We woke up this morning at about 6:30 AM. We needed to be out of the cabin and have our luggage out on the beach by 7:50 AM to meet Nate so he could take us back to Seldovia to catch the 9:00 AM Ferry to Homer.
Finally, Beautiful Morning Skies
It was a sunny morning, the first sunny morning we have had on the trip so far. Too bad we were having to use this nice day as a travel day, but that is how it goes sometimes.
We loaded up all of the baggage onto the trailer that was attached behind the 4-wheeler, which was parked out on the lagoon side beach. Nate then drove us up to where the Suburban was parked, and we moved all of the luggage over to it for the drive to the ferry dock in Seldovia. We were ahead of schedule, which was OK, we did not need to miss this ferry, the next one over to Homer is not until 5:00 PM.
Asta Suite From The Ferry Dock
Nate helped us to get some of the luggage down the ramp and onto the pier level where the ferry was docked.
It was quite a ways out to the ferry from the ramp on this end of the trip, but at least it was closer to high tide and the ramp was not nearly as steep as it had been when we arrived in Seldovia six days ago at low tide.
There were quite a few passengers heading out this morning, but the ferry was not crowded at all. We had ample room for all of the luggage, and Stephanie and I decided to sit on the top deck so we could have better views. Ashley is not a boating person, so she and Bryan rode on the lower deck to avoid any issues with sea sickness.
Docks In Seldovia
There was not much wind, and it was a smooth ride over to Homer. We could see where the Between Beaches resort was located as we headed past in on our way to Homer. We had not noticed it on the ride over, but we also did not know what it looked like until we stayed there, but it was easy to spot now that we knew where to look for it.
We arrived in Homer on time, and then started the painful process of getting all of the luggage from the ferry and up the ramp to the parking area. It was easier than the trip over several days ago, we had a lot less weight, but but was still hard to drag everything up the ramp, even with the higher tide today.
Leaving Seldovia
We finally got everything up to the Tahoe and loaded it up. It did not take long and we were finally on our way out of Homer. As we proceeded through town, we arrived at the location of the outdoor market, and we had always planned to stop there today, it is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and since it was Saturday, we stopped.
There were quite a lot of vendors there, selling jewelry, food, fresh vegetables and other arts and crafts. It was pretty crowded. We walked though the entire market, and only bought some kettle corn. We got two flavors, traditional kettle corn, and kettle corn made with hot chili pepper.
We used their extremely clean port-o-lets and then headed back to the car to start our drive to Seward.
The drive to Seward was about three hours and twenty minutes long, just a little shorter than the drive from Anchorage to Homer.
Views Driving To Seward
We made a few stops along the way for pictures, but were unable to make the most important stop. We were driving along and saw an adult moose together with a young moose, assuming it was a mother with a young calf. There was not room enough to stop on the shoulder for pictures when we saw them, the shoulder was really narrow. We found a spot to turn around, hoping we could find a place for pictures nearby to where we had seen them. Unfortunately, they were already moving farther away from the road when we had first passed them, and now they were too far out into the field for us to get any good pictures. We turned around again, an started back toward Seward
We stopped in a town called Soldotna for some lunch on the way. We stopped at the Kenai River Brewing Company. We shared a table with a maintenance worker form the Princess Cruises Lodge called Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge at Cooper Landing, he was there to eat after fixing a tire nearby on a company vehicle. The lunch was good, but other than Stephanie, none of us were wanting to enjoy any of the craft beers there, they had 25 in total to choose from. I was driving…..
After having talked to the Princess mechanic about the lodge, we decided to stop to have a look once we arrived in Cooper Landing, about an hour from Soldotna. It was right on the way. We saw the lodge up on a hillside from the main road long before we saw the turnoff to the lodge. It is high up on a bluff overlooking the Kenai River. We found the turnoff and headed up the winding road.
View From The Princess Lodge
The Lodge was nice, but not spectacular. It had a nice deck on the back overlooking the Kenai River, and we took a few photos. We used their bathrooms, and then Stephanie headed to the gift shop, there is not a gift shop she can pass by. They had some coats for sale for a good price, but the last thing we need is another coat, especially on vacation where are suitcases are already pretty full. They were only $39.95, but that did not seem to be a sale price, just regular price. It was interesting because nothing in the gift shop said “Princess” on it, and most items just had “Alaska” as their logo.
We only stayed about 15 minutes and we were back in the car heading to Seward. We had about an hour to go from here. Most of the remainder of the road was under construction, and in many places, they were removing a lot of material off to the sides of the road to try and control landslides from the hills beside the road. Apparently they were doing a lot of blasting at night and the road was closed for several hours at nighttime, or so the signs indicated.
We made it to Seward and then drove out a dirt road for a few miles to our cabin. It is located right on Resurrection Bay, which is the main body of water going into Seward. Seward is the end of the bay, there is a river from there inland. This was all formed by glaciers long ago.
Our Seward Cabin
The cabin is just OK, it looked like the pictures on Airbnb, but the grounds were sort of growing out of control on the side facing the bay.
There is a fire pit on the shore, and also a wood fired sauna. The problem is that there is no firewood, which is alright except that the sauna stove can only burn really short pieces of wood, much shorter than you can purchase. We though there was also supposed to be a hot tub, but there was only a small elongated narrow trough set on the ground with a wooden box built around it, and a cover. There was no water in it, and we have no idea how it is supposed to work.
Seward Cabin Waterfront Area
It took us a while to find the second bedroom, it is off the kitchen and was behind a louvered door. That was the master bedroom, and has the washer and dryer in it, a smaller version of a front loader set.
Stephanie and I took the upstairs bedroom and so we started toting everything up the stairs, which were really short in depth, hardly enough to get my whole foot on. It was tough. We have a half bathroom upstairs and there were two rooms, one with a king bed and one with two twins, which we used to put our luggage onto.
Stephanie and I needed to do some laundry, so we put in a load of light colored clothes, which also included all of our underwear, which we were running short on.
Stephanie and I had found a Catholic Church in the town area of Seward through Google, and they had a Saturday Vigil Mass at 5:30 PM. Our plan was to all go to the Safeway grocery store, not too far from the church, and purchase all of our grocery items we needed. Then Ashley and Bryan were going to drop us off at church and take all of the groceries back to the cabin, and also stop and buy some firewood at the fishing supply store near the cabin.
We were about ready to leave when the lady who manages the property, Sue came by to go over a few things with us. It was nice, but she was really chatty and we were already short on time to try and get the shopping done before church started.
Seward Cabin
Apparently, this had been her and her husband’s house originally, and it had been built when there was no power or water available in this location. They sold it a few years ago to a coupe who are both doctors and then they moved just across the street into a house with a well. Power was eventually available for this house soon after it was built, but not water, so they have an arraignment to use the water from their well across the street to supply water for this cabin after they sold it to the new owners. They are also the property managers since the new owners do not live nearby.
It was also a little funny, they have kayaks, but we were not allowed to use them because it was “too dangerous”. Apparently, they have had several drownings this summer from kayakers who were not wearing any life jackets, which is mandatory here, as it is in most places.
She also told us it was too windy today to use the fire pit for fear ashes would start the underbrush on fire. Of course this was after she had also told us it had basically rained everyday for the past two weeks, but it could “dry our really quickly”.
We asked about some firewood that was in the shed that had a sign on it “Do Not Use This Wood”, and she was not aware of it. It was short enough to use in the sauna, so we asked if it was just for the sauna, and she did not know.
Sue finally left and we were able to head to the Safeway, but we were now really short of time. It was about a 12 minute drove into town on a dirt road, and than a paved road, but both are 25 mph speed limits, so it tales a while to get anywhere.
The Safeway was really crowded, it was Saturday afternoon, and it is the only grocery in town. It was a nice store, and had both groceries and several aisles of home goods, and a separate liquor/wine store in the front.
I purchased a Bota Box of Pinot Grigio while Stephanie, Ashley and Bryan headed inside to shop for groceries. I noticed that the lines to check out were really long when I came into the store from the liquor store, and after I found Stephanie, I told her we did not have enough time to get everything we needed, check out with the long lines, and make it to church, which was about a five minute drive away. We grabbed one last thing and headed to check out. It took a while to check out in the self check-out line, and we had some issues scanning an onion, and had to wait for assistance, which took a few more minutes.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church In Seward
We put everything in the car and headed to the church, which was a little difficult to find, it was on a corner, and Google Maps sort of took us around the block to get to the church, which we just did not see at first. We got dropped of in the parking lot. Ashley and Bryan were going to run back to the cabin with the supplies and get the fire wood.
Church was nice, it only lasted about 45 minutes. A man played a guitar for the hymns and other prayers we sung. The homily was pretty short, but good. The church was small, and there were about 30 people in attendance, most of them apparently were visitors like us
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
We waited outside in the parking lot to get picked up. Ashley had said she would be back in 45 minutes, but we had to wait about 20 minutes longer than that for them to arrive, we were not sure we ever knew why there was a delay, but we had no jackets, and it was getting cool outside, the sun had disappeared and it was now cloudy and breezy.
We decided, well I decided, we needed to go back to the Safeway after church to get the remaining items we needed, it was a lot closer to go now than to go back to the cabin first and come all the way back later.
This time, we all went in the store except Bryan, he stayed in the car. We got the remaining items, and two bags of ice, which was one of the main things we had wanted to get initially, but had not had time.
We headed back to the cabin and unloaded everything, including the fire wood. After this we settled in. Apparently Bryan had not been feeling well all day and also yesterday, but had not said anything to us. Ashley was also having some sinus issues, which she thought was from pollen, and causing her to sneeze a lot in the car today while we drove the five hours from Homer, including all the time for stoppages and lunch.
Bryan was feeling worse, so he just wanted to go onto their bedroom and rest. We still needed to dry our clothes, and Stephanie put them into the dryer. The plan had been to cook brats tonight for dinner, but neither of them were hungry for that much food.
Stephanie and I went ahead and cooked the brats, first boiling them in beer and onions and then cooking them on the gas grill we had on the porch. It was a nice dinner.
We all have an excursion tomorrow on a boat that goes to two glaciers. The tour is with Major Marine Tours, and is 7.5 hours long, and we have to be at the check in by 8:30 AM.
Stephanie and I had a couple of beverages while we watched things going on outside in Resurrection Bay, and then called it a night at about 10:30 PM. of course, it was still daylight.
We set an alarm for 7:15 AM and headed to bed.
More to come…….