Saturday - Now I know I am a Tropical Girl!

I should have realized that today was going to be one of those days when I unplugged my I-phone this morning to discover that it is totally dead. Won’t turn on or off - just dead. I guess it has gone to the great cell lot in the sky, but not having it is making my trip a bit more difficult. After I paid respects to my phone, we headed into Homer for a bit. I stopped off at the Sourdough Express Bakery for my morning coffee and then we headed to the Homer Saturday Market. It was not very big but there were some great things there made by local artists. I purchased a necklace that is a round piece of wood with pieces of shells inlaid on it to make a mountain and stars. The artist was very nice and I am excited to have something very cool from Homer!  I took this picture for Tia - she loves markets as much as I do.



After the market, we headed toward the spit to go on our Halibut Cove trip. We arrived at the boat which was a smaller boat with very limited inside seating. The wind was blowing and it was SO COLD. Even tho I was wearing layers, I just could not think about spending another day freezing my, well, "you know what" off. There was the possibility of getting one of the few seats inside the boat, however, with the winds the water was sure to be rough. I get sea sick on boats and especially when seated in a confined inside area. This just did not seem FUN to me and especially since the cruise to Halibut Cover was 1 ½ hours each way. I sent Dave on the trip and I stayed behind. My first thought was to find a cab and head to the Spa, but after reading the brochure, they are closed on Saturday (weird). Then, I thought maybe I would cab it to the ATT store in Homer and see what is wrong with my phone. I found out that the ATT store is also closed on Saturday - what is up with that???? I guess I was surprised in the first place that there was even an ATT store in Homer. So, I shopped a bit, stopped for Halibut & Chips at lunch and now I am cozied up in the motor home until 4pm when I go back to meet Dave. We have pretty much checked out all of the little places here in Homer, but there are a couple of things that we saw that we want to go back and get. Since I don’t have many pictures from today - here are a couple of pics of the souveniors that we have found along the way.

This is the fish print that Dave picked out for his Birthday Present

My purple hat that I purchsed the first day here at the Anchorage Saturday Market.

I got these bracelets at the Homer Market, they are woven out of Cedar.  I thought they were unique!

This is the pendant that I got today at the Homer Market.  The mountains and stars are inlaid chips of sea shells.

I got this Hoodie at the Sourdough Express Bakery.  I thought it was cheerful.

When I went back over to the pier to meet Dave, the fishing boats were coming in.  We have been watching them hang fish all week, but this time, they brought in a HUGE Halibut!  I had to take a picture of it!  You can see, it is almost as tall as the fish monger - it weighed 132 lbs!

I have learned a few things about myself on this trip. I already knew that I enjoy exploring new places, I love mountains, water and seeing wild life. I also love taking pictures and shopping for unique treasures. BUT it is now official, I am NOT a cold weather person. Never have been and never will be. I hate being COLD!!! I pretty much knew this before, but after trying to embrace it on this trip - I know it for sure. I actually think I knew this many years ago after spending a week in Steamboat Springs, Colorado tyring to learn to ski. I hated it then, but I guess I have forgotten over the years. The Bear viewing yesterday was incredible. I know that I will never be that close to a wild bear ever again in my life. I am glad I decided to do it, but the being wet and cold part was miserable, especially since I was wet and cold for about 4 hours. I just could not face more of being cold again today. Never thought I would say this while on vacation, but I think I am ready to come home. I hope my gray cloud decides to stay here in Alaska because I would really like to soak up some of the warm sunshine that has found its way to Seattle since I have been away.

Will I ever come to Alaska again? My first inclination is to say absolutely NOT - but then I think maybe I would if I had a nice warm cruise ship waiting for me and it took me to some places that I have not seen before. I’m a warm weather tropical girl, that is all there is to it. Next year I will be spending two glorious weeks in Hawaii….. It can’t come fast enough for me!