We waited until Sunday to take the Seldovia Tour on the Rainbow because the weather was supposed to be really nice.
It rained the entire time.
We still had fun, despite spending more time inside the boat than out of it, and walking around in the rain once we got there. We saw a lot of birds (who, en masse, are very stinky) and a few otters. Once we arrived at Seldovia, we ate lunch in town with Jim and Cyndy (and Koren, who had spent the night with his grandparents). Jim and Cyndy then taxied us to the cabin in their boat so our guests could see what rustic cabin life was like (we call it camping for yuppies).
We all enjoyed each other’s company and Koren even got in a small nap.
But seriously, Alaska? You’d better bring out the sun for 4th of July or I’m going to have to open a serious can.
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Friday afternoon, we took the kids to the Islands and Oceans Visitor Center for some hands-on learning, followed by a short hike down to the marsh.
The hiking trail goes down to the Two Sisters Bakery, which is one of our favorite places in Homer. We didn’t get to stop there this time, but had enjoyed the Two Sisters baked goods for breakfast that morning.
The Islands and Oceans visitor center is not very large, but provides lots of things for kids to touch and play with so they can learn about the culture and wildlife of Alaska.
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For a small town, Homer offers a variety of activities for children. Friday, we dropped Koren off at “school” and let Kaelin play hookie so she and Madelyn could go to the Wynn Nature Center.
Every Friday, the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies (for some reason I can never remember that name) has a preschool program at the Wynn Nature Center, which is a little cabin at the top of the hill. This time, the girls learned about fresh water and that it’s important to preserve fresh water because there isn’t all that much of it. They took a short hike to a nearby stream to look at the fresh water and all the things that live in and around it.
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This past week we were blessed to have our friends from Texas - Michael, Valerie, and their daughter Madelyn - come to visit us. It was wonderful to see good friends again and to show them around.
Kaelin was beyond thrilled to see her friend Maddy and the two were inseparable the entire time. Koren was never far behind and the girls were really great about including him. He has officially adopted Maddy as his second sister.
Our first order of business was to tour the Homer Spit:
Note: Hey, New Feature! I finally got my Full Screen function to work, so if you want to see the Large pictures, click the “Full Screen” button in the bottom-right of the slideshow below. It loads a little slower, but worth it in my opinion.
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