Homer a bust, but Seward is great

Our drive down to Homer had a lot of rain. I tried to make a bear viewing reservation, but everyone was full. We went to Homer anyway, only because we had campground reservations. The drive was long, but we stopped for a hike on the Bear Mountain Trail above Skilak Lake (no bears, but LOTS of scat). Most of our hikes seem to be up, up, up, and Mom gets left in the dust, which is a somewhat nervous experience with all the bears in the area. I find myself talking to myself to let the bears know I'm around. The Kenai Peninsula is supposed to be a moose habitat, but in the 3 days we've been here we have not seen one. So I took a picture of this carved moose instead. He seems quite happy. If you notice all the RV's in the background, they are all on the Homer Spit, a stretch of land over 4 miles long into the Bay. Our campground was at the end, and the entire spit is a series of RV parks. Our Park was at the end, and it was basically a dirt lot, with all the campers crammed together as close as possible... Phil was not happy. This was not the place he remembered from his youth! The entire spit had somewhat of a circus atmosphere. We did our laundry and left the next morning for Seward.

Since we could not view the bears, we booked a cruise at the Kenai Fjords National Park. We did this today. Saw sea otters, humpback whales, puffins, dall porpoise, harbor and stellar seals, and lots of birds. The big event was Aialik glacier, and the calving of the ice. Wow! We couldn't believe how big the face of the glacier was, and how loud the crashing sound was when the ice fell into the water. Very cool. We've discovered that Chris does not handle the open seas very well. He was a little green for most of the 6 hour trip, but at least he didn't get sick. Many others were carrying around their little white barf bags like precious cargo. Anyway, we loved the glacier.

We've had some excellent halibut, smoked salmon, and porcupine soup (rice and pork sausage). Phil and I are finding excuses to eat out, not only to sample the local cuisine, but to have beer and wine too. He's been cheating a lot with the caffinated coffee, by the way, but I, too, have cheated with the diet soda. We're weak.

Tomorrow we're going to attempt to hike up Exit Glacier outside of Seward. It's 3.5 steep miles up, then back down. Don't know if my knees can take this one. Stay tuned...