July 8th to 10th - Homer to Seward

July 8th – Sun - Homer
I got some laundry going early this morning and was joined shortly by Margo doing the same thing. We were the only ones in the laundry room so got as many machines as we needed and got done quickly. Then we all went exploring & sightseeing.
We stopped at the Alaska Islands and Ocean visitor center which includes films & displays about the huge nature preserve that includes all the Aleutian Islands. It is very informative and well done. We went on a walk through a protected area where a pair of sandhill cranes are raising their 2 young called “colts”.
We drove into the old part of town and “wisely” decided to have lunch at a local place rather than Subway. We were told that it would take a while to get our food as they were very busy but it was ridiculous. We should have known when our server came back at least 20 minutes after we ordered to say they were out of 2 things that we had ordered. We were ready to leave when our server finally appeared with food. There was a young family behind us who were there 15 minutes before us and they didn’t have their food yet so they got up and left.
After eating, we continued on to a road that has amazing views of the Spit and Kachemak Bay and took pictures. We made a loop back to town and stopped at a couple of interesting stores that Margo heard about. We stopped at some stores on the spit that we hadn’t visited yet and drove to the end of the spit before going back to our rigs. We put on boots & jackets and walked along the beach for a while before the guys started a fire. It was cool so Margo & I spent time on our computers, read and did some dinner prep rather than sitting by the fire.
We got together for another halibut dinner but kept it light as lunch was quite late. We showed Dave & Margo most of the jokes & clips stored on our computer. At one point, the sun was shining over the top of the RV beside us and it was almost 10.

July 9th – Mon – to Seward
We left at 8 after dumping our tanks at the campground. We stopped at Fred Meyer in Soldatna for fuel and groceries and enjoyed sunny patches as we retraced our route to the Seward Highway and then turned south.
We filled up our fresh water before looking for a site in the city campground on the beach. We didn’t realize that we were in the water & electric area when we first started looking for spots. We couldn’t find 2 places on the beach so we moved to a non-serviced area where we are a couple of spaces away from Dave & Margo.
We had set up and had a sandwich for lunch when Marv drove up. He is a friend who Terry fished with when we were in Spokane. He now is a fishing guide, he took us fishing when we were here in 2007 and Terry & Dave are going fishing with him on Wednesday. We & Dave chatted with him and his friend Bob for quite a while.
It was cloudy & breezy but we put on warmer jackets and walked towards the boat docks. As we crossed a bridge over a little creek running into Resurrection Bay, we saw some men fishing for salmon. Fishing might be the wrong term as they were snagging them which is legal here. They use a treble hook with a weight on it, throw the line out a short ways and jerk it back trying to snag fish that are heading up the creek to spawn. This is the beginning of the silver salmon run and we saw them catch a couple of fish and saw quite a few fish getting past them into the creek.
We continued on to the boat docks and looked unsuccessfully for Marv’s boat. We saw nice displays of halibut & salmon that were caught on fishing charters today and the halibut weren’t much larger than the ones that we caught.
As we started to walk back it began to rain so we ducked into a bar for a beer while the rain moved through. We went to Dave & Margo’s for another drink and some snacks. It was lovely to watch the activity on the water through their front window.

July 10th – Tues – Seward
We walked to the boat dock area so Dave could get some carburetor cleaner for his generator and Margo & I could make reservations for a wildlife & glacier tour tomorrow. At the hardware store I finally found a waterproof jacket that fit, I liked and was affordable. We also went to Napa for DEF as our indicator is saying we should be looking for it. Strangely enough, this is the least we have ever paid for DEF.
Next we headed into town to the Alaska Sealife Center. It is a wonderful aquarium that also offers lots of informative panels and films. When we left there, we walked along the main street and found a nice place for lunch where we all got too full from large hamburgers. We continued on up & down the street stopping to browse at many stores. We drove south of town to check out a waterfall noted on a map and Lowell Point. It was a very bumpy gravel road and neither destination was anything wonderful.
When we got back, we walked to the little bridge and watched people “snagging” again. One young man wearing shorts waded in up to his knees in the COLD water which made us all feel cold. He finally snagged a big King salmon. Other fishermen were cleaning silvers but no one else had a King.
I got on the internet looking for a recipe for the halibut cheeks that we were sharing for an appetizer. Margo was making a salad that was supposed to happen last night so I made some quick bread with Bisquick and our appetizer ended up being dinner. The halibut cheeks were very good even though I had to substitute bread crumbs for the Panko crumbs that turned out to be rancid.