Thar she blows!

Jay and Sara, our roommate/tenants, talked Amy into going down to Homer for the Shorebird Festival. Unfortunately, Chris had to work, so he couldn't go. We camped out on the Homer spit, which is a little sand bar that sticks out into the Ketchimak Bay. In the earthquake of 1964, the spit dropped 3 feet. But that doesn't stop anyone from building on it. There are a couple of campgrounds, and a huge selection of cute little shops and restaurants that attract tourist. We spent one morning at several viewing places to check out the birds, and even saw a sandhill crane. Jay and Sara's friend Rob, arrived that afternoon with his 18 ft whaler, and took us on a boat ride into the Bay. The water was calm, and the sun poked out a few times from behind the clouds- a real treat for this area. Our first stop was "Gull Island", where thousands of kitty wakes and other birds hang out. We watched an osprey swoop down and capture a kitty wake for lunch, and saw a sea otter sneak into a nest to steal it's eggs. Then it was off to Halibut Cove, a little artist community accessible only by boat. They have the only floating post office in the country. We checked out the tide pools and played with starfish and sea urchins, and then headed out for some more sight seeing. Amy was thinking that it was an amazing day, and couldn't possibly get any better. We were zooming along by Glacier beach (yes, there is a glacier right there), and Amy spotted something big coming out of the water about 30 ft away from the boat. It was the fin of a Minke whale! We watched it crest out of the water several times, and he circled an eddy, probably fishing. We chased him, from a safe distance, for several minutes, before turning off to head back to the harbor. Amy was disappointed to leave, as this was the first time she'd seen a whale, what a suprise. Then, about 50 yards in front of the boat, an Orca peaked out of the water...with her baby beside her! We kept a very safe distance from her, not wanting to scare her and make them dive. At one point, she was coming straight for our boat, and then turned sharply away from us...a little JAWS moment, got our hearts racing. We lost sight of them and headed to Sadie Cove, and Sadie mountain. We beached the boat, and drank a beer from Homer brewery, before going back to the harbor. Several locals that we spoke to said that it is extremely rare to see whales in this area, and none of them had EVER seen two different species in one day! What LUCK! The only thing that was missing that day was Chris. Otherwise, it would have been the perfect Alaskan adventure.