Ships and Seagulls at Homer Spit, AK

Jeff really wanted a photo of this boat/ship.  It’s a ferry that runs from Homer to Kodiak, and although its formal name is the Tustemena, Jeff refers to it as either the Trusty Tusty or the Dramamine Express! He rode this ferry many times across the Gulf of Alaska/North Pacific to get home to Kodiak, and because it is not a large ship (like a cruise ship), it doesn’t have stabilizers, so if the North Pacific is rockin’ and rollin’, so is everyone on the ship!  Still, it’s been in service for years and years, so it’s definitely sea worthy!

Here’s another view of it at dock. The ship partially visible in front of it is a Coast Guard vessel, and of course, there are lots of sea gulls flying around!

I’ve never been known to be a fan of sea gulls, but for some reason, I found the ones in Homer to be quite amusing.  I just wanted to capture a few of the images that brought a smile to my face, and hopefully, will make you smile, too!  I call the first image, above, Pecking Order.  It just seems like they were patiently waiting on the rope/cable for their turn to perch on the tie down structure (our ship was tied to this when we docked).

This image isn’t amusing as much as I found it just very peaceful. There were hundreds and hundreds of seagulls, and somehow, I managed to pretty much find this one just soaring along on his own. In a moment, he was joined by many others, so this was just a brief snippet of time.



There was something about the shape of this gull’s wings when he landed that captured my attention.Very graceful and flowing, don’t you think?

I didn’t even see the sign when I took this image, but it made me chuckle out loud when I looked at it on my PC.I couldn’t help but wonder– are they waiting in line for the ladder to use it at their risk…..or have they created the risk by the obvious deposits they’ve made?

Enjoy!

Sights Along the Homer Spit, AK

As we approached Homer, the sun was rising and cast a rosy glow onto one of the mountains we passed entering the harbor.  It was wonderful to see the effect of the sun and also the layers of low clouds and fog hovering just over the water.

I thought this image was particularly peaceful. It was a very hushed environment. Yes, we were on board the ship, but it wasn’t moving very fast, and was fairly quiet, which created an even greater sense of peace. I love the streaks of color created by the sun, too.

In Homer, there’s a spit of land that we actually docked at.  And, there’s a pier there, too, with shops, etc., on this fairly decent size sort of peninsula.  I don’t know the reason, but it’s referred to as a spit of land.  Anyway, here’s another image of what has the feel of a New England fishing town up in the semi-north of Alaska!

I really liked this image, because of the people (it’s actually a couple standing very close together) in the lower left corner. They create a feel to this image of being left behind – sort of a loneliness.

And, saw this on a Jeep at the dock and it makes me laugh –it pretty well sums up a fair amount of people’s attitudes up here, but not in a nasty way.They just really don’t care how it’s done elsewhere – they just do it the way they do it up here because it works for them!Love it!

Enjoy!