Seldovia

John and I, and our friends Harlan and Sue, took a day cruise from Homer to Seldovia. Here is a map of our boat's path:

It was a three hour cruise, and the first crew member we met was named Ginger. Hmmm. That gave us pause, but two amazingly good Bloody Marys later, coupled with a complete lack of any crew members named Skipper or Gilligan made us forget all about the Minnow. We would have been bad castaways, anyway -- we had forgotten to pack our best sequined dresses, and Mrs. Howell would never have forgiven us.

On the way out, we passed Gull Island, which was in reality a few small islands all covered with birds: seagulls predominated, but also cormorants and puffins could be seen covering any flat, dry parcels of land.

We had three hours in Seldovia itself, a town that is only accessible by boat or by air. We initially thought we'd have to really rush around, but after we docked, had lunch, and saw pretty much the entire town we still were looking at an hour before the boat left for the return trip. Seldovia is that small.

Seldovia's population is somewhat around 300 full time residents, but they have one event each May that draws huge crowds: the Craft Invitational Chainsaw Carving Competition. While we were not here to see the festival, the wood carvings from prior years adorn many homes and businesses in town. Here were a few:

The people of Seldovia also decorated all the garbage cans and fire hydrants with unique paintings:

We spent the last bit of time going through the grocery store/art gallery, where a bag of Stacey's Pita Chips was $9.99 and the art gallery was a back room next to the abandoned meat counter, with amateur canvases covering all the available wall space.

On the way back, we saw a couple of sea otters having their lunch, floating in the bay and using their bellies as a very convenient table:

The scenery was lovely, the wildlife fun to see, but when we left we felt this carving said it all:

"I'm Otter Here!"