Friday 8/6/99
Day 9: Seward, Exit Glacier & Homer
We woke up at 6:30 am and were ready to leave the campsite at Bertha Creek Campground at 7:00. We continued south on the Seward Highway. We thought we'd go to Homer first, so we turned off on the Sterling Highway. We saw signs that said this part of the highway would be closed from 11 pm to 5 am Mon. thru Thurs. Since it was only about 7:30 on a Friday morning we thought we were safe. But we were stopped just a few miles past the turnoff and saw firetrucks up ahead. After our last run-in with firetrucks at Dyea we decided to turn around and continue to Seward first. It started getting foggy as we headed south. We got to Seward at 9:00 am ate a good breakfast at the Marina Restaurant across from the marina. Afterwards we walked around the marina and looked all the different boats. 
The weather wasn't great-overcast, drizzly, but you could still walk around in it. We walked in to some of the gift shops in the area and then drove to the downtown section. We driove past the Alaska Sealife Center (ie aquarium). We thought it was kind of expensive ($12.50/adults and $10/kids). A friend of mine later told me she had taken her family there and they were disappointed. We drove along Lowell Point Road and saw otters out in the water. We stopped at the Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor's Center before leaving town at 12:30 pm.
A few miles north of Seward we turned off the highway to Exit Glacier. This is one of two popular glaciers on the Kenai Peninsula. From the parking lot we took a half hour hike crossing streams with chunks of ice floating in them. The kids walked up to the glacier and touched it. They also picked up pieces of ice floating in the river. From here we took the Sterling Hiway turnoff to go to Homer. We stopped along the side of the highway qlong to stream to watch the red salmon coming back to spawn.. Ther wer many fish comingup stream as many people had just puuled off the side of theroad to see them. On the way there the fog started getting pretty thick. We got into Homer around 5:30 pm. We stopped at the first couple hotels we saw and they all wanted $100-110 a night.
Feeling discouraged we stopped at the Visitor's Center. They suggested trying in the Seaside Farms (e-mail: seaside@xyz.net). They are a working farm with a variety of accommodations-- tent sites, cabins and a bunkhouse. We tried calling but they only had an answering machine, so we drove out there on the East End Road. This would have been a nice drive along the water past several farms, but it was sprinkling, and very foggy. We couldn't even see the water. This was an interesting place with roosters and dogs running all over. There was a place called the Pavillion for campers and people staying in the bunkhouse. It was an enclosure with no roof that had cooking area and seating. They had some beach access. We talked to a lady named Cindy who was the current manager. Her office was in a large house that several adults shared. We assumed they worked on the farm and got free board or something like that. 
She only had campsites and beds in the bunkhouse available tonight. Obviously we didn't want to camp tonight. The bunkhouse had one bathroom and a large room with 10 beds. We decided to stay in the bunkhouse which was $15/adults and no charge for the kids, cash only. We continued on the East End Road. It's paved for the first 10 miles and goes another 10 miles unpaved. At the end of the road is a very quiet Russian community that keep to themselves much like the Mennonites. There were some small homes and cute little school.
We drove back into town and ate an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet at the Young Downtown Inn. While we were there Dale decided to check out their rooms above the restaurant. We decided to take our chances, reserve a room and hopefully get our money back at the bunkhouse. We drove back to the Seaside Farms and had no problem getting our money back. We drove back to town and to the Spit which is a long narrow piece of land with lots of shops, bars, restaurants, charter fishing companies, etc. We let the kids play on the beach, unfortuanately you couldn't even see the water because of the fog. We bought some postcards and headed back to our hotel. We got the kids to bed and drove back to the Spit.
We stopped for a beer at the Salty Dog Saloon. This was an old wooden stucture with sawdust on the floor and business cards covering the walls and ceiling. It was a local hangout, mostly fisherman. We decided to head back into town and look for a bar that might be serving food. Of course none were open around midnight. We had a few more drinks at Alice's, a large rowdy bar with a country band playing. This was a younger crowd of mostly cannery workers. Everyone seemed to know each other. It was fun to just watch the crowd. The dance floor was pretty packed.
350 miles today, 3600 miles total