Leavin' on a ferry

The Homer spit (well, a tiny part of it...)

Today we had aallllllll day to explore Homer.  The ferry didn’t board until 9:30 pm or so.  We went to the small but really neat Pratt Museum and also visited the Islands and Oceans museum.  Homer is a pretty small town, and pretty much the end of the road.  It’s less mountainous in the immediate vicinity of Homer, but there are great views of mountains and volcanoes across Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay. We will board ferry in the evening and its an overnight trip to Kodiak.

someone had a good day fishing near Homer (not us though)

At the Pratt Museum there’s a short nature hike behind the museum building. Since we still had several hours to kill, we checked it out.  On our way to the trailhead, a woman stopped us and mentioned there was a moose and calf ‘near the trail’, and reminded us to be alert.  The whole time we were walking we were worried about stumbling upon them, and whoops, then we did!  We were twisting through some tall grasses mixed with trees and all of a sudden they were right in front of us (well, Steve mostly, since he was in the lead).  Like, 5 feet away.  Crap!  We all scrambled back along the trail to get the heck out of there.  They weren’t just ‘near’ the trail, they were pretty much on it!  After that we walked back along the road instead of messing with any more (big, scary) wildlife.

Homer is known for the Homer Spit – a long, narrow spit of land that stretches out into Kachemak Bay.  It’s lined with beaches and shops, restaurants, and marinas.  Near the very end is the ferry terminal.  We walked around and looked at the shops, and ate some ice cream.  It was a beautiful day to stroll.

Looking at Kachemak Bay from the Tustemena ferry

Finally, after a long day of exploring Homer, we boarded the ferry and got settled in our room (with I never took a picture of).  We had two sets of bunk beds, and a small bathroom.  The room was small but functional. The shower was ridiculously, painfully small.  It was a tiny triangle shaped shower with a shower head that sprayed water EVERYWHERE (even outside the shower and all over the toilet if you weren’t careful with the curtain), so that unless you turned it off, you couldn’t get out of the spray.  And even worse, the lever to turn the water on/off and adjust the temperature was right where your arm/back would bump it all the time.  Ugh.  Annoying.

Just about ready to depart on the ferry

The ferry – Tustumena was the name of the boat – is one of two ocean-class ferries in the US.  The other is the Kennicott, which we took on the move up to Juneau.  It’s about 220 feet long, and was built in 1964.  So, it’s old, and it’s small, and it’s in need of being replaced.  But, it wasn’t bad.  There was a nice forward lounge with seats and some booths with tables.  There was an observation deck on the top level too, which was partially enclosed.  People who don’t get rooms can sleep in the lounges or even pitch a tent on the top deck, like these people did.  The tent in the foreground was occupied by a woman and her 5 children (!) who going to visit friends in Unalaska.  The oldest kid was 10-12ish and the youngest was 11 months!  Now that’s adventurous! The kids were all so polite and well behaved too.