7/28/13: Homer

Today we again woke to sunshine!!  The downfall to being right on the ocean, we are having fog that rolls in daily as well.  Sometimes it is in the morning, sometimes the evening and then sometimes both -- but again, we are in Homer -- so let it snow if it wants to, we will be smiling!  

So, today we headed up to the Islands & Ocean Visitor Center.  This is a really cool center that is full of everything ocean and islands!  Ha!!  No seriously, it was great!  We did the tourist thing and watched a video about Kachemak Bay and saw many exhibits about the marine wildlife in the area.  They have some rangers on hand that you can go on a tide pool walk.  The tide was out, so that was not an option, but the exhibits were great!  After that, we re-supplied at Safeway and then headed back to camp and made a fire.  The fog was rolling in and we wanted to stay warm for the rest of the afternoon.

After dinner, we walked down to the marina and drooled, I mean looked, at boats.  It was a beautiful evening and we wanted to get an evening Bo walk in and find the charter boat for the guys.  I spotted a boat that made me be reminded that my wonderful Grandma is with me everywhere I go (picture below) -- it made me and KK smile.  After walking the marina awhile it was time to head for home and pack up a bunch of goodies for the boys, as they will be gone all day tomorrow fishing for Halibut.

Another great day here in Homer!!

A welcome sign at the spit:

I miss you G'ma:

Reading time:

Bo is tired:

 

7/27/13: Homer

Well, we woke to SUNSHINE today!!  Yay!!  Rick walked Bo and saw that the site we were moving to was already available, so we made quick work of breaking down our current camp and moving on down to the new site for the next week.  All worked out and we are now enjoying Homer.  The boys are planning on doing a Halibut charter on  the 29th and then Rick again on the 31st, so we had a few days to explore together.  

After lunch we headed down the spit to checkout the shops and just look around.  As always, it was much fun!  We were happy to see that all of our favorite places were still there and open for business too.  The Homer Spit is literally where the road ends, it gorgeous and where we are camped we literally have the ocean water on both sides of us and mountains that surround us!  We love it here and are just really enjoying it so much! 

After some shopping, we headed back to camp to get a fire going and Brady and Rick wanted to fish in the "Fishing Hole" -- I just realized that I didn't really explain the hole either.  The fishing hole is a man made lake of sorts that is fed solely by the tides of the bay.  So, fish of all types can swim in the hole on a high tide and then when the tide goes out they either go out with it or they hang in the hole until the tide comes back in.  The water levels are high on both low and high tide, but on the low tide there is not enough water for them to get out, so they swim around in the hole.  We have even seen seals in the hole on high tide eating the salmon.  Brady loves that he can grab is pole and literally go right off camp and be fishing for salmon.  I love that I can see him and he can hear me call his name too ;)

So, the boys fished and KK, Bo and I did some agate hunting on the beach off camp.  We were unsuccessful ---  ho-hum!  We found lots of other cool rocks though to add to our beach bowl at home.

After that it was just sockeye dinner and a campfire until bed!  Ahhh...  I will never get tired of this life!!!

OUr new camp with the fishing hole in the back, right off camp:

Yep, it is BRIGHT!

Another view from camp:

Our girl:

Mr. Eagle (with KK's camera we zoomed in on him from camp- he was far away!)

7/26/13: Soldotna to Homer

Woke to steady rain this morning here in Soldotna..  That steady rain seems to have made the mosquitos multiply over night -- ugh!!  We packed up in no time and were off to the best little town in Alaska!!

On our rainy drive down we came across a bull moose eating on some grass on the side of the highway.  It was nice to see a bull, as we have been seeing a lot of momma's.  Since we were so excited to get to Homer, it felt like the 70 mile drive took FOREVER!!!  We have not been traveling in quite a few days/weeks since setting up camp in Soldotna, so that could've added to the feeling of driving on and on.  The rain followed us to Homer, but hey... we are in Homer and it could be hailing and I would still be happy!

We are staying at the same RV resort that we stayed at last time.  We didnt make reservations, but were very lucky to get a beachfront site for at least one night.  There would be a caravan of travelers checking in the next day and we would need to move.  It all worked out just fine though, because we got the beachfront site the first night and then we have been at a camp site right on the "fishing hole" the whole rest of the time (which is where we were hoping to be.  So, all is dandy!  

We got camp all set up and then played on the beach in the mist and fog most of the rest of the day -- oh and did laundry!

Mr. Moose:

Welcome to Homer:

Our camp on the beach:

Kids found a log and made a teeter-totter:

Bo got some much needed ball time:

Sand writing:

Not sure, brother/sister love?!:

My adorable husband:

Brady at the fishing hole:

Campfire:

7/25/13: Soldotna

Today was a rainy day here at camp.  Rick went out this morning and ended up being out there quite a long time to just get four fish..  the run has really slowed down!  It must be time to head to Homer :)

We were originally planning on going out on a charter on the Kenai tomorrow, but they called today and let us know that King Salmon fishing would be changing to "catch and release" tonight at midnight... hmmmmm, bummer!  Don't really want to go out on a charter and just do catch and release (sorry).  Kenny our charter captain and Rick talked and Kenny felt that we should wait until we get back from Homer to do our Kenai charter -- as the Silver Salmon will be running.  So, after that news and Rick's slow day on the water for Sockeye's, we have decided to pack up and head to Homer tomorrow morning.  

I must say that all four of us are really ready for a change of both scenery, pace and lack of MOSQUITOS!  Boy guys, the mosquitos are REALLY bad this year!  I mean, really bad!!  So, it will be awesome to be back in our favorite ocean town and not have to deal with these pesky things for a week!  

Homer, we will see ya tomorrow (I don't know where BB gets it?!)

7/24/13: Soldotna

Today,after Rick got back from fishing (another limit in the freezer), we decided to go explore the town of Kenai.  Kenai is just about 5 miles from where we were camping at, but just like last time we were up here, we still had not visited it.  It was just a normal small town, it does have amenities like Home Depot and Safeway.. but it is still fairly small.  We decided that we wanted to see the local dip-netters netting the mouth of the river.  Dip netting is something that residents to Alaska can do annually.  We heard mixed stories as to how many residents can get annually, but the main number we heard was 30 a year.  So, they are just what you would think -- big fishing nets.  They put waders on and go out to the river and run the net through and then can either pull the net up to the shore or hook the net to a tractor and drive the net up on shore.. it is really insane and when the run is there, it pure mayhem!!  All the visitors just find a different place to fish!  We finally found the public beach (yes we drove by it and got a little off track), residents had tents set up on the beach, BBQ's, smokers -- again crazy!!

On our way back to camp we saw another momma moose and her calf.. SOOOO CUTE!!  back at camp it was late lunch and then time to take the kids out fishing for the evening (only Rick had gone out this morning).  The day was sloooooooow, but Brady caught one and honestly after how long it took to get that guy, they called it a night!

Just another fun day on the Kenai!!

Dip-netters all set up:

Momma Moose:

Baby Moose:

7/23/13: Soldotna

Today we decided to take advantage of the very low tides and do some razor clamming down in Ninilchuk, which is about an 45 minutes from camp.  We had heard that the state put "no limit per person" on clams and also now there is no license required either.  Due to the high number of clams being harvested, we also heard the clamming was pretty bad this year, but we wanted to give it a try for ourselves.  It was a beautiful morning as we left camp.  We were lucky and saw a Momma Moose and her calf on the way to the clamming beach -- it was cool!!  

After arriving, we were taken back by the total beauty of the day!  From the beach we were able to see three mountains/volcanos right in front of us!!  Ahhhhhh, gorgeous indeed!  We gave it a really good go for a few hours, but in the end we came back to camp with a grand total of 11 clams -- yep you read that right....  11 CLAMS!!!  Much different from the last time we were here and harvested 70 EACH!!  Oh well, it was enough for a batch of clam chowder for sure.

We headed home, cleaned the clams and then it was off to fish for the day.  It was a slow day, only caught four fish, but any day that we can put fresh sockeye in our bellies for dinner and then more in the freezer for more dinners, we are very thankful for!

Here is the Momma Moose and her baby:

Mt. Redoubt from the beach:

Clamming boys:

The muddy walk out to the beach:

Boots are all clean:

Beautiful:

Oh yeah, more Sockeye:

Kailey is happy to help clean with Dad (that is the Kenai behind her)

7/22/13: Soldotna

Just another gorgeous day here on the Kenai... 

With fish limits in the freezer, we enjoyed a very relaxing day at camp enjoying lots & lots of sunshine!!!

The view from my camp chair is pretty nice: