They sell bumper stickers in Homer, Alaska, that say "Keep Homer Weird".
I reckon I did my bit!
Homer prides itself, like all Alaska I suppose, for being its own place, going its own pace, and letting everyone be who they are - no pretension, just very real people, doing very real work, in a very real place.
Homer is a small fishing town, in fact the Southern most town, on the Kenai Peninsula. Everyone in Anchorage had told me how much they "luuuurve Homer", so of course I was curious, and went for a sticky beak. I spent 3 nights there as part of my private Southern tour! And now, I tell everyone how much I "luuuuuurve Homer". I wish I'd stayed longer.
Homer is really divided into two main areas - Downtown and The Spit. I stayed Downtown - in the Driftwood Inn, you can see there above, the cute little white building. Now our idea of downtown and Homer's idea of downtown are two separate things! You can see my hotel there in Downtown, and then that third shot is looking towards the end of my street! There is a main street, but it looks pretty much the same as this!!!
The other part of Homer, and possibly the more famous part is called The Spit. It's about 4 miles from Downtown, you follow a road that takes you past all the float planes on a little lake, then over a road that has the ocean on both sides, this road takes you out to the small harbour area, known as The Spit.
Both are great fun. Both have a good bar, restaurants, and cafes. Both have really really friendly people who will chat for hours, and both have the most incredible views across Kachemak Bay to the most beautifully majestic snow and glacier covered mountains. It's wild here, wild and cold. I had my jackets off and was in my t-shirt for about one hour over the whole 3 days...and that was to sunbake in the beer garden at the most famous bar of all, The Salty Dawg!
You can see me above at the Salty Dawg on my second day - I spent the afternoon listening to boating and fishing tales from Eric and Joe, and then a few more thrown in from some of the other locals. The following day I got loads of Halibut talk from Kelly, who unloads and buys Halibut for a fish company, every day, she invited me to go down and watch them unload...which of course I did - pretty cool stuff!
The walls of the Salty Dawg are covered in one dollar bills with messages written on them by people from all over the world. The owners do a culling every year and donate some of them to charity - some get to stay there forever and ever. I left my mark by writing on the new beer garden tables out the back, so when you're there check for mine! This place is a must for any visitor - sit up at the bar and start a convo with the locals...you will learn all sorts of cool stuff, and they're so bloody friendly and happy to answer any of your questions, and of course take the piss out of your accent!
The Spit is not only known for its fishing harbour, but also for its range of cute shops...they are rustically cute - don't start thinking QVB cute, more like Tilba Tilba meets Budgewoi cute. Next to the Salty Dawg you'll find a little shop called Salty Girls. Go in there for some fantastic taffy. Just a warning, though, it's not Alaskan taffy, they actually bring it in from Oregon, but oh myyyyyyyy it was good. The other shop not to miss is Lazy M Leather, which has locally hand made Alaskan hide products - cute and great value.
Of course for the World's Deadliest Catch fans, there is the Time Bandit shop!!! Time Bandit has its home in Homer, and to the great thrill of my nephew and Dad, I happened to be in Homer at the same time as Time Bandit (pics above)!!! I woke them both up at 6.30am with a phone call to tell them I was right next to the famous boat!! I even went over for a chat with the guys, who were all very nice and even posed for the pic above. I have been raised to hero status in the eyes of my 11 year old nephew!! OH YEAH!!!
Speaking of fishing boats...one of the great things to see on the Spit is the fishing charters coming back with their loads of tourists and halibut!!!! Yep, they take out leisure fishermen and fisherwomen every day to catch halibut - then they line up the catch and you can watch them gut and fillet the fish. You can see them there above...halibut have to be one of the world's ugliest fish...white on one side and awfully ugly-brownish on the other. I don't really like to eat them, either. I was telling the aforementioned Kelly that I found halibut to have no flavour...I'd eaten it many many times now and still found no real flavour in the fish, it always seems to rely on seasoning. She told me something very interesting. She said I was dead right, halibut has no flavour, and for that exact reason it's such a popular and high demand fish in the USA...people want fish "without the fishy taste"...hmmmmmmmmmm
Now while I'm on the subject of fish and food, it's time to get down to it. I can't really recommend any outstanding restaurants. I ate at a few, but none really bowled me over. I'd steer clear of the famous Cafe Cups, I mean it was nice, but not amazing, it has a very quirky appearance, and the food was above average, but I wouldn't go out of my way. Likewise with Captain Patties on the Spit, the seafood was good, but not amazing - although the scallops were something very very special...so sweet and juicy and plump, I wish I'd ordered a plate of those instead of my mixed seafood plate, which had very very boring halibut, and salmon that was a little overcooked.
Here's a little aside. I have now eaten salmon about 8 times, and each time it has been, by our standards, overcooked. I think it's their way here. In fact I know it is. In Sydney we tend to keep it very moist and pink inside, with almost a line of raw-ish pinkness...mmmmmm, I'm still sorting this one out, will keep you posted.
Now back to the food front. There's an interesting place called Fat Olives. It's Downtown, in fact 3 mins from my Inn, and was packed every time I walked past. I went in for dinner one night, and had great soup and salad, and for dessert...some crazy crazy Chocolate Macadamia Nut Tart with Caramel Fudge Sauce, pic above, that I took two bites of (omg sooooooooo rich), then took the rest back to the Receptionist! She polished it off for me.
There is one place, though, that you MUST put on your list. I was lucky enough to have it a few minutes from my room...just a nice wander down the road...you can actually see it there in the third picture, the furthest yellow two-storey building, it's called The Two Sisters Bakery. OH MY GOODNESS...you can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner here...it's that bloody good!!! In fact one day, I think I did eat all three meals here. They do amazing pastries, especially the blackberry and cheese danish, they do unbelievably good soups...a range of about 4 to choose from every day, and you can do Half and Half - which is a cup of soup and half a sambo....oh yeah baby!!! I had Sweet Potato Red Curry soup and a turkey sambo - but this was no ordinary turkey sambo, it had fabulous aoli and was packed full of veges too....and their Lemon Bar (bar is "slice" for us aussies)....ohhhhhhhhh it was a party in my mouth...do I need to keep raving???? I think not. The last thing I'll say is that they actually do really good coffee as well, which is a real find...oh and another thing...the staff are fun and sooooo friendly - typical of Homer, and indeed Alaska.
Two of the coolest things I did was walk along The Spit Beach (self portrait pic above), trying not to get blown over, and looking out onto those amazing mountains, it brought tears to my eyes...so deeply beautiful, and yet such a contrast with that evening at Duggan's Pub (opposite my Inn, and very very rustic!!) - a total hoot, chatting with the wonderful barmaid and an extremely quirky young man who was in Homer folk singing with his dad!
And that, dear friends, was Homer. Yes, it was weird, fun, spectacularly beautiful, insanely friendly, and ultimately, very very delicious!
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