July 12, 2011 - Day 4 of Vacation - fishing and Homer Spit

At about 4:15 A.M. on Tuesday, July 12, JW and I got up and made sure Val and Blaine were awake.  We had packed lunches the night before as they had to be down at the dock by 5:30 to get their fishing licenses and to get to the boat.

Apparently one of the fishermen had checked in to fish, then went to get coffee so he was about an hour late returning to the dock which cheated them out of some fishing time.  They didn't get to fish as long as they should have and the quality of the halibut wasn't as expected.  But they headed out from Homer Spit through Kachemak Bay toward their fishing area.  They threw back a few extra small halibuts and ended the morning with 2 halibut each.  Not big ones but everyone says the smaller ones taste better.

After catching their 2 halibut, they spent the afternoon fishing for salmon.  JW caught this nice 25 pound King while Blaine and Val caught a few pinks.  After he caught the king, his fishing day was over as they wanted to give the other 5 on the boat a chance to catch a king.  Since he couldn't fish any longer, they let him drive the boat which I'm sure he enjoyed possibly even more than the fishing.

I stayed up after they left and just enjoyed the calm and peacefulness of the house we were renting:   It was a little foggy out so couldn't get a clear view of the spit:

When Jill and the girls got up, we ate breakfast and then dressed to head out to explore a bit.

ST trying on Daddy's slippers

The 3 story house we rented.

A view from the road below the house.

The first place I wanted to take the girls to was of course the Spit.  Homer Spit is a natural finger shaped piece of land that juts out into the water and where all of the boats for fishing, touring, etc are launched from.  The girls of course wanted to get out by the water so we found a parking place and walked out onto the beach.  The tide was low so they got as close to the water as they could.

ST was totally focused on rocks the whole trip so we had a hard time getting her to look at the camera.

ST spent her time picking up rocks, walking over to the water and trying to throw them in.  She was so fun to watch since she would pick up a rock, walk to the water, bend over and then kind of stoop way down and barely toss the rock.  Frequently by the time the rock hit the ground, the water had moved back away from where she was.

Lots of little stores on the spit - most of them are charter offices.

JM checks out a dead crab.

Back on the boardwalk by one section of shops, it was time to pose by the fishing bear.  We went into one gift shop to do a little souvenir shopping but they didn't have much so instead we drove back into Homer and stopped at the biggest gift shop.  Outside were large rocks which were painted Gold so another photo op for the Nana.

We ate lunch at Fresh Sourdough Express and then went back to the house so the littlest granddaughter could take a nap.  While she slept, I took the oldest 2 back out to explore Homer.  I had some ideas of where I wanted to go but the girls had other ideas so we went back down to the water.  They love it and really should live near an ocean.

The tide had come back in so the water was a lot higher and rougher than it was just a few hours earlier.  JM and MS had fun walking in to the waves and then rushing back in before they got drenched.

They played near the water for about an hour and then I decided we needed to head back home to see what Jill and ST were up to.  When we got loaded into the truck and headed out, I noticed a huge halibut hanging up.  I couldn't believe how big it was nor could I believe that no one was standing around it.  We drove over to get some pictures and when I walked up to it, I realized that it was a total fake - it was there only as a tourist attraction.  But definitely another photo op to get pictures of the girls.

We went on back to the house and then went out into the backyard to look around a little.  It was such a neat back yard with huge flowering plants growing all around the perimeter which would make it very easy to mow and not have to worry about using a weed eater around the edges.  We tried to take a little hike down the bottom of the yard but after a few feet, we realized there was quite a steep drop off the edge.  We tried a couple of other directions but then ended up going to the road and walking up the road a ways. 

Val had called and said they were heading back into port so we went back to the house, loaded up and headed to the spit to see the fish and take some pictures.

Seagulls came in to get their share of the fish.

Lots of fish for 6 fishermen.  While they cleaned the fish, I took the granddaughters home.  We stopped by the grocery store to pick up something to have with fresh fish.  A number of fish were pinks which do not freeze well at all.  They are very soft fish like trout so are best either eaten fresh or smoked.

Val and Jill in a crab pot from the Deadliest Catch boat - Time Bandit

After they got the fish cleaned, they took part of it over to one place to  get it packaged and frozen so it could be shipped to ID, WA and part of it brought up to Fairbanks.  They took the pinks to another place to get smoked and packaged.  They brought home plenty of fish to grill up for dinner and it was delicious.  It was another extremely late dinner so a little after dinner,it was off to bed for everyone.

Me, well, I fell asleep then woke up about 11 to see the moon high above the mountain.  It had been another great day in Homer and I was wishing we could stay there for the full 2 weeks.