Well. Good Morning. I guess. Some of you may wonder why our spot tracker is moving at 4:30 in the morning and well after one hour sleep we may or may not have ambition to write this entry in its entirety. We had a beautiful beach campsite on the Homer Spit and had stayed up all night listening to the wave’s crash and getting mesmerized in front of the fire. Swapping tales and taking some very artsy photos we thought we had it made here on our little beach paradise. It was a perfect setting, with the rain falling lightly; we could hear it hissing in the fire. While our spirits were high, since we no longer fought the rain, we crawled into bed around 2 am to complete darkness outside which has not happened in a very long time. We awoke abruptly at 3 am with the rain flap on the tent thrashing wildly, the walls of the tent bowing inwards and the hurricane winds blowing through every little hole in the tent. The wind also caused the tent to shake violently which made us feel like grains of salt in a really big salt shaker. Trying to ignore the flapping of canvas and the rain fly in the midst of what felt like a tornado, we could hear the couple down the beach swearing and franticly packing up their tent, Robi crawled outside to take a look. Their tent was basically folded in half by the wind and they simply stuffed it in the back of their truck, threw firewood on it to keep it down and huddled inside the cab. We figured our tent would be fine, but after lying in bed for another few minutes we began worrying about our rain fly. Since we still had another two weeks or so in the trip we didn’t want it to get ripped off so we decided to pack up as well. With the wind howling and rain blowing sideways we packed up the tent in our bare feet, in the middle of complete darkness in a matter of minutes, we are pros. Soaking wet pros.
We have been driving around Homer aimlessly for the past half an hour looking for either food, coffee or a place to call home, failing epically at all three. We are trying to laugh it off but I know my eyes are having a hard time staying open and I’m sure Robi isn’t much different at this particular moment. With not a single 24 hour anything this town is making it to the top of our shit list real quick. We decided to shoot for a gas station, and after programming it into our GPS we ended up in the boonies next to a farm house. We turned around and went back to Safeway…damn GPS.
We arrived at this interesting little beach town after spending the night in Girdwood, where we experienced our most beautiful campsite yet. Nestled amidst giant cedars and some tropical looking flora and fauna we made our home for the evening. Robi finally had the brilliant idea of spanning the tarp over the tent and thus reducing the wetness of our home, about time. We enjoyed blueberry buttermilk pancakes for breakfast and got to finally sleep in and not have to worry about a check out time.
We fell asleep with full bellies from our delicious dinner of steak, corn on the cob, salad, garlic toast and some raspberry wheat beer from the Glacier Brewhouse that we had gone to for lunch. We decided we should definitely try to taste some of the local cuisine and reindeer pizza was on the list. With its caramelized onions and some blue cheese nestled on a soft yet crunchy thin crust pizza we devoured down a local favorite and dubbed it one of ours too. We have been eating extremely well this past week or so with our awesome tailgate lunches. We stopped at a place called Clam Gulch yesterday on our way to Homer from Girdwood and made some lunch on the beach, it was pretty awesome.
You have to excuse how all of this is being explained, I am working backwards. I haven’t had a coffee and am watching the sun come up trying to write this in the passenger seat while we are still in search of something…anything…open. I hope it makes sense anyways. We spent yesterday in Anchorage walking the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail and being typical tourists. Tuesday night we had gone to Rumrunners Bar and Grill and had some good conversation with a bartender over a couple pints of draught, a bread bowl of clam chowder and some crispy calamari. She told us it was 5 dollar Tuesday at the local brewery and we could get growlers filled for 5 dollars, we were intrigued. A 64 oz glass jar filled with brew, for five green backs, sold. She graciously gave us a list of things to see and and paid for our beers. Guess we are good conversationalists or really really good looking. =P
After leaving Anchorage we watched an amazing act of Mother Nature, the tide came in on the mud flats on the Seward Highway near Beluga Point. This area is known for its crazy bore tides with 33 feet between high and low tide. It was something else! We also visited the Alaska Zoo; I had some very mixed emotions about wild animals in captivity and the space and living conditions to which they are subjected. They had lots of animals to see and learn about yet my heart told me that it’s all completely unnecessary to cage them up just to have people come and go and poke and prod.
We are now in this little coastal town called Homer, where we spent the nicer part of last night walking the streets by the wharf. There are many shops with local art, gifts, and of course fresh seafood. We had dinner overlooking the Cook Inlet and devoured a pound of fresh king crab along with some fish and chips at a local restaurant. Today (if we ever wake up from our nap) we are planning to buy our own king crab right off the fishing boats and have some more for dinner. During our walk we also stopped by a Saloon called The Salty Dawg, which was recommended by everyone and every book we read. The door was tiny and the outside looked like a typical seaside bar. Inside we were awestruck by what we saw. The roof, walls and everything hanging on them was covered in dollar bills. The tables were made of thick wood planks that had been engraved with names, sayings, and scratched carvings from the thousands of people that had sat at them. Of course we looked like losers taking pictures, but the locals were friendly, laughing, drunk, and I’m sure were used to the sight of people like us. We also drove down Poopdeck Street and walked past interesting titled places such as Buttwackers.
After grabbing some coffee at the Starbucks that finally opened this morning we decided to head back to the beach where we had camped. Along the way we saw a giant moose cross the road right in front of us… I guess something good comes from getting up at 4 am. We are now watching the waves crash onto the beach in front of us, there is an otter playing and an eagle soaring, and with the rain ceasing to drizzle we can see blue sky above the dark clouds and on the horizon. Soon we will probably setup the tent again to let it dry out, make a massive breakfast, and then take a nap (not necessarily in that order).
