Hi Everyone,
We finally made it to Homer Alaska. What a beautiful place. The views from this town are awesome. See the new title photo? This is a panorama view of the Redoubt Volcano on the right and the Iliamna Volcano on the left. We walked up and down the Homer Spit (the Homer peninsula, total of 8 miles :) - yes I'm helping Sue with her Avon Walk training) and visited numerous shops on the boardwalk. Tomorrow we are going on an all day guided Kayak tour of the islands across the bay from Homer (we will post those photos tomorrow). Tuesday we will be heading up to Soldotna to fish for King Salmon on a guided float trip in the Kenai River. We will keep you posted on upcoming travels.
Thanks for looking,
Vern & Sue

We were walking on the Homer Spit hiking trail and saw this Bald Eagle coming at us, Sue grabbed the camera and snapped this shot as it flew by. These are truly beautiful birds in person.

We took a drive last night to east Homer and took this panorama of photos from the road overlooking Kachemak Bay and three glaciers (Dixon, Portlock and Grewingk) in Kachemak Bay State Park. Click on photo for a better view.

Here is a closer view of the same area.

After visiting the Crow Creek Mine near Girdwood, we found this hike that follows the old Iditarod Dogsled trail. This was the original trail that went from Seward to Nome in the early 1900's. The trees and ground cover reminded us of Lord of the Rings movies as the trees were tilted and the ground cover was thick with moss and ferns.

Dug and I tried our hand a gold panning on the Crow Creek. Unfortunately neither of us is coming back a rich man/dog, probably probably because of our inexperience at panning. We did however find a few flakes of gold (very small flakes). Dug was more excited than I was.

Here are the huge flakes being displayed in the pan. That's them to the left of the penny.

Here I am working hard at this panning thing. About an hour and a half is all I could handle. Dug lost interest after about 5 minutes. Better luck next time.

Thanks again for looking and take care,

Vern & Sue