Alaska Day 16

Our last full day in Alaska and it is pouring. We intended to spend the day in Homer—a beach town—but I just looked at the forecast and it appears there will be no break in the rain. It’s not like we were planning to spend the day sitting on a beach—it’s too cold for that. But a walk through town and on the beach is what I had been looking forward to. Not sure what we will do if the downpour continues. It is still really early so maybe the rain won’t be as bad later. I just couldn’t sleep anymore but the rest of my family is sleeping soundly. It is the coldest morning we have had in the car so far. Even with the sleeping bag I am chilly.

Homer had potential. I thought I would like it.

It’s right on the bay with snow capped mountains on the horizon when you look towards the water, but it was—dare I say—just too touristy. And the spit was an unsavory combination of run down and ultra touristy. After breakfast at the Galley Cafe—the eggs were okay but the home fries were just deep fried potatoes—we tried to find a beach where we could swim. A quick dive in and get wet because it will absolutely be freezing. But it’s low tide and getting to the water would require too long of a walk in the cold. Plus low tide means shallow water, not easy to submerge one’s entire body. G3 was disappointed and angry that the tide was not more agreeable, but I have no control over it. It is what it is. At the end of the spit there was actually water to swim in but so many fishermen I didn’t think it was safe. I didn’t want either of us to end up getting hurt by a rusty stray hook. Since we were on the spit,

I wanted to wander into a couple of the gift shops. There was a time G3 liked stopping into the tacky tourist shops, but not today. The whole time he walked with me he criticized the shops and me until I got so fed up with his commentary I returned to the car.

Bear Creek Winery is the only winery in Alaska so you know we needed to pay them a visit. It’s not warm enough in Alaska to grow grapes so they import grape juice from Canada for their more traditional grape wines. However, they also make wine from various Alaskan berries. Both Kati and I did a tasting while G3 grumbled about it. The server asked if G3 wanted a soda but he just complained about that so he did not get one. The wines—the more traditional and the Alaskan berry—were not very good. Neither Kati nor I had any desire to purchase a bottle. Most of them were too sweet. But we did enjoy chatting with the woman who sat next to us. She is from Pennsylvania, and she and her husband are in Alaska with a caravan of motor homes. With this caravan they drove across the US and up into Canada before entering Alaska.  When she left we chatted with the server. She was born in Ohio, but when she was five her mother moved to Kenai. She loves living in Alaska but hates Ohio, which she occasionally revisits for family reunions.

As much as I love the beach, I could not live in Homer. Like many places in Alaska, it seems to be a blend of dilapidated and catering to wealthy tourists. You can charter a boat—or a  plane—to just about anywhere, especially to national parks that are inaccessible by road. The cost, as you can imagine, is prohibitive for most people. Homer is also so remote I think even I could go a little stir crazy. Plus, if I lived near a beach, I would need it to be warm enough to go swimming at least a few months of the year. I ldon’t care for fishing and you all know how I feel about boats, so boating and fishing just wouldn’t cut it for me.

The weather forecast was wrong. While the clouds never did clear, it did stop raining. As we drove north from Homer, we stopped at Ninilchik Beach because G3 wanted to go swimming in the sea in Alaska. The beach is on the Cook Inlet which connects to the Gulf of Alaska. The air temperature was 50 degrees. The water temperature was much colder. Of course, I couldn’t let G3 be the only one to defy the cold, so I too changed into my swimsuit and ran into the water. Yes, I ran because it’s always best not to give yourself the option of slowly discovering how cold the water might be because then common sense might have time to set in. If you decide to swim in the cold it’s always best to plunge in quickly. Years ago, when I was young and stupid, I was in Busan, Korea with friends in February. I had never gone swimming in the Sea of Japan and decided I need to change that. One friend and I stripped down to our underwear and dove in. Our other friend thought we were insane. She was probably right. Anyway, today’s swim wasn’t quite as intense as that, but it was extremely cold. As I ran back out of the water—shivering—a woman said to me, “My husband said it was too cold for anyone to go swimming today. I told him people around here are tough.” I am glad I went in, especially since I wasn’t cold for long. The heat in the car warmed me up quickly.

The rain returned and so we left the Kenai Peninsula. There wasn’t much to do in foul weather, but Anchorage has a movie theater. We would have liked a campfire our last night in Alaska, but if I could control the weather so much could have been different. At least we had a few fires early on. G3 wanted to see Young Washington and since the other movies we want to see this summer are not yet out we saw Young Washington. There were no president houses to see on this trip so perhaps it’s appropriate we saw a movie about a president instead. Also, we watched a movie after our first full day in Alaska,

so it somehow seems fitting to watch another after our last full day.

I am a harsh critic when it comes to movies,

mostly because it’s hard for me to find ones that engage me and hold my interest. Young Washington, however, is a movie about history, and therefore had strong potential from the start. Without pulling apart the more minute details, the movie, for the most part, was historically accurate. (I would give a spoiler alert under normal circumstances, but I trust you are all well versed enough in history that nothing I say will spoil the movie more than your own knowledge.) While Washington was a loyalist in 1755, one can see how he might have started to question that loyalty. What Washington wanted more than anything else was a commission in the Royal Army. If he had not been denied, the course of American history might have been very different. I appreciated the fact that the movie highlighted Washington’s early failure, his seemingly incompetence, because it demonstrates that victory and/or success isn’t always immediate. Failure oftentimes breeds success—if one learns from their mistakes. The best line in the movie was in the first five minutes when George’s older brother is teaching him how to play chess and George asks him who on the board they are and his brother answers, “We are paws.” He then adds, “But a pawn can take a king.” While that is not necessarily relevant for this movie, we all know how Older George’s story goes. We all enjoyed the movie. It was much better than Supergirl. If you like movies, go see it, even if history is not your favorite subject. It was very well directed, the pacing was perfect, and not once did I find my attention slipping. Thank you G3 for insisting we see it.

Anyone care to guess where we are sleeping tonight? Yep, you got it. After so many nights in the car what is one more? While it wasn’t raining when we left the theater, it started raining soon after and none of us want to pack up a wet tent tomorrow only to have to pack it to come home. So another night cramped up in the car, followed by a red eye flight home, but I’m getting used to having little sleep. I hate when our trips draw to an end and I hate having to return to New Jersey ,but now there are two things I can look forward on Thursday: seeing my kitties and laying flat when I go to sleep.