A Day in Homer, Alaska

Another Day in AK

By now I think it's pretty obvious how much I love to travel to wild and rugged Alaska.  I've been there on four different trips, and I would gladly add another.  With all my AK featured posts though, I've neglected one town that I've passed through a number of times: Homer.  On my last trip to Alaska, I decided to spend a day in Homer and actually explore the town a bit.  

I stand next to an example of a totem pole at the Pratt museum in Homer.

Homer is one of the towns in Alaska that many of us continental USers actually recognize.  That does not mean that Homer is a large city.  In contrast Homer is pretty tiny.  Without the tell tale Safeway someone driving past might not even realize they were in a city at all.  That doesn't mean there is nothing to do in Homer though.  Like many other Alaskan cities Homer offers the standard array of camping, hiking, and fishing, none of which I had the time to explore.  So I settled for visiting a museum, exploring the spit, and enjoying an extended water taxi ride back to where I was staying on the other side of Katchemack Bay.  

The marina on the spit of Homer, AK is filled with private and commercial vessels.

The museumI visited in Homer was the Pratt Museum, with exhibits that delved into the life of Alaskans, both native and otherwise, the settling of Homer, and the natural history of the region, including an overview famous earthquakes.  It required little more than two hours to get through, including a walk through the trails of the adjacent woods.  After the Pratt I headed to the spit.

A state park on the other side of Katchmak Bay that my water taxi passed through on its way to drop me off.  We encountered humpback whales in this bay.

A spit is a long thin peninsula made of sediment that encloses a bay.  Water flowing in the same direction along the coast deposits sediment at the mouth of the bay, building and elongating the land.  Homer's spit is exceptional, because it is exceptionally long, over a mile in length.  The spit is home to a marina filled with fishing vessels and recreational boats alike.  It's also dotted with stores and restaurants selling gifts made in Alaska, China, and any place in between.  I bought a wooden hair pin and the purple sunglasses that have appeared in so many of my posts before hopping a water taxi back to my abode.  

Another outdoors exhibit at the Pratt Museum.

The water taxis take people in groups picking them up and dropping them off at locations on either side of Katchemak Bay.  When asked if I wanted to be dropped off first or last, I said last, ensuring I would get an hour's ride in and out of inlets both private and public.  After dropping a couple off at a coastal camp site in a state park we spotted some hump back whales off the bow.  We watched them feed for thirty minutes, coming up for air every so often as they chowed down on lunch.  It was a nice day off on my work trip.  Homer only needs a day to explore, a quaint and tiny town.  Maybe if I wind up back there, I can spend a day testing out it's famous halibut fishing.