Day 1 - Anchorage to Homer

My last day in Anchorage. I started off the morning by having blueberry pancakes with Lea and working on the NY Times Sunday crossword. Unfortunately she had to get to work, so we didn’t have too much time to linger.

After picking up my truck from downtown, I headed to Snow City to pick up a t-shirt. Then I stopped by the Obama Campaign headquarters to try to score a bumper sticker (they were out) and say bye to Kat (she was in). I next headed to the post-office to mail off my books. My final real errand of the morning was to head by REI to pick up a roof rack and roof box to make some extra room in the truck for my dad’s gear. That done, I headed by Lea’s to grab the last of my stuff. The tuck packed, all that was left was to swing by Rob and Katy’s to pick up their bikes. They were about to fly down to Olympia and I had offered to drive their bikes down (two-empty spaces on my bike rack) the AlCan.

My dad, who was to be making the drive with me, flew into town at 3pm. I picked him up at the airport and we headed south out of town down the Seward Highway. The weather was rainy with patches of sun peaking through. Our eventual destination was Homer. We planned on getting in a little side trip before beginning the long drive south to CA.

The road down as far as Cooper Landing is quite familiar to me. However, once we passed Cooper Landing I was in new territory. Not far past Cooper Landing the mountains fall away and the land becomes rolling hills with spruce and bogs to either side. We passed through Soldotna and ended up paralleling the Cook Inlet as we headed south. The road itself reminded me a lot of Highway 1 in far Northern California.

You arrive in Homer after rounding Anchor Point. The view opens up to reveal the town of Homer sitting before you with Kachemak Bay beyond. Across the bay are the mountains of the Kenai Peninsula and the glaciers flowing down from the Harding Ice Field. It’s quite spectacular.

My dad and I consulted our many books and decided to try the Driftwood Inn. The Inn is a block from the Bay and full of nautical decorations. The pops insisted on separate rooms so that I wouldn’t be bothered by his snoring. After dropping off our gear we headed out to explore and get some dinner.

We first made our way out to the end of the Homer Spit. The Spit is a long (4 miles?), narrow projection of land with a road atop it that juts out into Kachemak Bay. It’s the remnant of a huge glacial moraine that was formed back when the entire bay was filled with a glacier.

None of the restaurants on the spit called to us, so we returned to town and went to the Five Cups restaurant. The front of the restaurant is very cute and decorated with five cups (go figure). The inside is dark and cozy and very comfortable. The food proved to be fantastic. We started with mushrooms stuffed with sausage. My dad had the scallops and I had the seafood fettucine. It was awesome.