Now in Homer, Halibut Capital of the World!

Like we were transported in time, we spent 3 days in Cooper Landing basically without internet and maybe 50% phone, hence no updates.  We were pretty much shoehorned into a campground there which was just adequate.  We took a day to drive up to Hope, AK, a small town of 150 permanent residents that started as a mining camp.  It like many towns up here was substantially destroyed in the earthquake.  It was a beautiful drive and a really nice day.

Along the way

Resurrection Creek as it flows into the Turnigain Arm of the Cook Inlet.

It was a picturesque town of a few homes and galleries, and the little restaurant, The Seaview Cafe where we had a delicious lunch.

Downtown Hope

The Seaview Cafe

Inside

Another shot

We had wonderful seafood chowder and excellent halibut sandwiches.  Then on the way back we stopped at a little cove along the way and were amazed at how fast the tide was flowing out.  Even in Maine with which we are very familiar with fairly large tides of 10 feet, we've never sat and watched the water recede so fast, and out in the arm we could actually watch full size trees whizzing by!  There are bore tides as high as 10' in the Turnagain Arm caused by the 27' tides!

This emptied right before our eyes!

The Cooper Landing area on the Kenai peninsula is famous for salmon fishing.  The Kenai and Russian rivers are prime salmon fishing locations and the salmon are beginning to run.  They are beautiful rivers with aquiline coloration coming from glacier runoff.

Beautiful, isn't it?

 And the fishermen are coming!  Combat fishing at its finest.

They are lined up!

Also, the Alaskans are lining up on the river banks to dip net salmon for their subsistence fishing.  And boy do they gather.

Tons of fishermen.

So now we are in Homer.  Our campground is on a bluff just north of town and the spit, overlooking the Cook Inlet and several volcanoes, Redoubt, Iliamna, and Augustine dominate the view.  It is a gorgeous day.

Getting set up at our site

We are parked back to back

The view from the beach just below our site with the spit in the distance

It's pretty awesome.  We are lining up some of our outings while we are here, halibut fishing, going by ferry over to Halibut Cove for lunch, doing some hiking, and seeing if we can see the Kilchers' place from the TV show, Alaska, the Last Frontier.  

So off we go and I'll leave you with a couple more eagle pics.