Homer, Alaska

​One of the reasons we choose this Cruise with Holland America is because it went to Homer and Kodiak in Alaska. Kevin, Shawna's brother, worked in Alaska for many years as a commercial fisherman. We had a big breakfast and then we were off to our hike.  The hike was to a Grewingk glacier lake across Kachemak bay.

​Our view of the ship as we headed over the to the other side of the bay.

​The front of our boat looking to the shore where we will start our hike.

No whales but we slowed several times to watch otters floating on the bay.  Some were having lunch. This one had a crab he was eating and tossed as we approached.

​All ashore…  We were able to use the drop gate to get ashore without getting our feet wet.

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Black sand beach because this area had active volcanoes in the distance past.

​We were shown many native plants by our guide.  The thorny one is called devils club and is completely covered in thorns. Shawna asked about snakes as we walked through the tall grass further up the shore. No snakes live in Alaska. Yea, what a relief.

​Right on the trail there was fresh evidence that a bear had just been by. Okay, a different concern.

​Back on the trail.

​Our first sighting of the glacier 

​Let me zoom in to see it better.

The glacier and in front of it is a lake full of blue icebergs.

​It was a strenuous 6-mile hike. The hike and the lake were fantastic.

Time to head back to the ship.

 The Lady Alaska was in port, but we could not see anyone on board.  It was one of the ships Kevin was on.  We did see a lot of fishing boats.

​When we got back we had just enough time to stop at the Salty Dawg Saloon.  Kevin had talked about it many times and we had to go by as a tribute to his memory.

Just before we pulled away from the dock the captain came on to an announce that one of the ships from TV show Deadliest catch was pulling out of port. This is interesting to us because Kevin spent more that 10 years working on crab boats just like this. He had a very dangerous job back in his early years.

After dinner on the ship, we went to another show on the main stage.  It was great.  "Rock Legends."  Songs by Queen, Kiss, David Bowie, Abba, Elton John...  Singing. Dancing. Music. Lights. Wild outfits.  It was lots of fun.

We arrived at the suite and noticed that the sun was not yet down.  It finally set after 11:10 pm and will not be dark until midnight.  The sun will be back up about 4:30 am.  It is crazy.

Tonights towel creature was great!