Wrapping up Homer and a tall fish tale.................

The Diamond Cape.........backdrop for remake of Old Man and the Sea

We've wrapped up our four days in Homer.  Early this morning we hit the road, and in just over six hours made the very easy drive to Talkeetna.  Talkeetna is a small, eclectic community located where  the Talkeetna and Susitna Rivers come together.  From here you can occasionally get a wonderful view of Mt. McKinley (also commonly called Denali).  The mountain is an impressive sight that stays hidden in the clouds about 70% of the time.  We've visited Talkeetna several times, passing by on the way to or from Denali National Park.  This trip we'll be spending one night in Talkeetna, which will give us more time to soak in all that it has to offer.

We spotted this mother Mountain Goat and her baby near Girdwood as we drove from Homer to Talkeetna. 

Nagley's Store............Talkeetna's version of Wal-Mart since 1921

Our time in Homer was really a blast.  So much so, that it's fair to say, that it exceeded our expectations in every way.  Magnificent scenery everywhere (it closely resembles the South Island of New Zealand) interesting food options, friendly people (except for the one guy at the laundromat) and so much more.  Being at the end of the road (see previous blog), it takes a little effort to get there but it's well worth it.  It was our first visit to Homer, but hopefully not our last.

The Homer Spit from the overlook on Skyline Drive.

We saw our favorite moose again Friday morning as we walked along the beach.

When we saw the Halibut Capital of the World sign, on the way to town our first day, Beth said "you need to go fishing".  I remember half heartedly saying something like, "that could be fun".  Beth, as she is so great at doing continued to encourage me to go out.  Before long I was booked on a full day trip on board the Diamond Cape, which is a part of the Homer Ocean Charters fleet.

Early Saturday morning I headed down to the Homer Spit Marina and met up with Captain Clay, his deckhand Henry, and the five fisherman (four hung over friends and another single guy), all who were around half my age, who would be my fishing mates for the day.  They were all nice guys who picked up on the age difference and started lovingly calling me "the retired guy".  One of them even asked me if I had any advice for the group.  I'll leave you wondering what my words of wisdom were, but they seemed to like it!

Although I enjoy fishing a lot, my fishing quests usually aren't very productive.  The beauty of a lack of productivity is there isn't as much mess to clean up afterwards.  With others to clean up the mess, I was hoping for a bountiful harvest of creatures from the sea.

The planets must have been perfectly aligned and the gods of fishing were smiling down on us.  Within a minute or so of dropping our lines down into the 100 foot water we were reeling up cod so quickly that Captain Clay and Henry had trouble keeping up with the six of us rapidly bonding fishing amigos.  Within less than a half an hour someone brought up the first halibut of the day.  It probably weighed around 20 pounds and was quickly followed by a couple of more halibut of similar size.  Suddenly the tip of my rod was bent at a much sharper angle than on any of the previous fish I had hauled in.  Something big down there had taken my bait!  

The fight lasted about 10 minutes before we got our first glimpse at what was causing my left arm and right hand to cramp.  My young fishing amigos all broke into profanity laced shouts of encouragement as I brought the beast from the deep close to the surface.  Captain Clay had me bring him close to the boat and the fight ended suddenly and with a bang, literally (a .410 shotgun blast to the halibuts head), which elicited even louder, more profanity laced cheers from the young amigos.  Henry gaffed the big boy and the two of them brought him on board.  Turns out what I had been fighting weighed in at 92 pounds!  While we all caught our limit of halibut, none came remotely close to the size of this big fella.  Heck, I only missed the current world record for Pacific Halibut by 367 pounds!

The one that didn't get away!

Me, Captain Clay and 92 lbs of halibut!

By the time we headed back to the marina we had caught cod, halibut, rockfish and a couple of salmon.  We had plenty of fish, and plenty of fish tales, that will no doubt grow over time.  We could have shipped some of the fish back, but it's really expensive, and besides that we didn't have any freezer space.  We kept a little of the halibut and the halibut cheeks (a prized portion of meat that has a texture similar to a scallop).  Captain Patties, a restaurant on the Homer Spit offered a "we cook your catch meal" that we took advantage of for a wonderful meal of "fresh halibut".  The rest of my fish I donated to my young amigos.

The retired guy, his young amigos and their haul.  Rockfish on the bottom, halibut and salmon in the middle and cod on the sides and top.  All fish were carefully marked with a number of notches on the head that corresponded with each fisherman's assigned number.  This was used to tell whose fish belonged to who.

The chef prepared the halibut three different ways........all were good but it's hard to beat anything that's fried!

Halibut Cheeks!  Actually Halibut Cheek is more appropriate....the other cheek was destroyed by a shotgun blast!  Very tasty!

Homer, Alaska.........if I can catch them, it truly is the "Halibut Fishing Capital of the World"...... and so much more!

If you're a fan of "Deadliest Catch" you recognize the Time Bandit.  It was docked in the Homer Marina.

Feel free to insert your own caption...........

Homer..........where the road stops

Homer is a small town of around 6,000 permanent residents who have the good fortune of living in one of the most spectacularly beautiful areas of a spectacularly beautiful state.  It's quite easy to find Homer if you're driving in Alaska.  Simply take Alaska State Highway 1 south as far as you can go.  When you reach the end of the road you'll find yourself in Homer.  

According to an online article in Homernews.com the city was named after Homer Pennock.  Mr. Pennock was in a party of 50 men and one woman who were with the Alaska Gold Mining Company who came to the area in April of 1896.  When they went to establish a post office they needed a name and the crew decided on the name Homer because he had lead the effort to build housing for them.  Now it's just my opinion, but it seems to me that naming it after the one "lady" in the group (Della Banks) may have been worth considering.  

Homer

At the south end of the city is a 4.5 mile long stretch of land that juts out into the Kachemak Bay that is known as the Homer Spit.  The spit features the longest road into ocean waters in the world and was recently named one of the top 100 beaches in the US (for it's views and diverse wildlife, not water temperature!)  The spit is also where a number of restaurants, shops and the very large boat harbor is located.  There are hundreds of fishing boats of all sizes from small private boats to charter boats, and even large commercial fishing and crab boats.  I'm looking forward to going out on a charter Saturday in search of halibut, king salmon and rockfish.  Hopefully I'll have a few stories and the pictures to back up the stories.

A small section of the Homer Boat Harbor

A few of the many shops and restaurants along the Homer Spit.  

I found a fishing buddy on the Homer Spit

The Homer Spit

On Thursday we were up at the crack of dawn, which comes very early (around 5:00) at this time of the year.  One nice thing about the long days is all the bonus time to explore.  We knew that low tide would be around 10:00 and that would be a great time to walk the beach, which is just a few hundred steps down a small trail from our hotel.  As we made our way down the trail Beth was in the lead.  Suddenly she wasn't moving forward but was moon walking backwards with such grace and determination that Michael Jackson would have been pleased.  I wasn't sure what had caused this sudden change until I looked in the direction from which she was backtracking.  Much to our surprise there was a moose grazing casually on the trail.  Thankfully it wasn't surprised or angered by our presence.  We took a few steps back and enjoyed a few minutes watching her as she went about her grazing. She was paying no attention to the two spectators enjoying the spectacle from about thirty feet away.

The source of Beth's moonwalk!

She's enjoying breakfast with a view.

While walking along the beach we laughed about our close encounter.  We also laughed about the fact that the drive from Anchorage to Homer was through moose country so we were on the lookout the whole way.  No moose were sighted on the 200 mile drive but all we had to do was walk twenty yards down a trail from the back of our hotel for an eyeball to eyeball encounter.

A low tide, low level balancing act!

Along the beach............at low tide

From the top of the trail

After the beach hike we topped off the morning with lunch at a really cool local dive called the Boatyard Cafe.  It's a small "cheap eats" (a relative term in Alaska) that I found on TripAdvisor.  It's a little off the beaten path and it is actually inside a large, fully operational boatyard.  The burgers and milkshake were awesome.  We hadn't planned it when we ate breakfast, but the oatmeal may have been a preemptive strike and a salad was on the menu for dinner.  

Great food and friendly service at the Boat Yard Cafe!

I didn't pay very close attention to the menu and didn't realize the Boat Yard Burger had two huge patties.  For a few minutes it was like being on Man vs. Food...........in this case man won!

The Boatyard Cafe

Bloggers table!

As I was finishing this blog early Friday morning this Magpie stopped by our balcony for a visit.  Shortly after he left we had three eagle flybys!

Alaska.................there's an adventure around every corner and out every window!

 

Alaska...............again!

A beautiful morning in Anchorage.  The mountain range in the background is over sixty miles away!

 Over the years we've been to Alaska close to a dozen times.  Needless to say we're kind of fond of the state known as "The Last Frontier".  Getting here this time was a little more challenging than previous adventures.  We've cruised here from San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver.  While living in Texas we also flew to Anchorage several times from Dallas.  This time we started the journey a little further away in Tampa, which added a couple of hours of flying and a layover in Minneapolis.  The extra hours in the plane, combined with wearing a mask and being stuck on the back row of a completely full flight from Minneapolis, had Beth and I pondering if this was going to be our last trip to this huge and amazing state.  We've been here for a little over a day, the circulation is returning to our lower legs and we're already talking about the prospects of future visits.

Having lived in Texas for over twenty years we were constantly bombarded with the saying "everything is bigger in Texas".  While that may be true in many instances, when it comes to size Texas comes in a very distant second to Alaska.  Alaskans are quick to point out that you could fit Texas into Alaska two times.  Surrounded by water on three sides, Alaska with 6,640 miles of shoreline also easily wins the title of "state with the most shoreline".  If you're keeping score, Florida comes in a very distant second with 1,350 miles of shore line.  Massive snow covered mountains, lakes and rivers everywhere, the scenic coast line, abundant wildlife and not too many people (even less right now since the cruise ships aren't running) makes this a perfect match for what we enjoy.

We landed in Anchorage just before 9:00 PM and while it's not quite the "land of the midnight sun" yet, it's getting close.  Sunset is currently around 10:30 and the sun is making it's way up by 5:00.  By the summer solstice (June 20 this year) there will be over 22 hours of sunlight.  On the other end of the spectrum, on the winter solstice (December 21), Anchorage will have only five hours of sunlight (approximately 10:30-3:30).  

We're not planning to spend too much time in Anchorage on this adventure but we did enjoy the beautiful spring morning that we woke up to after getting some rest.  The temperature was in the 50's and not a cloud in the sky.  We were pleased to see that the Snow City Cafe had survived the pandemic and was doing a bustling business.  When we went to leave, the friendly server who had taken care of us said "enjoy your time in Alaska".  We laughed and wondered how she figured out we weren't residents!

Snow City Cafe

Just a few blocks from the Snow City Café is Elderberry Park.  This small park overlooking the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet is the downtown trailhead for the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.  This trail is a part of a very extensive trail system in and around Anchorage  We had really enjoyed biking part of this eleven mile paved, multiuse trail before (there are plenty of bike rental shops near the trailhead).  This time we enjoyed a nice walk along a section from the Elderberry Park trailhead past the intersection with the Chester Creek Trail before turning around.  It's a nice flat trail with amazing views that can be enjoyed on foot or bike at this time of year, or cross country skies in the winter.

Many of the trails in the Anchorage Trail System are interconnected.  This is at the intersection of the Tony Knowles and Chester Creek Trail.

Along the Tony Knowles Trail

A trail, a bench and a view........

Tony Knowles Coastal Trail

After a quick trip to WalMart, we left Anchorage a little after noon heading for our next destination, Homer, which is located on the Kenai Peninsula.  Our GPS told us it was a little over a four hour drive, but this wasn't a race to get here so we stopped and detoured numerous times along the way to enjoy the scenery.  We made it to the Ocean Shores Hotel a little before 6:00.  The view out our window is like a post card (and makes a great blogging spot).  We've enjoyed visiting Seward, which is also on the Kenai Peninsula, but this is our first time visiting Homer.  We're looking forward to a few days of exploring this area and all it has to offer and of course, sharing some of it in this blog.   

Great scenery along the drive from Anchorage to Homer!

I'm sure there will be a blog worthy story or two about my fishing trip Saturday!

The view from my blogging chair!

The Bullet is gone again..............

We were warmly greeted by Ranger Smith at Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest!

Loaded with fresh oil, and new brakes and rotors, the Bullet hit the road again on April 24.  When it returns to Florida, who knows?  Our plans change fairly frequently but as of now it will most likely not be before the end of October/early November.  We, however, will be traveling back to the sunshine state frequently to enjoy time with NaNa (Beth's mom to any new readers) as well as the annual family beach house summer gathering.  I got a little behind on my blogging and will be using this one to catch up on the past few weeks.

Our destination on this journey was Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania to spend a little time with Ben and a couple of very special guests.  The drive to Slippery Rock from Anna Maria Island is about 18 hours, so we had a few stops planned as we made our way north.

Typically when we "hit the road" we leave very early in the morning, however this time we enjoyed a morning visit with NaNa before heading out around mid-day.  While traffic on the interstates leaving Florida can sometimes be a nightmare, we were fortunate that on both I-75 and I-95 it wasn't too heavy.  We did have one major obstacle standing in our way, a huge line of thunderstorms moving through Georgia.

We made a quick strategic decision.  We decided to slow it down and let the storms pass, so we made a  diversion to St. Augustine.  It wasn't a long visit, but it was enough to confirm what Governor DeSantis has been telling everyone, "Florida is open for business"!  The narrow streets were packed with people of all ages enjoying a sunny Saturday afternoon in the Nation's Oldest City.  It was good to see people out and about and it was especially good to see that business was booming at many of the shops and restaurants that had struggled so much over the past year.

Along the Matanzas River waterfront in St. Augustine.  Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is in the background.
 

Matanzas River and The Bridge of Lions

The well guarded entrance to the Bridge of Lions

Plaza de la Constitucion-A gathering place since 1573!

St. Augustine

We missed most of the heavy rain, but we did encounter a downpour between Brunswick, Georgia and Savannah.  I was on the phone with Marriott trying to make a reservation for the night, so Beth was driving and did an outstanding job navigating us to the hotel.  We had visited Savannah recently and had a great time.  This time through it was just to get a good nights rest and hit the road again.

We had booked two nights at the Stonewall Resort in Roanoke, West Virginia.  As we made our way towards the resort we made a detour to enjoy a walk through the Congaree National Park which is near Columbia, South Carolina. We also enjoyed a special lunch with some good family in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Thanks Katie, Dan and Paula!  We'll try to give you a little more notice next time.  

Congaree National Park is a 26,276 acre park.  It is home to the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States.  It is South Carolina's only National Park.

There is a nice 2.6 mile boardwalk through the dense trees.

The forest is not only dense with trees, it also is full of ferns and cypress knees.

Congaree National Park

The Stonewall Resort is a part of the West Virginia State Park system.  While you don't typically associate the words "resort" and "State Park" together, the Stonewall Resort lives up to it's name.  It's located on Stonewall Jackson Lake (don't tell the cancel culture crowd the name!) and offers accommodations that include camping, cabins and the hotel.  There is an Arnold Palmer designed golf course and amenities for every member of the family.  This was the third time we had stayed at a hotel in a West Virginia State Park (Pipestem and Hawksnest were the other two).  This was the most luxurious of the three, but all three have been outstanding.

Hiking.........

Biking..........

and Fishing at Stonewall Resort!

Taken from the very nice pool/hot tub area at the Stonewall Resort Hotel

Canoes, Kayaks and Paddleboards were available.  One of Beth's photography specialties is reflections.  This is a fine example of her skills! 

Stonewall Resort

Ben's days off are currently Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  We planned our arrival so we would be able to enjoy spending time with him on his well deserved days off.  We enjoyed the two days with him tremendously.  We managed to pack in an outdoor lunch at the very scenic Allegheny River Grille, had a treasure hunt at the numerous thrift stores in Franklin, PA and enjoyed a round of golf at the Foxburg Country Club.  This nine hole golf course was established in 1887 and is the nations oldest continuously operating golf course.  Any golf enthusiast would enjoy playing this short but challenging course, as well as visiting the small museum located inside the clubhouse.

Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest 

Allegheny River Grille

Franklin, PA

Foxburg Country Club

Our weekend at Ben's was great!  On Friday we were joined by two very special guests, Sarah and James who got up very early to catch a cross country flight from California to join us.  Beth and I are fortunate to have two children that have always liked each other and gotten along very well.  As much as they enjoy each other, it's now a real treat to watch James with his Uncle Ben.  Those two have formed a special bond and are real buddies.

Ben had a weekend full of activities planned for the "sold out" campground at Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest.  He had mapped out an activities schedule that kept James busy and smiling from ear to ear throughout the weekend.  There were crafts, relay races, candy bar bingo, gem mining, hey-hey-hey hayrides, visits by Yogi, Boo Boo, Cindy Bear and Ranger Smith and so much more.  James and a couple of his new friends from Pennsylvania even enjoyed a bedtime story with Yogi on Saturday night. 

James was jumping for joy!

Arts and Crafts Time!

Yogi, Boo Boo and Cindy Bear stopped by to say hello!

James and the Director of Fun..........Funcle Ben!

James and MiMi were big winners at Candy Bar Bingo.  Thankfully they shared their winnings with Sarah and I.

Boo Boo, James and his new friend Emma hanging out in the tent.  James thought it was cool that her name was the same as his little sister.

Sarah and an extra special bear!

Spin Art with Sierra and Oliva!

A little weary from all the fun but still smiling, Sarah and James flew back to California from Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning.  Beth and I flew back to Florida on Tuesday evening. 

As for The Silver Bullet, it's going to be spending most of the summer in Pennsylvania.  We'll pay an occasional visit and enjoy taking it on a few road trips.  We'll be back here in Florida until Tuesday when  our next adventure begins..................

A hint of where we'll be going next...................