Homer Sweet Homer

I love Homer. I can't tell you why, I just do. It's a small town, set at the edge of Kachemak Bay, on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. Population - about 5,000. It's also known as the halibut fishing capital of the world, and nicknamed "the end of the road." That's because the Sterling Highway ends right there. And you can drive there all the way from California! That's something I might want to do one day........... Anyway, Homer is a cool little town set in a beautiful area. What's not to like?

The other really great thing about Homer is that they have 3 bookstores in town. Amazing! One of the stores is a secondhand store, with an eccentric owner who knows where every single book in his store is, and whether he has a book you're asking about or not. It's one of those places where you walk in and it smells like old books, and books are everywhere, on the floor, stacked 50 high, on dusty shelves, you get the picture! The store across the street on the main road, and conveniently next to a car wash, is the creme de la creme of bookstores, at least for Alaska. It's chock full of amazing books about Alaska, but it also boasts a great children's section, and all the latest best sellers, both fiction and non-fiction. It also has the "surprise" book section, where you browse a selected 10 or 12 books that are wrapped in brown paper bags. They are marketing copies of soon to be or newly released books. There's a brief description of the story, but really still quite vague. You know if it's meant for adults, or teens, or if it's a kids book, and just a tiny bit more. You can pick one or all of them and decide on a donation amount for each. Suggested donation is $3 per book. With that donation, the shopkeeper gives you an amount of buttons. You use those buttons to allocate your donation between 3 or 4 different charities that are local to the Homer area. When I was there in 2016, I got a book called The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper. It's about a man whose wife dies and he finds something of hers and then goes on this journey to figure out its meaning. It turned out to be such a lovely book! Engaging, funny, bittersweet. Anyway, I loved it and I was very entranced by the whole "mystery book" idea that the shop had. I've never come across it in any other store.

Another nice thing about Homer is that there are some really great artists that live in the area. From paintings, to photography, to jewelry and pottery/sculptures, the area is full of talent. It's nice to be around that, especially when you aren't in the least! Ha!

Then there's the spit. It's about 6 miles from town, and it's out where the ship docks. The spit runs along the edge of the bay and there's a nice beach, walkways, campgrounds and the marina full of boats. And there's restaurants and stores - mostly catering to tourists, but fun to browse nonetheless.

I enjoyed my time there in 2016 and Adrienne and I really liked it this time, in 2018. You can take some nice tours from here, as well. Fishing, hiking, glacier viewing, boat rides to see marine wildlife. Homer has a little bit of everything.

And, this time, we got to see an eagle's nest, up close. And with a young eaglet still in residence, not to mention mom and dad. I got a little obsessed watching them and photographing them. In addition to the eagles, tons of sea birds congregate where the ship docks and they yak yak yak all day long. They are too funny. I got a little obsessed with them as well.

This was my favorite sunrise picture.

The Salty Dog Saloon, a fixture on Homer's spit.

Inside the Salty Dog Saloon, on the spit. Famous place. Kind of creepy inside with all the money hanging all over the place. But locals love it, as do the tourists.