Home Sweet Homer

The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and bring forth words which were better unspoken.
                             - Homer, The Odyssey  


For our last weekend in Alaska (which was a three day weekend), we decided to yet again pack up the Alaska Stallion and head on down to Homer, Alaska. Homer is again a fishing town and home to the Time Bandit on Deadliest Catch. Yes, I know. I stalked out the Time Bandit store in hopes of running into one of the Hillstrand brothers so that they could get me in touch with Capt. Sig Hansen.

No dice. Anyway though here is the Time Bandit store...

With a huge crab pot! I was standing in it and let me tell you monstrous! I have a new appreciation for a 1/2 full crab pot! 

Ok but before I delve too deeply into the Homer weekend, let me describe to you all the journey down. We stopped at a Fred Meyer in Soldotna, a town about an hour from Homer. I, being myself, went the alcohol section to gather up the other supplies we needed for the weekend. This is where I met Scott. I am standing in line with a case of Alaskan White and he goes "where's the party at?" I respond, "Homer Spit." Then seeing his case of Bud Light I say, "I would ask you the same question but you have a case of Bud Light." Well this apparently meant he can have a conversation with me about how he just flew into Anchorage in the morning after passing rigorous tests, etc, etc. I was not listening. When my senses picked up again, Kathryn was with me and he said "hold on let me move my chew so I can talk to you better." Yup, my attention averted again to I don't know the paint drying the wall next to me. So I pay for my beer and go "have a good weekend" and walk out. We leave the store and he is sitting in his car outside! He goes "HEY! Want to see the other Kenai Peninsula?" (Ok insert, Homer is located on the Kenai Peninsula as is Seward - see map above) I laugh. I mean that was ballsy - pun intended - so I saw something like "no, we are in a rush. We are late already." He replies, "Give me your number." In my head I keep replaying, "hell no, hell no, hell no," but I respond "give me yours." Anyway that was the end of that. But I knew this was going to be a good weekend with that pick up line. 

After that scenario, we made it to Homer. It was supposed to be terrible weather! Just miserable! Rainy, cold, windy, and what was it like for us? Basically the opposite. It was a tad bit chilly but it rocked. 

We camped on the Homer Spit. 

In our tent held down by rocks. 

With our sectional seating fire pit! 

Which people loved (correct, no one is sitting on the logs). 

With waves like this crashing shore...it was great to listen to at night. 

And we had visitors like this. Don't worry he supplied music that honed in on our Labor Day festivities (National Anthem, God Bless America, etc)...

We also had sunsets like this! 

But when the lights go down, things get crazy, especially at the Salty Dawg! We had a blast at this joint! We lit it up both Friday and Saturday night. We made friends too! Here is the infamous Salty Dawg!

Inside is straight class!

Dollar, dollar bills ya'll!

Some friends left to right! The fisherman who is biting Kathryn's arm (not funny, she was bruised), then there is Shawn (soul mate), and Shawn's uncle (DRUNK). 

So we basically owned this bar for two nights. The first night I walked in by myself ahead of the group (they were taking their sweet time). Upon entering, there was a kid wearing an U of Oregon hat! So we started talking and he was originally from Homer and still attends U of O. We chatted for a while and he tells me of the hang out for the game the next day (against LSU, still bitter). The others walked in and we decided we are going to meet him there. I mean what are the odds? His name was Max. There was also a group of French men who hardly spoken English. It was so funny. They somehow thought Shawn and I were engaged. You would never have imagined how funny it is to say "no not engaged, just met!" The French guys also enjoyed sticking their tongues to their nose like it was a feat of impressiveness (ok it was). The drunk uncle kept getting them to sing like their national anthem which none of us knew but sure did try to sing along! The next night we strolled in there again and started playing pool with a guy from Vegas and a guy from Montana. The Montana guy kept calling us "babydoll" and buying drinks. He also started showing us pool trick shots. It was great. He was up there for fishing. He wore a BIG OLE belt buckle, which is described as a "tombstone for dead peckers." The Vegas guy (also the age of Montana Cowboy, probably 60s) told us he comes up there for another relief: Marijuana. It was all unbelievably too funny. Anyway we owned the juke box. And our friend Vanessa played straight 90s. Everyone was so annoyed with our choices except for us (of course) and Shawn. Oh and Vanessa was on some sort of adrenaline high and she was busting out push ups. I was tired from watching her! Actually, I looked at her and chugged a beer as a result. So we rocked the bar until about 4am Saturday night. I am telling you, I LOVE Homer. It was like a mini Milwaukee in a bar. You never knew what you were going to see next! 

I am still curious though as to what the other Kenai Peninsula really looked like. My bets are it didn't stand a chance to Homer.