Active Skies

One of the artists we met in town today used the phrase “active sky” to describe Homer weather, and it’s a very accurate description. Within the course of each day we’ve been here, we’ve had a bit of sunshine, a lot of clouds, fog rolling into either Kachemak Bay or Cook Inlet, and often being enveloped by the clouds themselves. The north Pacific weather patterns make for some varied weather here, and temps in the 50s/lower 60s. Brr. (and the 60s are a heat wave for the Homer residents we’ve talked to...)

We went on a very long nature walk today with an incredibly talkative naturalist/guide. Two hours of learning about native plants (and only covering about 1.5 easy hiking miles) was a bit too much for us. But I did learn that there are a lot of native berries in the area that residents like to pick and use for jams, pies, etc (they’re also very secretive about their berry patches - they won’t tell anyone where they picked their berries, for fear of others taking all of the berries from them).

We've eaten some excellent meals while in Homer. Other places along the Kenai peninsula didn't have a lot of restaurants, but Homer has an abundance of them. The other thing about Homer/Alaska food is that they believe in "Alaska sized" portions - the first time I heard that phrase I wasn't sure what it meant, but now I know it means Very Very large (like the state itself). You won't go hungry here, that's for sure!

Tomorrow, we head to the big city - Anchorage. You’d think that would let us take a break from worrying about running into moose and bear, but both are frequently seen in the city. In fact, last week, a woman was mauled by a bear during a bike race in Anchorage. Yikes. You can see why we haven't been very eager to strike out on our own for a lot of hikes, while the mama mooses are in full protection mode of their calves and the salmon aren't yet running to feed the bears.