Today, we head to the Between Beaches Resort, which is a group of cabins that can be rented. It is located on MacDonald Spit, and is only about seven miles from Seldovia. We are each renting separate cabins, we are in the cabin named The Fishermen’s Cabin and Ashley and Bryan are in a cabin next door called The Cannery Cabin.
Ashley & Bryan’s Apartment Building – There Are 3 Units
Our plan for today was to get up and finish our packing, we need to be checked out by 10:00 AM. We are going to store our luggage in the Asta Suites Greenhouse since we are not getting picked up to go to Between Beaches until 12:30 PM. We will hang out at Ashley and Bryan’s place until their check out time of 11:00 AM, and then head over to a restaurant named Jack & Aiva’s Restaurant, which is right across the street from their apartment. They will just put their bags on the covered sidewalk that is the access to their apartment while we are eating, there is no need to worry about theft here in Seldovia.
We had everything ready to go about 9:30 AM, and we just hung out until 10:00 AM, and then placed our luggage in the greenhouse at Asta and walked over to Ashley & Bryan’s apartment with our backpacks and the refrigerated items we needed to eventually put in the cooler, which was already at their place
Jack & Aiva Resturant
At 11:00 AM, we helped them get their luggage and the cooler down to the ground floor and just left it on the covered concrete walkway next to their building. We headed over to Jack and Aiva’s to hang out and get something to eat. They were still serving breakfast only when we arrived, so Bryan and I got a couple of pastries to eat, I ordered a berry filled turnover, and he ordered a apple fritter. When our waiter brought the pastries to the table, he told us they were going to start serving lunch earlier than the 12:00 time listed on the menu, so Stephanie and Ashley just decided to wait and order from the lunch menu instead of the breakfast menu. We would not have ordered the pastries if he had told us that initially, oh well.
We saw the 11:00 AM Ferry from Homer arrive from our window view of the harbor and there were quite a few people getting off. A lot of them arrived at the restaurant not long afterward, and it got quite crowded. We all ordered food for lunch, Stephanie and I opted to split a sandwich, we were not that hungry, especially me after having already eaten the pastry.
It was getting close to the time we were scheduled to get picked up by the ride service from Between Beaches, and we needed to purchase some ice to take with us for drinks, we have a small refrigerator there, but no freezer.
Stephanie headed over to the Linwood Bar and Grill to see if they would sell her some ice, it was the same place we had tried to purchase it yesterday evening, but I was told they needed it for bar service. Stephanie texted me that they would sell her at least one 10 pound bag of ice, and she was trying to get another one, but did not want to press her luck.
While Stephanie was on ice duty, we all paid for our lunches. It took a while because they were busy serving all of the people who had arrived on the ferry.
By the time we paid, Stephanie had returned to the apartment where the luggage and cooler was located, and had already repacked the cooler to accommodate the ice. That required the removal of some items, but they were not going to suffer from being out of the cooler for a short time, it was only about 47 degrees outside, and we did not have far to go.
I decided to go to the liquor store and get two more bags of ice just to make sure we had enough, and since the ice from the bar was not frozen really hard, we though it might melt faster. That was why we had wanted it get the ice last night so we could freeze it hard in the freezer in Ashley and Bryan’s apartment.
We knew the bags of ice were smaller at the liquor store, but when they brought them out, they were frozen solid, so they were not going to melt very quickly. I walked back to the apartment and the ride service from Between Beaches had already arrived in a Suburban and the rest of the gang were already loading up all of the luggage there. Once that luggage was packed, we headed over to the Asta Suites to get out bags form the greenhouse.
We got everything loaded up and headed to Between Beaches. It was not a long ride, but we could only go so far in the Suburban before we needed to park and transfer all of the luggage to a smaller 4-wheeler. It was smaller but was capable of carrying 6 persons, and also had a small bed on the back for the luggage. We were able to get everything loaded up and make it in one trip, but it was really full.
Our Cabin – “The Fisherman”
We headed to the location of our cabins down a small gravel road, and then out onto a beach area, which was why it was not possible to drive the Suburban down to the cabins. We had to place the luggage up on a rock bulkhead, and then carry it to the cabins on a small gravel trail. We had help from our Driver, Nate, who was from the UK, and worked at Between Beaches. We paid him the $30 fee for the ride, plus a tip for helping out with the luggage.
Inside Our Cabin – Named The Fisherman
We took everything inside and got settled in. Nate was going to come back by in a bit to show us around the property and tell us about everything.
Nate came by about 20 minutes later and took us to see the wood fired sauna, the hot tub and the gallery, where all of the items we needed for kayaking, fishing, etc were located. It was also the main location for wi-fi access. There was also a lot of handmade pottery that the owner of Between Beaches, Kristi makes, and of course Stephanie had to buy something, which was actually a nice and colorful ceramic octopus.
The Fisherman Cabin
We have chairs on both sides of the small spit of land, one side is a shallow backwater bay and one side is the main sea between Seldovia and Homer, all called Kasitsna Bay . Depending on the wind, we have the choice of sitting and making camp fires on either side. There is a good supply of fire wood near the Sauna to use for fires on the beach.
After the orientation, Stephanie and I went back to get everything unpacked and situated in our Cabin. Just like on a cruise, we like to get everything put in its place so we feel settled in, and have everything available. While we were doing this, Ashley and Bryan were working on making a fire out on the beach, and afterward were relaxing in their hammock.
We eventually made it down to the fire on the beach, and were out there for about 45 minutes before the rain started again. Fires
Attempting Fire Pit On The Beach
on the beach are nice, just not in the rain, and it does not help with keeping the firewood dry either.
Eventually, we all headed back to our cabin and just sat around inside since we have four chairs at our table, they only had three. It was apparently time for some adult beverages, there was not much else to do.
Pretty soon, it was time for dinner, and we decided on cooking hot dogs on our gas grill. We also had baked beans and chili without beans for our hot dogs, as well as some onion. There were two leftover bacon wrapped chicken skewers that we also cooked on the grill for Ashley.
It was a little tricky to heat up the beans and chili on our two burner propane cooktop that sat out on our counter. The burners were hard to adjust to a low setting that would not burn the food in the pots. The outside grill was fairly new, and looked hardly used, and it was clean.
Dinner was good, and it really hit the spot.
Our Outdoor Shower
After dinner we went our separate ways. It was time for Stephanie and I to get showers in our outside shower. It is fully enclosed, but just out the front door of the cabin on the side. Getting the water to adjust correctly was a little tricky with the valves. We did not think they were working, we were having to shut off the water with the shutoff on the showerhead. Once we got it figured out, Stephanie headed to the shower first. Hot waster is provided by an on-demand propane gas water heater system, and it seemed to work fairly well for both of our showers, which were relaxing.
Although the showers worked great with the on-demand hot water heater, we were having some issue with the hot water at the sink in the kitchen area. The hot water heater would cycle on, but then go out on some type of error, and not start again until we shut the hot water off at the sink and turned the water back on again. We went outside and checked the gas bottle and it seemed to be almost empty, so we thought that might be causing the issue with the hot water error. They came and changed out the propane bottle, but the replacement bottle was much smaller, and was not full, so we will see how long that lasts. We were not using the sink much after washing the dinner dishes, so we were not able to tell if the issue was related to the gas bottle being mostly empty.
It was about 9:00 PM, and still quite light outside, and the rain had stopped, so Stephanie and I changed back into our outside clothes and went for a walk on the rocky beach side, looking for sea glass and unusual rocks. Might as well take advantage of any dry weather we can get.
Shallow Bay Side of Between Beaches
When we got back, we saw Ashley and Bryan outside and we all went to the lagoon side of the beach and walked a bit and then just sat in the chairs for a while. There was one giant Bald Eagle sitting in a tree, they are so much larger here than the one we always see on Lake Murray flying in our cove. Unfortunately, there were some bugs beginning to bite so we all headed back to our cabins for the night. Stephanie and I had one more beverage before we called it a night at about 11:00 PM.
We turned off our propane space heater, we did not want to run it all night and get too hot. We do have an electric mattress pad heater on the bed, and it had been on for a while to warm up the bed before we got in, which was nice. We turned it off, again, not wanting to get too hot while we were sleeping. It had been a good first day at Between Beaches, but a little soggy.