Trip to Homer Alaska

On the way to Homer I knew we had to stop near Ninilchik to see the Russian Transfiguration of our Lord Church which was built in 1901, replacing the original church built in or around 1846.  Not sure if the church is still being used or not…it was noon, and there were only tourist, like ourselves, and one couple who were tending to a particular grave or graves.

It is a very pretty little church, and as you can see, the graveyard is not being kept up.  Next to this area is a American Legion graveyard which is also in an overgrown condition.  There are many veterans of the wars buried in each cemetery.  Kind of a shame.

The church overlooks Cook Inlet and the small community of Ninilchik.  Of course, we had to drive down to the Ninilchik…

   

Glad we did because we found our perfect Alaska house…only “if” the boat out in the front yard comes with the house of course…

    

What I really went down to Ninilchik for was unobstructed pictures of the Redoubt volcano which last eruption was in 1989 (left) and the Iliamna volcano which reportedly, but unconfirmed last eruption was in 1953 (right).   Would have been nicer if they were not partially hidden behind those clouds…and yes, it appears that a plum of smoke and/or steam is rising from the Redoubt volcano.

      

Homer is on the shore of Kachemak Bay, at the tip of the southwest side of the Kenai Peninsula.  The pictures above show the entrance to Cook Inlet of the Pacific Ocean (top), and the other two show the entrance to Kachemak Bay.  Homer is further to the left, out of these shots, but shown below.

Here is a shot of the Homer Spit, a 4 1/2 mile long, flat piece of land which jets out into Kachemak Bay.  Highway 1 ends at the end of the spit.

      

We had planned on camping on the spit over the 4th of July.  Although these pictures don’t show it…the crowds were huge, the parks were full, and I think we would have not enjoyed it as much as first thought.  But we changed our plans for Skruffy, and there is no doubt that the huge lawn we have here is way better than the small patch of sand and grass, mostly covered by a picnic table, that we would have had out on the spit.   Above is the end of the road, called Lands End (top), the Seafarer's Memorial (left) and the somewhat famous “Salty Dawg Saloon” (right).  Salty Dawg originally was one of the first cabins built in Homer in 1897, and after the earthquake, it was moved to its current location on the spit. It has been a saloon since 1957, and has been seen on the TV show “Deadliest Catch” many times.  Due to the crowds, we stopped so that I could get a picture, but we did not enter it.  It is said that there are thousands of dollar bills attached to its ceiling and walls.

If you ever want to see sea otters, just go out on the spit…there were bunches of them.

It took over two hours to get to Homer, about 45 minute in Homer, and 90 minutes to get back.  That is probably all that little Skruffy could handle, hence we did not spend more time in Homer.  We have so many concerns about Skruffy, something is telling us that she may not make it back home…she really is that sick.  We had started to give her a liver booster pill, and since then it has been a challenge to get her to eat.  After talking with the vet, we stopped the pill after giving it to her Friday morning, and there has been some improvement in her appetite, but not like it was.  We are really struggling in getting her blood sugars to level off, which is a big part of the problem.  Wednesday we find out if her red blood cells have gone up, down, or remained at their low level…that will tell us a lot…we are hoping for the best (which is higher red blood cells).