Saturday, June 30: Sun’s out today—yeah! Coolish, but a beautiful day on Beluga Lake. (It connects to Cook Inlet, a huge arm of the Pacific that extends along the Kenai Peninsula all the way up to Anchorage. The lake was damned up during WWII to make a floatplane runway for military planes. There is a small stream and marshland between the lake and the inlet now. The Aleutians, which curve out from Alaska across the inlet from Homer are the south demarcation of the Bering Sea/Pacific.) Spent a nice quiet morning blogging while Ron took a run to the grocery and out to Emmons out on the end of the Spit arranging for them to come to supper. The lodge we are at has space for entertaining and Ron wants to make stir-fry. A quick lunch and we’re off to the Island and Oceans Museum to meet the Emmons; Sue and I want to do the museum, and the guys and Airen have an rv appointment and then will check out the Farmer’s Market. The museum is new and very informative about the land and the animals and plants here and how humans have affected them. We attended a workshop on the effect of trash on the oceans (the Japanese tsunami garbage is on the way!), how it moves and how it harms the birds by mimicking food. There’s a nice walk down to Bishop’s Beach (named after a local settler); we see sandhill cranes and lots of gulls. People are not allowed to feed them here though. While the rest go back to our place to start supper and hang out, Sue and I go to the Pratt Museum in Homer. It has artifacts and stories that tell the history of the people here, several aquariums of marine invertebrates and exhibits of local artists. We especially enjoy the gardens of local biomes, (photo is a shooting star) and a settler’s cabin that includes stories of how the family that built it helped out newcomers and those down on their luck. Ron’s dinner turns out great; there is much laughing and story-telling, and the Emmons especially enjoy watching the float planes taking off and landing. The Emmons are heading for Seward tomorrow so we won’t see them till July 3 in Anchorage. Such a nice day with friends—and to bed.

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