Friday-July 14-Day 24-Home Sweet Homer

This rainy day found us driving south on the Sterling Highway to Homer, on the southwestern Kenai Peninsula. ( Incidentally, twenty years ago when John and I were here, it also rained on the day we went to Homer!) We arrived at the Homer Visitor Center.  There was a sign above the door, 

"Home Sweet Homer"..

At the Visitors Center they had a bouquet of the most lovely Peonies..... These blooms were about 6 inches across.

Just down the road was another visitors center/museum, an interpretive, educational center, which we enjoyed.
And it was free!
We also saw a informative movie on Marine Wildlife.

 We have a funny story from today.  I won't say which one of us was driving, but as we were ready to turn into the Visitors Center, we suddenly found ourselves driving our rig down the sidewalk!😀 Not sure how it happened, but it did look like the road shoulder!  We all had a good hardy laugh over that one!

The Homer Spit is a bustling 4.5 mile strip of land that juts out into Kachemak Bay, where the land meets the sea. It is the longest road into ocean waters in the entire world.

In the '60's a bunch of hippies, called "spit rats" camped out here,
Hence the name. A lot of those hippies went on to become successful fishermen.

Today there are still tents pitched on the stoney shore of the bay.

Homer has a large, small boat harbor.

We wanted a sea food lunch, so we got a recommendation from a local, and drove to Captain Patties on the Spit.  But parking was no where to be found, so we drove to a parking area about a quarter mile away. All the hassle of walking in the rain was worth it! Barb and Marie got the seafood sampler: salmon, shrimp. halibut and scallops.  Steve and I got the deep fried halibut.  It was all delicious! (and pricey)

After we had our taste of Homer, we headed back north on the Sterling Highway. We were going almost right past Dwight and Kristen Wenger's place, a couple from back home who are serving the Lord with M.A.R.C.:  Mission Aviation Resource Center.
So we decided to stop in to say hi and see where they live.

Kristens parents and grandparents were visiting from Arizona and Iowa, helping to build their new house.
It was a short but sweet visit!
Dwight took a minute off from building to poke his head out the window for the picture!  Standing below is Kristen and their 3 sons, her mom and her sister.

On the way back to Anchorage, we passed this cute little bake shop  that was just exuding Mennonite flair.  So we stopped, and sure enough, the Reinfords who have  been here since 2002 have this gift and bake shop.

We love little out of the way places and this reminded us so much of the little out of the way places in Lancaster County!

I love these hand-made Alaska Bags, but I have so many totes already! So I left them for the next tourists.

The mountains and the rivers again charmed us as we drove.

We found our resting spot for the night at Grizzly Ridge campground, at Cooper Landing. There was a kind old gentleman there with a long white beard who was so helpful in getting us at the right spot and set up. I really believe he saw these 3 women and thought "there is no way they know what they are doing!", but Marie proved those thoughts (if indeed he did think them!) all wrong!! She whipped that rig into place like nobodies business!

We didn't see any Grizzlys, but we did have a good evening!