GIRLS WEEKEND 2025. HOMER, ALASKA

 

A viewpoint between Anchorage & Homer

Friday, October 10, 2025

After a decent night's sleep, I was up and about at around 5:30 am and Kathi was not too far behind me. Our Air BNB home away from home is lovely and we have a SPECTACULAR view of the Homer Spit (a "spit" is a geological formation consisting of a narrow, elongated stretch of sand or gravel that extends from the coast into a body of water) from our balcony, none of which we could see upon our arrival last night because it was pitch dark.  Some perks of this place: a heated bathroom floor, a heated toilet seat and a heated towel rack, along with the view.  It actually was still dark when we got up.  Sunrise was around 8:30 am and as the sun came up it slowly unveiled the view for us.

Sunrise from our Air BNB deck

    According to the weather app, today is the only day        that is supposed to be rain free. So I decided that we        would go to Bishop's Beach for some tidepooling.        Low tide was around 11am so we had a "slow"                morning of coffee and yogurt, while Kathi started            typing up the journal for day 1. Eventually we both        showered and dressed and got ready for our day's            outing. Kathi made sandwiches and packed lunches        while I was in the shower.  After she showered and        dressed we headed out the door to experience some of     Alaska!

    We parked in the parking lot of Bishop's Beach and made our way down to the water.  It didn't take us long to spot a bald eagle up in a tree. 

I have every expectation of seeing many bald eagles while here, which is fine with me because they are such beautiful and regal birds.  That being said, a bit later we spotted one walking on the beach and I was somewhat surprised by how much less regal they appear when walking rather than flying or just sitting perched.  

We walked around on the beach and I looked hard for tidepools, but disappointingly, found none. While I was looking for tidepools, Kathi took off in the opposite direction and was walking down towards the water.  She has fancy duck boot like shoes that are waterproof up to a point, so she could walk through shallow water and still have dry feet. I walked that way thinking I would join her when I realized that I would have to wade through

some water that was higher than I thought my hiking boots would be able to withstand so I just walked around the beach a bit more.  Soon I realized that the tide was now coming IN and it appeared that Kathi was quickly becoming surrounded by water that was gradually getting higher and was out on an island of sand.  She realized this too when she headed back towards me and stepped into a deep area of water and ended up with wet feet.  She shouted, "It seems like the tide is coming in!" and I said "it IS!"

Kathi on her island of sand

Once she made it safely back to where I was, we realized that we were both hungry, so we went back to the car and sat and ate our lunch, while she attempted to dry out her shoes and socks with the heater.  In the meantime we had a nice FaceTime conversation with my daughter who helped Kathi get her phone hooked up to Apple Car Play.  This Benz, while very cool, has had a steep learning curve in discovering all of its little nuances!!

After our little lunch break, we walked the Beluga Slough trail which took off from the parking lot. We ran into an elderly woman a few times while walking and she asked us where we from and we told her our story.  Then she proceeded to tell us her story, which was very interesting. She told us that her husband had passed away a few years ago, but before his passing they purchased 683 acres of land (a little bit at a time) on a ridge above the Bay to create a wildlife preserve.  He died before seeing the project all the way through, but eventually the land was donated to the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies to preserve a habitat for local wildlife.  The name of the preserve is Inspiration Ridge Preserve (https://akcoastalstudies.org/inspirationridge) It was Nina we were speaking to and she still serves as the property manager for the preserve as well as lives on the property.  She showed us pictures of the some of the views from the property as well as photos of the sandhill cranes that come through the preserve every year.  She is obviously very proud of her accomplishments, as she should be.  Unfortunately it is not currently open to the public for tours (only in the summer), so we realized that we would not have the opportunity to visit. 

After our hike we decided to drive out on the spit since it still wasn't raining. I also wanted to check on the status of the boat tour of the bay that I had booked a few months ago.  We were disappointed to find out that nearly ALL of the shops on the spit are closed for the season and the office for the tour company I had booked our boat tour through also appeared closed, so I called them.  "Oh!"  says the woman who answered the phone when I told her I was calling to confirm that the tour would happen rain or shine, "I must have overlooked your name, I thought I had contacted every one.  The tour has been cancelled because all of our boats are out of service." Another disappointment.  So glad I called, though!  After being assured that I would get a refund, and being told that another company MIGHT be running tours, we walked down to the Salty Dawg, which is a very famous saloon in Homer.  Many people who visit the place, write a note on a dollar bill and then thumbtack it to the wall.  There must be thousands of dollars in (mostly) $1 bills tacked up on every wall space in the place.  We went in just to look around but asked the bartender and the patrons about bay tours.  They offered us some suggestions and the bartender even wrote them down for us.  People are very friendly here!  We left and upon returning to the car we called Mako's taxi service and were able to book a "ride along" on one of their boats for 10 am tomorrow morning.  It wouldn't be a tour.  We would just be along for the ride, while they dropped a party of 4 hikers (plus 2 dogs) off at one place and picked up a party of 4 hikers (plus one dog) before returning to the harbor.  This sounded fine to us and we booked it!

We went back to our place and decided we didn't really need to cook a meal.  I edited my photos while Kathi worked on the journal.  I realized while in the air on the way to Anchorage that I forgot to bring our state puzzle pieces to toss to determine next year's destination. I decided that we could just FaceTime Tom and have him toss the states for us. Kathi thought a Zoom meeting would be better, so we did that instead. He found the Ziploc bag with the states and had a box ready to do the shaking in.  After chatting for a while, he put the states in this HUGE box, shook it, then turned it upside down and released the pieces.  The pieces that landed face up were: Arizona, Colorado and New York. NICE.  I love all of these!  We signed out of the zoom meeting with Tom and decided that we needed to watch the documentary "Unknown Number" upon the recommendation of Kathi's friend Katy.  We started it, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open and finally my body gave in and I fell asleep.  Kathi said she was nodding off, too.  She woke me up and said, let's call it a night.  Off to bed we went (at 8:41!) knowing we would have to get up and leave by 9:30 the next day to make it to our date with the Blue Too (our boat).

GW 2025. Homer, Alaska. Thursday, Oct 9 2025

Thursday, October 9, 2025

 

For the first time in a VERY long time, my travel day was more intense than Lori’s. There are so many more states in the eastern half of the country than in the western half. Since Lori lives on the west coast and I live in the Midwest, she usually has to leave home earlier and travel farther than I do. So, it’s only fair that once in a while the travel burden is heavier on me.

 

My alarm went off at 4:15 am EST and 30 minutes later sent the following text to Lori (for whom it was only 1:45 am): “The adventure begins! I'm in an Uber on the way to the airport.”  Lori would not need to be at the airport for another eight hours. This year marks the 28^th consecutive Girls Weekend, and I was so excited that it was underway!

 

I have been obsessing for weeks about packing for this trip. I was determined to do a full week in Alaska and take only a tote and a carry-on. I planned my wardrobe very carefully, focusing on layers. We knew the temps would be in the mid- to high 30s in the morning and warm up only to somewhere in the high 40s during the day. Plus, we knew there would be lots and lots of rain, and that we would be spending quite a bit of time outside. So . . . I started my packing list at least five weeks before the departure date. I succeeded in boarding the plane with only a (very heavy) carry-on and a tote. We’ll have to wait until later in the week to determine the success of my actual item choices.

BIG stuffed moose in the Anchorage airport

 

By the time I touched down in Anchorage, Lori had already been there for an hour, having been able to take a direct flight from Portland. Lori says it’s a beautiful airport with a gigantic taxidermied moose on full display. I’m sure she’s right, but upon leaving the plane, I headed straight for the bathroom and then for baggage claim to find Lori. Somehow, I missed the moose.

 

After our joyful hug fest, we set off to find the rental car. For the past four years, I have been acquiring rental cars exclusively from Turo rather than from traditional car rental companies. If you’re not familiar with Turo, think Airbnb for cars. Private owners renting their cars out for use. There are a few extra hoops to jump through, like taking a billion photos of the car through the Turo app before driving, but it is worth it. I save at least 15-30% or more on the total cost. For this trip, as a surprise for Lori, I rented a 2022 Mercedes-Benz SUV. It turned out to be a surprise for both of us since it took at least five minutes to figure out how to put the dang thing in gear, another five to understand that the button on the side of the seat did not, in fact, manipulate the seat, it was actually a mechanism in the door that made the seats move back and forth. We still don’t know what the button on the side of the seat does. The challenges continued once we were on the road. The stem coming out of the right side of the steering wheel that most often controls the wipers and windshield washer fluid was actually where the gear shift was located. It turned out the wipers were located on the LEFT steering wheel turn signal stem. It started misting on the drive, and I kept inadvertently putting the car in neutral WHILE ROLLING ON THE HIGHWAY rather than wiping moisture off the windows.

 

We did eventually safely arrive at the Fred Meyer in Anchorage to stock up for groceries. Lori had been warned that food was expensive in Alaska, and the warning was appropriate. The grocery bill was $240. The only meat we bought was one 4lb package of chicken breasts. Everything else was pretty much beverages, dairy products, bread, and fruit – we learned many trips ago not to over-purchase on groceries on these trips. Back in the car (and hopefully more adroit at manipulating the controls), we got on the road to Homer. Google maps told us the drive was 4 hours and 6 minutes. That was not even close to correct. It actually took 51/2 hours to get there. At just over 3 hours in, we decided to make a stop at a convenience store to grab a snack and go to the bathroom.

 

A couple of things happened as we approached a small town: a) the speed limit suddenly dipped to 45, and b) we saw a store on the left side of the road that came suddenly into view. The result of this was that I braked pretty quickly and whipped into the parking lot…followed quite closely by a state trooper who flipped on his lights. I have not been pulled over for speeding in maybe…20 years? This is not so much because I don’t occasionally speed, but rather that there seem to be no more cops on the streets of Indy who are concerned with such things. Anyway, my string of luck seemed to be over…but not really. Trooper Keith (who looked very much as if he was cutting high school and dressing up as a cop for Hallowe’en) introduced himself, informed me I had been going 58mph in a 45mph zone, asked for my license and registration, then took both back to his car to make sure all was well with my driving record. He returned relatively quickly and reported he was just giving us a warning, then proceeded to tell us that the salmon were still running and where we could go to see them. We also learned he had moved out to Alaska from northern California where he had a different career and decided to become a state trooper. Since he looked be about 17, his previous career must have been as a lemonade stand entrepreneur. All in all, it was a lovely encounter, and we chatted a while before he went on his way.

 

Before going into the store, I wanted to straighten the car in the parking spot, which was somewhat askew due to the emergent nature of needing to stop quickly. The car revved up but would not move a single inch either backward or forward. Somehow, during the encounter with the law, I had managed to turn on the apparently very effective parking brake. This was quite clever of me since I had no idea where the parking brake was. I finally found it, and soon we were in and out of the convenience store and back on the road.

 

Darkness had truly fallen by the time we reached our Airbnb at about 9:45pm. We unloaded everything from the car and settled in for a good chat. A couple of hours later, aside from a couple of short naps on my first flight, I had been up for almost 24 hours, so we headed to bed. What a full travel day – let Girls Weekend begin!!