow, we'll see.

I had on top and bottom long johns, a long sleeved T-shirt, a nylon jacket, a fleece vest, my hooded rain jacket, a hat and gloves and hiking boots and my jeans. I kept quite warm all day and I was out on the open deck the entire time. It sprinkled rain the entire way almost to Seldovia, the Russian Village--nasty weather.

Homer is located on the southwest part of Alaska on Kachemak Bay off Cook Inlet and then Seldovia is in Seldovia Bay. They have a ferry that goes into a lot of the islands and around Cook Inlet that can carry cars and motorhomes, etc. On the boat with us was a group of young people and all their instruments. They were performing a concert on Seldovia that night. He captain took us around Gull Island where there is a gull rookery. Most of them are Glaucous Gulls, Pink-legged Kittiwakes, some black-legged Kittiwakes and a few Cormorants. We saw a raft of sea otters a couple of times.We also saw Common Murres, Tufted Puffins,Pigeon Guillemots,Scoter and Surfbirds. Near where a stream flows into the bay was a small beach area and there were maybe 15 bald eagles hanging out on the top of the beach area waiting for the salmon to start up the stream. That was cool. We have seen lots of Bald Eagles everywhere up here but not together like that. We went thru Eldred Passage past Sadie Cove and Grass Island and Heskett Island which he said was entirely subdivided. You could see a few cabins but a lot were hidden. We also went past Elephant Rock which at a certain angle looks like it raises its trunk up out of the water and it actually does look that way. Interesting.

Seldovia is 16 miles across Kachemak Bay from Homer and has approximately 284 people before this past census. It has city police, fire and rescue and ambulance services. The medical clinic has a resident doctor and visiting dentist, a library and a school. It has a harbormaster, a couple of restaurants and a bar and liquor store, a mercantile, a couple of churches(barely), a gift shop, a museum/visitor center which has very nice exhibits and served hot Russian tea. There was an old Russian Orthodox Church on the top of a hill. We walked up to it but it was locked. The name Seldovia is derived from Russian "Seldevoy" meaning "herring bay" and between 1869 abd 1882 a trading station was located here. In 1891 St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church was built.It is now a national historic site. It also is the farthest northwest ice free harbor on the North American Continent. The town was built right on the water so they had to build their houses up on pilings because of the high tides twice a month which can be 25 to 31 inches. The water came right up to their doors until the 1964 earthquake and then when they rebuilt they did it further back and up so they now have a main street. Before they had built a boardwalk that ran in front of all the houses to walk on during the high tide. There are some of the original homes and boardwalk we went to see. Just like anywhere else people with money have nice homes and those who have less or choose to exist on less live much more simply and the homes can be very old and decrepit looking. I have found the people here friendlier than in a lot of places we have been except for the tourists. I don't know if it is because they are foreign even though they may not look it or if where they come from in the states they just don't acknowledge each other--it is rather sad. We ate in Penny's Cafe and it was very good. Monique and I had a slice of quiche with 4 large slices of apple and 4 large slices of orange--it was very good and only $6 which for here was fantastic. All the others ate halibut for $15.00. For dessert we each had a fresh out of the oven cookie--yum!!

The boat trip home was straight and uneventful although I saw the back and fin of a porpoise.