What a great nights sleep and and an even better way to wake up, in a cozy little cabin with an incredible view. We were both excited about the day, especially for the boat ride part (and even to take a rest from the bikes). For breakfast, we walked to the nearby grocery store to get some cereal and milk. What a great choice that was because it kept us full for a good portion of the day. From there, our plan was to go explore the Spit. Charlie offered to give us a ride out there since he had to do a little errand in town. That saved a lot of walking time and gave us a little more time to explore the spit. It was neat walking around the spit because when you looked around you were way out towards the middle of the bay. There were a lot of little shops to explore, although we're not big shoppers. We spent a little over an hour walking around the area before we saw Charlie out on the spit. The harbor was right on the spit, so when Charlie picked us up that was our next stop. He has the perfect little red (well bigger than any I've seen) sea-worthy skiff named The Red Raven. It was so neat going 4hrs 19mins the harbor on the way out to the open water because there were quite a few big fishing boats and even the sister ship to the boat used on the TV show "Deadliest Catch." Joe and I sat right up front in the bow because we knew that would be the most exciting place. It sure was! The waves were big enough to make the boat bounce up and down quite a bit, so it was a lot of fun and pretty exciting, especially when we hit a really big wave because then there would be a little water that splashed up and sprinkled us. Every once in a while we would come near a sea bird that, once it saw us, would dive out of sight underwater. Those were my favorite to watch. Charlie took us all around the bay. We were all looking pretty intently for whales. First we headed out in the direction that Charlie thought the whale had been spotted earlier today, but when we didn't have any luck, we turned around and headed towards what is known as "Gull Rock." It was really neat because it was just covered with all kinds of sea birds. Charlie showed us the nests where the puffins lived, but unfortunately we didn't see any puffins. We saw little birds that looked like tiny penguins that I believe were called Murres along with another black bird with a long neck that I can't remember the name of. Charlie took the boat pretty close to the enormous rock that stood about 150 feet out of the water. The first thing that Joey said was "Is this called Bird Poop Island?" It was so funny, it did definitely smell of bird poop because there were just so many birds. The rock was neat because there was an arch and a few smaller rocks/islands nearby. As we were slowly cruising around Gull Rock, we came around a corner and there was a seal sunning on a rock!! We couldn't get too close to him because he would have just dove off the rock into the water, but either way we were pretty excited to get to see him! I remember I had a birthday party at the aquarium back home when I was a kid and I got kissed by a seal. Even though that was really awesome, it was still really cool to see a seal in the wild! Our next stop was what is known as "Halibut Cove." We were heading towards there at full force. At one point I turned my head to the side and couldn't believe what I saw, a Humpback WHALE!!!! Joe and I looked at each other and we were both gleaming with excitement. It was only a couple hundred yards away! So, we re-routed our course and headed towards the direction the whale was swimming. We watched him swimming along the surface, saw him spout, and then not too long after saw him dive under with his tail coming fully out of the water! It was just so magical to watch! That definitely made our day, well probably our week! It will be something we will never forget about our adventures in Alaska! We waited for a while in hopes of seeing the whale again (Charlie said they usually go under for about 7 minutes), but unfortunately there were no signs of him anywhere. With that, we turned back around and headed towards the cove. I still really enjoyed watching the sea birds dive under the water and bouncing around at the bow of the boat. As we were coming into the cove, there was a lighthouse, and I couldn't help but think of Grammy since she likes those so much. Inside Halibut Cove, there were a lot of REALLY nice houses, a really expensive fine dining restaurant built on stilts, and even a floating coffee shop. I can't imagine living way over there, but Charlie said that a lot of artists live there, which would make perfect sense, along with doctors and other wealthy people. It was a really neat little place! As we were going back out, Charlie cruised under one of the rock arches that was on the bluff which was really cool too! On the way back to the harbor, we went towards the oil rig that was out in the middle of the bay. When we got close, you could see that it was being moved by 3 tugboats. At one point as we were floating there looking at it, one of the tugboats sounded its loud horn. About a minute later, Charlie's cell phone rang (a surprise to me that there was reception out there on the water!). One of the first mates on one of the tug boats was a friend of Charlie's and had recognized his boat. Apparently we were closer than they wanted people to be (we found out they wanted a mile clearance!). Ooops! But since Charlie knew one of the guys on the tug boat, it wasn't a big deal. But, now we know! The waves were a little bigger on the way back in, which was fine because it just meant a little more splash that got on us when we hit a big wave! Once in a while a drop would get on your lips and you could taste the salty ocean water. The ride back into the harbor was just as fun. Seeing the big coast guard ship and just watching the hustle and bustle of the harbor was neat. I've never been on a boat in ocean water before, so it was even more amazing that I got to go out in Pacific water, in Alaska!! As we were heading back into town off of the spit, I was just so full of joy because of how great of a boat ride we had. We had seen everything we wanted to see, except sea otters (which would have been so cute), and it was the perfect weather too! We stopped at the grocery store and bought some ice cream on the way back to Charlie and Debbie's house. Originally we had thought about going out for ice cream, but since Joey had a hankering for soft serve and we couldn't find a place that had any, we decided to go for quantity. It worked out good because then 4 people could enjoy a little ice cream instead of just us two. When we got back we had some ice cream right away. We also met one of Charlie and Debbie's sons Elisa. For a while, we became computer geeks and I worked on upoading pictures, which was overdue again. Luckily I was able to get all of the photos uploaded from my camera by the end of the night! As much as I hate just sitting on the computer like that, it is always so great to get them all taken care of so we don't have to worry about something happening to the camera and losing them all. Joe and I ate my leftovers from going out to dinner last night, and it was just as yummy! That evening, while pictures were uploading, Joey and I went for a walk along the beach. It was low tide, so we were able to walk right out on the sand. The sunset was beautiful as was the moon shining above the mountains in the other direction. We did a lot of jumping from rock to rock and had little mini adventures involving us crossing little streams that were in the sand. It was a lot of fun. Homer has definitely been one of my favorite places we have been to in Alaska. The scenery is just so breathtaking. We had such an incredible day today; probably one of our favorite days of getting to explore Alaska! The boat ride was not something we ever expected to get to do, but it will probably remain one of our favorite memories from Alaska. We were so blessed to have another beautiful, sunny, warm day just at the right time to enjoy Homer! Today was a day we will never forget-thanks Charlie!
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