We all returned to Anchorage Saturday evening. Sunday everyone did there own thing. Dave went to Seward for photography. Tim and Diane found a marathon to run in (ok, so they only ran 10 miles or so). Sue and I went to various galleries and museums. That evening, the whole group had one more great seafood dinner, at the Marx Brothers.
Sue and I would be staying a little longer than the rest of the crew. As Monday would be our anniversary, we had decided to celebrate with a side trip to Homer. We took our time driving down, admiring the scenery on the way . At Ninilchik, we stopped to walk around the old village, and visited with some interesting folks of Russian and native descent. The church and other Russian structures date from the late 1800's. Across Cook Inlet, we could see the beautiful profiles of several glacier-covered volcanic peaks.
By the time we reached Homer, the clouds and light rain that had followed us most of the day dissipated. Homer is like a jewel on Kachemak bay, with stunning peaks and glaciers across the fjord. Our lodging at the Pioneer Inn was right across the street from the impressive Pratt Museum, which had a number of interesting local history and natural science exhibits.
That evening we had a nice dinner at the Homestead restaurant, east of town. We took a drive on up the valley past numerous small farms, and saw these two moose twins with their mother. This whole area was wonderfully green and lush.
The next day we visited the Carl E. Wynn Nature Center, high along Skyline drive above Homer. One of the resident botanists gave us a pleasant walking tour of the area, and verified our field observations about cow parsnip-induced burns. The weather was great. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon visiting as many galleries as possible, and found the best deal on expresso in Alaska, at (where else?) Expresso Express, near the Pioneer Inn.
We were sad to leave Homer, but were happy to have been able to spend the day there. On the return trip to Anchorage, we saw a moose jam near Cooper's Landing and found this cow and calf to be responsible. The weather was pretty all the way back, and we had a great sunset from the Anchorage airport. Our flight was a red-eye special (hey, at least it was free), and we were a little sad to be leaving. But it was a great trip, with lots of variety and good comaradarie.