Day 7: to Homer

Happy 4th of July . . . we cherish our freedom and know that it comes at a very high cost!

Colin was excited about today as he loves the fireworks . . . I did not have the heart to tell him that it doesn't get dark, but I think he figured it out as he did not ask.  He just told me we will celebrate when we get back to Texas.  I tell you this boy wants to be at his house on holidays.   Anyway, it was another rainy start and hopefully it clears out soon . . . very, very soon!  We were up and on road by 8:30am! Wow that's a first and no plane to catch.  The weather was just miserable and so foggy/cloudy/overcast you couldn't see very much.  I read my Alaska book and marked to stop at the Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik . . .

. . . I think it is my favorite so far.  Just so charming and beautiful with its five onion domes.  We continued on in the crappy weather and arrived in Homer.  We pulled into Two Sisters for a lunch snack . . . I immediately knew this was not Colin's kind of place.  It was a very organic, zen, hippie kind of place.  The food looked amazing; I went with a BLT and tomato soup . . . yummy times ten!  Colin had a 'white trash roll' (hey that was their name) and homemade lemonade; he seemed content, but I knew he would be hungry in a hour.  The BLT was awesome, and I don't really eat BLT sandwiches but the bread was so fresh.  We got back into the car and headed to the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center.  A great place to visit for a bit, and I did not make Colin do the Junior Scientist booklet.  We did a quick walking trail out back . . .

Again this town is small and we could do all the main attractions in a day.  While we waited for our hotel room to be ready we headed over to the Pratt Museum and drove to the top of Skyline Drive to enjoy the views from above of the city.  We tried again but our room was still not ready so back to the Homer Spit area.  It that was hopping with people.  It was a lively area with people hanging out, shopping, and eating.  It was the 4th of July so it was crowded.  Colin smelled kettle corn so we were on a mission to find it.  The spit area is full of a lot of artsy stores . . . it just doesn't seem to fit what I thought Homer would be like.  I was thinking rough tough town due to all the fishing; the small boat harbor is home to over 700 boats . . . but it is a very artsy town or what I call 'granola'.  Don't get me wrong I did enjoy the town but was just surprised by the environment.  As we walked around Colin 'found' his big catch . . .

We paused a minute to watch those who were fishing for the day cleaning their fresh catch.  There was also a nice memorial to the local residents lost at sea . . .

We decided to eat dinner at the Harbor Grill before making one last check on our hotel room.  I had yummy fish tacos while Colin had a big burger.  Our room was finally ready at 5:30pm (an apology would have been nice or a free drink while we waited but nothing) and well the view was AMAZING . . . too bad we are only here one night!

Colin needed to let off some energy . . .

. . . so to the beach we went.  It was nice out but did not feel at all like the 4th of July.  Our room had a balcony with a nice bay window so back we went to relax.  I thought it was cute to see a boat pulling a boat pulling a boat . . .