Our stay in Homer provided some fantastic scenery. The views of the mountains across Kachemak Bay, off Cook Inlet were spectacular. There will be additional pictures when the weather clears up and the sun comes out!
This is a photo of the very famous Homer Spit, currently the center of tourism in this area. The Homer Spit is a long, narrow finger of land jutting 4.5 miles into Kachemak Bay. Dotted with businesses, the area caters to visitors and provides numerous recreation opportunities, from fishing and beach-combing to shopping and boating.
It is thought to be a moraine left behind by a long ago glacier that may have also been the creator of Kachemak Bay. The Spit was continuously reshaped by ocean currents until about 1000 years ago when early Alaska Natives began to inhabit it and reinforced it in places to keep it from washing away. To this day, Homerites are keeping an eye on erosion and sandbagging as needed to prevent this vital piece of the town from being cut off from the mainland. We saw some huge piles of very large rocks at strategic points along the roadway. According to Chamber of Commerce personnel, this gets reinforced on a yearly basis.
We stopped about 17 miles out of town to take a look at the mountains and Cathy noticed this roadside stand. It is totally on the honor system and the items looked very good, Cathy had to take a peek at the goodies!
In the afternoon the weather had cleared up so I had to stop and take a couple of photos from the end of the road. We were now on non-state maintained roads in what appears to be a community of Old Believers. Old Believers or Old Ritualists is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church, as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1652 and 1657.
We saw this bookstore in the “Old Town” of Homer and had to take a look. The building was literally piled with books, I had to remove books from shelves to see the books behind the books. I bought four books on Alaska that I have not previously encountered. We need bigger bookshelves.
This is the small boat harbor in Homer. We were told it is the largest of its kind in the country. I have to believe them, even the state ferries use this port.
Travelling with the Schinglers 