Tuesday, July 3, 2012

July 2 – Seldovia, Alaska

We used one of our 2 for 1 coupons to take the ferry across the bay to the town of Seldovia, which is at the other side of the mouth of Kachemak Bay. It has a very good harbour but no roads to it and used to be the center of trade in the area until the road made it to Homer and everything moved there. Today it seems to be mostly a tourist town with a lot artists.

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The weather was mostly cloudy and the temperature was in the low teens. Once we were out in the bay it got pretty windy. The boat moves along pretty fast for one this size at about 28 mph. We were heading into the wind so sometimes it was hard to stand up. We are rounding the end of the spit, below, with the line of hotel rooms.

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Inside it was very comfy and very empty but I stayed outside most of the time.

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This is a picture when we left but it was the best one of the harbour area. As we neared Seldovia the sky cleared and we had beautiful sunshine for our entire stay.

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The ferry one makes two runs in a day from Seldovia to Homer and back. We arrived just before 12 and we left at 4:30 so we had lots of time to explore. The ferry stays here and waits.

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Walking through town one place had these huge poppies.

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Every year the have a chainsaw carving contest here and there are examples all over town.

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We wanted to do a recommended hike called the Otter Bahn so off we went to find the trailhead at the far side of town. Everything is elaborate.

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It was a nice trek through the woods and some boardwalks to a rocky beach.

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Large leaves.

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We had our picnic lunch on the beach.

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There was actually an otter laying on its back out in front of us.

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A jellyfish.

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Jennie did some more rock hunting.

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Back in town we passed the native cultural center and they were letting everyone tie die T shirts. They even gave you the shirts. So in a flashback to the 60’s Jennie tried it out. They had a display board giving some idea how fold or twist the shirt and then wrap them in elastics to get certain patterns.

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The shirt has to soak in soda ash water for 10 minutes before you die it. While she was waiting she decided to do the fleece top she was wearing as well so off it came to be wrapped up in more elastics.

First the shirt got the colour treatment. You have to make sure and soak the die right through the tied up shirt.

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Then the fleece.

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They gave us plastic bags and you have to let the shirt dry in the bag for 24 hours before you unwrap it. Since neither one of us had done this before we have no idea how they will turn out but it was fun.

We then walked to an older part of town where the houses are perched on stilts over the water.

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This was the rowing club.

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This guy had some nice flowers out front, along with many other assorted things.

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They even have interesting lawn sprinklers.

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The town is supposed to have a very big 4th of July celebration. Some of the local kids were rehearsing

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By this time we were tired so we sat around about 1/2 hour and waited to get back on the ferry.

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