August 29, 2014

We woke to the delightful message and picture from Matt of Lindsay and Barrett. It sounds like Barrett’s issues are being resolved, and it seems that he is coming home tomorrow. That is a big relief and joy to us all.

Peggy and I were in the room facing towards the Cook Inlet and were the first to see the snow covered volcanos across the inlet. As the clouds lifted we saw more and more. We also could not miss the young Bald Eagle perched atop a garage about 100 feet from our cottage. We would spend the next hour doing a photo session with our photogenic bird. He finally swooped down on his breakfast in the river. I risked a shotgun blast to take some pictures of him/her eating. The neighbor whose collection of rusting iron that I transgressed was agitated until I told him that I was from California and that eagles feasting were a rare sight down south. He decided that it was OK for me to take a few pictures. Leslie was jealous.

The sky became more and more blue as we drove the last 40 or so miles to Land’s End on the Homer Spit. Homer is unbelievably scenic and is located on the eastern shore of Kachemak Bay on the tip of the Kenai Peninsula. We stopped quite a while on an overlook before driving to the end of the spit that protrudes into the bay. We missed the otters around the piers but managed to find a number of rocks to carry back.

We enjoyed some chowder for lunch and found a few items that we needed to buy. We found the best place to buy some halibut to BBQ and found some delicious smoked scallops. We also asked for the best place to see more eagles and were told that we needed to go to the dump. After a visit to chaotic supermarket, we were dump bound. We were saddened that the tip was bum. No eagles as the dump staff told us since they stopped burying garbage. All trash is either recycled or transferred to an undisclosed location. The trash guy told us to go to the mouth of the Anchor River where there were plenty of eagles.

We found a couple of eagles but they were so distant that the pictures didn’t come close to those from the morning. We returned to Ninilchik and visited the historic Russian Orthodox Church and it’s graveyard. There lie the remains of many descendants of the Russian settlers and fishermen who became Americans after the purchase of Alaska in 1867.

Peggy and Leslie are currently trying to take the perfect picture of the fireweed that is in its seasonal final flowering before the snow begins.