Staying in Cooper Landing has been an excellent starting spot for day trips. It seems like everything in Alaska is 1 1/2 hours away from everywhere else. We’re basically making a 5-pointed asterisk over the Kenai Peninsula. Today we made our way across to the western coast and down to the southern tip to Homer.

The drive was beautiful. We started with snow capped mountains, and then watched everything get flatter and flatter through the valley. You could still see the mountains (which we later learned are a volcano chain) across the bay.

Clearly we are not the first folks impressed by the view because there are traffic signs with a camera and yardage… translation, don’t try to take a picture while drive, pull into the parking area.

Onward to Homer… the views continued and we were stunned by the relatively large town of Soldotna. They boasted a Fred Meyer (like Walmart), Walgreens and Taco Bell. After where we have been, this was like Charlotte!

Speaking of Charlotte, Charlotte Stewart is staying with the fur babies while we are gone. Everyone is Alaska seems to have a dog, so we have been missing our babies. Thankfully, she shared some pictures today – more of Scarlett because Sampson doesn’t stay still.

We made it to Homer and Kachemak Bay. (If that name sounds familiar, it’s home to the show Alaska, The Last Frontier). Homer is a really cute town centered on and around the Spit. The Spit is a thin strip of land into the bay. The Spit has a huge dock and fish processing plant, lots of restaurants and funky stores. The dock and plant were eerily quiet today. We talked to a guy in one of the shops and he said he normally works on the docks but the fish just haven’t started running yet, so not much to do.

We had a great lunch at Captain Patties (thanks Holly)… literally couldn’t be much fresher. We also did a Little Rock skipping with someone the smoothest rocks. Boys noticed that the only other places with rocks like this was in Hawaii.

I think we checked out every little shop. We bought a few shirts, a sweatshirt, even a necklace with a little bit of Alaskan Jade. And of course, we had to check out the local ice cream shop – Spit Lick 😂

There was a nice monument to the fisherman and vessels that come in and out of the port. We recognized one f/v (fishing vessel) the Time Bandit and its crew from the Deadliest Catch.

Several times on this trip, the boys said Alaska felt like the edge of the world… well, today we found the End of the Road Park and Sign, so guess they were right.

And we loved the sign on the local theater

We had to stop at one more lookout on the at home. This view never gets old!

Since Soldotna had the first grocery store like back home, we decided to restock to get us through Denali next week. Man, it was nice to get everything we needed at one time!

We made it back to our little Cabin, and made dinner that now can include a fresh salad (thanks Fred Meyer’s Grocery!) and frozen Screamin’ Sicilian pizza. We finished dinner off with homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk and a movie.

Tomorrow we head over to Seward to explore the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula with a little coastal kayaking and a visit to the Kenai Fjords National Park!