We arrived in Homer on 18 August, our last trip with the Alaska Marine Highway Service (ferry). Homer was an eclectic mix, we bumped into some friends we had met in Wrangell on Homer Spit, did some fishing and cycling, collected some mussels and enjoyed the beautiful views across the Kachemak Bay to the Kenai Mountains and the Harding Icefield.
We stopped one night in Whiskey Gulch for more fishing and it was only the following day, we realised we were looking out onto an amazing mountain range with two volcanoes, Mount Iliamna and Mount Redoubt, finally revealing themselves in the morning.
We continued on north to Ninilchik, two attractions: the old Russian Orthodox church, overlooking the old town; and the Kenai Peninsula Fair, complete with pig racing, kids' rodeo, Washboard Willy and a number of other bands.
The Kenai River is a famous salmon river, so we stopped at the confluence with Russian River and took the ferry across. Lots of reds, but all spawning, the silvers were good, but elusive.
A detour down to Seward gave us the opportunity to visit Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park, before heading north to Achorage where we quickly realised hunting season had begun. We stopped at Beluga point and were rewarded with a great show of Beluga WHales - the photos do not do them justice but there was a huge pod swimming up and down Turnagain Arm, a great fishing spot for the, We were also lucky enough t spot some distant Mountain Goats high on the hills behind us.