Hello, it’s nice to meet you
Wow, what a great day we had. My wife’s aunt in Homer is very good friends of a couple that owns a boat that they use to charter for halibut fishing. The first night we were in Homer we stayed at their place because my wife’s aunt had not yet arrived from Nome. On the 4th day we were there, they were very gracious to take us all on a boat ride across Kachemak Bay to Gull Island and Halibut Cove. This little day tour would normally cost you plenty of dollars (for each person) if you were a regular tourist and wanted to go across the bay. But we were not regular tourists. For us, all we had to do was pay a little for the fuel. What a deal! And it was fabulous!
Gull Island is an incredibly cool little rock island that is home to thousands of birds. We saw plenty of seagulls there of course, as well as hundreds of common murres, and many other birds as well, including pelagic cormorants, pigeon guillemot, and even one single tufted puffin! I was very excited to see a puffin. It was something that I really wanted to see on our trip to Alaska, but I was not expecting to see one. Unfortunately, if was slightly far away and the photo did not turn out too great. In addition to seeing all these birds, we got up very close to this sea otter, which was just hanging out in the water. They are such curious little animals. It was very awesome to see one so close.
After visiting Gull Island, we went on to Halibut Cove, which is a very scenic little (private) cove. They let you dock there only if you eat at their (very expensive) restaurant. We knew that our kids would not really like what would be offered at the restaurant, so I was able to pack a lunch for them and myself, and we snuck away to a little spot after docking, while the rest of our crew ate lunch at the restaurant. After eating our picnic lunch, we went down to a little beach and waited for everyone, watching the tide rise. It is interesting to watch the tide in Alaska, because it rises incredibly fast and very high as well. We had to keep moving back from the shore a number of times as the tide kept rising and rising and rising. I was relaxing on the beach with my eyes closed, and had the kids watch the tide. I told them, “when the tide gets past such and such rock, tell me, okay”. Fortunately, they always told me in time so I didn’t get wet. ha ha.
Here’s another shot of some more otters we saw:
