After camping at Kenai, we drove about 1.5 hrs over to Homer. Our mission was to visit the “spit”. Now, I have a lot to say for this post so try not to get tired. Read more about the spit here in Wikipedia. So Homer is the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World. I think officially. Don’t quote me on that, I just read a sign that says that. Homer was perhaps my favorite part of our trip, besides the Mermaid store which I will later talk about in another post.

The drive…again, beautiful. We left the camp site at Kenai ready to devour some fresh fish. I was really excited about some seafood soup. We first stopped at the Homer Brewery. A very small brewery, with good tasty beer but I’m not sure it was my favorite one, taste and ambiance wise, we had a little awkward moment with the lady behind the counter. We felt rush to taste and questioned, I’m not sure what it was, but I wouldn’t go back there for sure.

After the growler purchase, we headed out to find some lunch and ended up at Captain Pattie’s Fish House. It was soooooo good. I had the best fish and chips I’ve ever had. Fresh, white, moist, and meaty halibut. Mmm-mmm-good! We did a little shopping and a little walking. Walked around the harbor and took some pics (check’ em out). I love rust, the color and texture so I took some photos of that. The water was green, but strangely it looks green on the close up photos and blue on the longer shots. Hmmm….it was a nice walk to help out food digest ;)

Took a stroll along the shore and I collected some drift wood while the guys walked ahead. Some souvenir and perhaps art project awaits from that. It was gorgeous to see the ocean then the snowy mountains and then the green mountains all at once. Never seen anything like that in one place. It was beautiful and sunny, a little chilly. There was a memorial dedicated to all the fishermen that have lost their lives out in the open sea. It was nostalgic and reminded me how thankful I am to have my family and husband alive, but also thankful to have food that I haven’t risked my life for or worked for to put on my table. We are blessed.

Our last stop was the infamous Salty Dawg Saloon. By far, my favorite bar I’ve ever been to. It was probably sometime in the evening and I was so full, I ordered some coffee. The place was insanely filled with with dollar bills, from walls, to ceiling, bras, floating devices, t-shirts, foreign currency, paintings, drawings, it was crazy. When I first walked in, I opened the door and I was like “woah!” this guy looked at me like “she’s not a local”  *head goes up and down*. We stayed there for a little while. Met this lady, she was so nice, her name was Tasha I think. She volunteered to take our picture (the one of all of us together) and kept taking some until we were satisfied. She travels around volunteering in third world type countries. She spoke a little Spanish and the questions came from there. She loves to travel but her mom is dying now, she got a little emotional and I rubber her arm trying to comfort her, but she was having a hard time even talking about it. We got through that and finished our drinks at the right time. Some lady was a little tipsy and started dancing on top of tables all “provocative” wanting some attention. Something happened but they didn’t wanna server her any more drinks, I wondered why.

On our way back to Anchorage which I was dreading (I hate long drives), we stopped to see some of the most beautiful views! These are the times I wish I had a better lens. (*ahem* Christmas present babe *ahem*) Nevertheless, I think I got a glimpse, the pictures don’t do any justice of what we experienced.  The mountains are enormous, the contrast was unexplainable. The water, the grass, the snow, the sky, the air, the light, the hills, just beautiful.

I can keep going but I won’t. The next day we wanted to visit the Earthquake Museum in Anchorage which tells the story of the Earthquake in 1964. The worse earthquake in North America. Ever. On our way, these giant mosquitoes surrounded us and we couldn’t even open our mouths. Ryan would have been eaten alive, we were tempted to run but I feared for his life. We decided to turn around and visit the Native Heritage Museum instead. This place is packed with native culture and information. You get to see native games which are part of the annual state competitions, and you get to see native dance and singing, as well as regular museum type of stuff and an outside area where they have villages you can walk inside to see how they live during certain times of the year.

The games were pretty amazing. These guys do a demo on what the requirements are and what the records are. The point is to kick this object. After each turn the object is moved up a little higher, I think 1 -2 inches higher than the last round. So as you move up in the game, you’ll have to jump higher and higher to be able to kick the object. They said some people that hold the record are about 5 ft something high and the object is 8 ft high. So they have to jump that high, that’s impressive.

Some of the pictures: The boots that look like snake skin and the window with the red flowers are both made from seal fat. They used this a lot to make stuff that’s durable and waterproof. The men were required to learn how to sew. They said that a man wasn’t a real man until he knew how to sew. If you didn’t you could die in the winter cause you have to learn how to fix your clothes if they rip and you’re out there in the freezing weather. They used sea otters for fur to keep them warm, and other marine life. Those huge bones you see where Cam and Ryan are, are whale jaw bones, from the lower jaw of the whale. And the skeleton is a whale too. It’s ginormous! They build their houses underground in the show. During summer, they have a summer house and build their winter house underground to keep them warm. They said it was easier to light a fire underground than above, and underground keeps them warmer. So that’s why normally, you’ll see (in the photos) you’ll have to crawl in a hole and walk through to get to the inside of the house. I’m not sure if it was in each tribe, but men were separated from women, where they lived. They would get together for daily gatherings but they lived separated. This was to ensure that men were learning how to become men and women the same.

We had a great time learning about the local Native Indians and different tribes. I wish we would’ve had more time, we kind of had to rush out of there.

There’s tons of photos, but take your time cause there are some beautiful shots there!

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