Ashley and Gabe flew in from Chicago with Ezra (10 months old). They were on their honeymoon after getting married in Santa Fe. (See prior post.) Lea and I took Friday off and we all drove down to Homer.Ashley had lived in Homer for a while when she worked for the town's public radio station. We dropped our gear off at our B&B and headed to meet a woman with whom Ashley had worked.
Anne is in the process of expanding her cabin and garden. With her boyfriend Todd's help (he's a bio prof & teaches the ever-popular brewing classes), they are putting in a rainwater storage system, a root cellar, expanding the kitchen, digging a new well, and putting in an impressive garden. When all that's added to the food they get from dip netting for salmon, they are going to be pretty much self-sufficient.Update: You can read a Homer News story about Anne and Todd here. (Apparently a few of the dates are a bit off.)
We headed into town and ate dinner at the Cups restaurant. The food was excellent. Ashley and Gabe took turns dealing with Ezra's increasing proximity to a meltdown. Luckily we finished the meal before he reached condition red.After dropping Ezra and the ladies off at the B&B, Gabe and I made a run back into town to Safeway. We had a very nice discussion about fatherhood on the drive. In town we loaded up on food for our stay across the bay.
Our B&B was about ten miles east of Homer up Kachemak Bay. The house sat well up on the hillside with commanding views of the bay. The main room was on the second floor and had huge, cathedral ceilings and giant windows looking out to the peaks beyond. It was spectacular. Lea and I shared the loft. It was the solstice, and so it barely got dark that night. I woke up at around 3:00am to the sight of the Homer Spit lit up in the bay with a dim outline of all the peaks around.
The next morning we awoke early and loaded up the car. We sprinted to the Home Spit to make our water taxi at 7:30. After loading our gear on the boat, we set out across the bay. Lea had previously dealt with this service, and they are highly recommended.
Homer is on the north shore of Kachemak Bay. Most of the southern shore is part of Kachemak Bay State Park. The park has quite a few glaciers and many fjords, inlets and islands. It's ideal kayaking.
We unloaded our gear on the rocky shore. Knowing that we didn't have to carry our gear any great distance, and having a 10 month old in tow, we were pretty well loaded down. After a bit of wandering we located the Yurt on Glacier Spit.The yurt was set back into the trees, to better protect it from winds. The weather was mixed, with rain threatening. So we stashed our food in the bear-resistant container and set up shop in the yurt. Ezra took a nap. It rained a bit. We enjoyed being out in the wilderness.
After a rest we headed out on a hike. Ezra was in the child carrier that Chris had generously given Lea and I.
(Ezra was testing out a lot of the new child gear that Lea and I have been accumulating.) We all loaded up on bug spray to try to keep the mosquitoes at bay.The trail was the same one that my dad and I hiked back last September. Ashley and Gabe sung Ezra songs to keep him happy. Lucky for him, they are both very good singers. Unluckily for our kid, neither Lea nor I are particularly vocally gifted.
Once we arrived at the lake that was formed by Grewingk Glacier, we stopped for lunch.
Lea held Ezra and we marveled at the icebergs and glacier in the distance. (I later learned that the barren look to the area was due a recent (1960s?) tsunami caused by a massive landslide into the lake. The resulting flood scoured the path out to the bay and left boulders strewn around.)Lea and I then hiked off to the side and onto some rocks.
I figured that it was a perfect place and time to ask her to marry me. She said yes.We returned to Ashley and Gabe with goofy smiles on our faces and told them the news. They were ecstatic and no longer mildly annoyed that we'd wandered off when we really should have been heading back to the yurt.
Soon we were back at the yurt. Lea took a nap and Gabe and I cooked dinner. We had cous cous with sauteed veggies and sausages. Thinking we had enough food I contemplate axing the sausages from the menu, but that idea got quickly shot down by my fiance.After the meal I took a quick walk down the beach and spotted a small black bear cub. I watched it from a safe distance.
Back at the beach by the yurt, Gabe used light colored rocks and seaweed to write a thank you message to a friend of theirs who'd helped finance the honeymoon. The sun came out and we all sat in the bright sunshine. (It was about 11pm.)The next morning we made coffee and ate cereal. Our gear got packed and Gabe and I schlepped it down to the water taxi.
Because the tide was lower than when we'd arrived, the boat couldn't make it all the way to the shore. So we had to doff our shoes and wade out into the icy water. The water taxi was also dropping off a hiker. The poor guy slipped on the round rocks and fell into the bay.
He was fine, but quite damp. Luckily we boarded the boat without mishap.Our ride back gave us beautiful views back to the mountains in the park. We even spotted an otter resting on his back.
It was a great weekend with Ashley, Gabe and Ezra. I'm so glad they were there to share a very special weekend with us. Hopefully we'll get many more chances for joint family vacations with them.
PICTURES: http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/KachemakBay
