Day 61

July 29, 2017

View this morning from our campsite.

Big decisions today as to how to dress for boat travel.  Finally decided on layers, t-shirt, wool shirt, fleece for Bob and blouse, fleece and rain-proof jacket for Iris.  Arriving in Homer about 11 AM, we found a parking space good for 7 days so that worked, only about a block from our meeting place with David and Marianne who had arranged this wonderful day for us.  David had already purchased our tickets for the Danny J 

to take us out to Gull Island and Halibut Cove.  Gull Island is a bird wildlife preserve and was in good use full of bird life, we made a circle of the island then on to Halibut Cove.  

The trip from the Homer harbor to the island was about an hour.  Along the way we could see glaciers.

And puffins, sea birds, bald eagles and sea otters (to quick to photograph)

There we offloaded all the passengers and began the steep climb up the ramp to the buildings with elevated walkways connecting everything.  The steep ramp was due to the low tide making the climb from sea level to the permanent walkway a challenging climb.  At the top was the Saltry Restaurant (https://www.thesaltry.com)

where David had secured the best table.  We enjoyed some refreshment 

before ordering our lunch of clam chowder and salmon sandwiches for some and salmon tacos for others.  Dessert was pretty fantastic also.

We then had a walk along the boardwalk that connects one building from others all built on pilings that accommodate the 28’ tide change so at low tide we were walking high above the water and mud.  

This is a very unique place operated by one family but with other private properties visible from the boardwalk.  

Power and fresh water are supplied from underwater cable and pipe from Homer.  That must have been an interesting installation project.  Our return to Homer was faster as we did not stop to circle Gull Island this trip.  Arriving back in Homer we had a less steep climb as the tide was starting to come in.  We passed the catch from one of the charter boats.

Within a block of the ramp we came to the Salty Dog.  We snagged a table quickly, got some drinks and began to people watch.  The bar was about 3 deep standing and there was a constant coming and going through the front door.  The walls and ceilings were decorated with $1 bills, most with a name and date on them, there were thousands of them.

Leaving the Salty Dog we said our good-byes and found our car for the drive back to our campground.  Arriving there we found most of our group behind the Unity gazing out into the bay watching whales.  

They were so far out you could just see the blows by the whales.  After such a big day we were exhausted and found our bed fairly quickly after falling asleep in front of the TV.