Saturday 9/6/2014
We're headed to Homer! Homer is the southernmost town on the contiguous Alaska highway system. It is also part of the Alaska Marine Highway (the Alaskan Ferry System). Homer erected its first traffic light in 2005. They are one up on Old Forge, we still don't have a stop light! It's home to Discovery Channel's "the Last Frontier" Kilcher Family and home port to the F/V "Time Bandit" of Deadliest Catch Fame, and is known as the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World. Homer is at the end of the Sterling Highway, 200 miles south of Anchorage, surrounded by wilderness and ocean.We'll be staying on the Homer Spit
("spit" is a geological landform) which features the longest road (5
miles) into ocean waters in the world.
Kachemak Bay’s tides are
some of the largest in the world. The average vertical difference
between high and low waters is 15 feet, with an average high tide of
around +18 feet. Tides can be as high as +28 feet in Kachemak Bay! 
We're staying at the Lands End Resort, at the very tip of the Spit. Coincidentally, Kim and Terry's niece and nephew Russ and Diana and kids are staying here also for a wedding! 
After checking in, we headed down to the small boat harbor and boardwalk. I was sad to see the Boardwalk Bakery was closed for the season. I had been looking forward to some of their cinnamon buns that I had heard about! A lot of the businesses in the tourist district close after Labor day. The guys checked in with North Country Fishing Charters who they had booked a 1/2 day Halibut Charter with. They were told that they'd be going out with Bob's Trophy Charters the next morning on the Nauti Lady. Being off season, all the fishing charter companies work together, each one taking a turn so they have a full boat rather than a bunch of barely filled boats going out which wouldn't be cost effective for them. We walked down to the small boat harbor and found where the Nauti Lady was docked and were able to talk to the Captain and deckhands. Just across the harbor was the Time Bandit. Captain John told us that the Hillstrands , from the Deadliest Catch Fame, were born and raised here. Their grandfather founded the Lands End Resort where we are staying, and their father, a commercial fisherman, founded the Coal Point Trading Company and Fish Processing plant on the Spit as well as built the Cannery Row Boardwalk.
Next up is a stop at the Historic Landmark The Salty Dawg!
The Salty Dawg started out as one of the first cabins built in 1897,
soon after Homer became a town site. It served as the first post office, a railroad station, a grocery store, and a coal mining office for twenty years. In 1909 a second building was constructed, and it served as a school house, post office, grocery store. It was acquired in the late 1940′s by Chuck Abbott to be used as an office for Standard Oil Company.
In April of 1957, he opened it as the
Salty Dawg Saloon. Earl Hillstrand, the late State Representative, purchased it in 1960.
After the March 1964 “Good Friday” earthquake, he moved the structure
to its present location. The distinctive lighthouse tower was added to
cover a water storage tank, thus completing one of Homer’s more
historical and recognizable landmarks. The inside is covered completely in money signed by customers from all over the world! Would love to know just how much money is in there! Was a beautiful sunny afternoon, so we moved out to the back deck to enjoy the weather. 
Walked down to the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon to scope out the bank fishing. This artificial lagoon is known locally as the "fishing hole". Every spring it's stocked with salmon fry. The fry are fed by volunteers so that they will imprint on the location
in the normal manner of salmon. They then proceed to live normal lives
as wild salmon, returning as adults to the lagoon due to their
instinctual desire to mate and spawn. The salmon were abundant enough that they had open the fishing to snagging and that seemed to be the only way people were catching them. Perhaps some salmon fishing is in order tomorrow after the halibut charter!
We thought we'd have dinner at Captain Patty's on the boardwalk but when we got there there was already a 2 1/2 hour wait. (I didn't think we would need reservations since it was off season. Was I wrong!). We went across the street to the Harbor Grill and got seated right away. We had a gorgeous view of the boat harbor and a nice dinner. While walking on the the beach side back to the Hotel we picked up some neat
rocks along the way for the grandkids...real Alaskan rocks..not from
Brazil!
The sights from the shore at Lands End Resort
From inside our room.
What a view!
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