Seldovia, A Historic Fishing Community - Sunday, August 14, 2022

Our tour today was supposed to be with Rainbow Tours on a Rainbow boat as you may remember from yesterday's blog. When we arrived at the dock this morning, we found out we had been moved to a different boat, the Seldovia Tours "Discovery." Don't know what happened with the other tour company. [NOTE: I looked up the tour companies and found out that Rainbow Tours and Seldovia Tours are the same company. Just call me Sherlock.]

Seldovia Tours boat, "Discovery."

Extremely low tides have made the boat ramps to the docks very steep the past few days. Take a look at how steep the ramp was this morning. We'll look at it again this afternoon.

Low tide on the Homer Spit. Look at
the incline on that ramp!

We waited on the dock an extra half hour in Homer because ONE FAMILY was late on our pretty full tour boat. That didn't sit well with us. We were traveling to Seldovia to eat lunch, explore the town, and walk to the beach on a boardwalk. We were also supposed to "explore the fjords of Sadie Cove" (which we did not do). Instead, the captain pointed to where the fjord was as we passed by in the boat. It was advertised we'd have three hours in Seldovia, and we did.

Upon leaving Homer's marina, we saw the ferry Tustumena anchored at the dock.

Once in Kachemak Bay, we spent a lot of time bird-watching and looking for the elusive humpback whale that never showed us anything but its hump and its fluke. 

We enjoyed seeing the Tufted and Horned Puffins and Common Murres on the Gull Island rookery in Kachemak Bay. We also saw Glaucous-winged Gulls, Pigeon Guillemots, Black-legged Kittiwakes, an Oystercatcher, and a number of Bald Eagles.

Puffin swimming.

Kenai Mountains.

Gull Island Rookery.

Common Murre.

A group of puffins is known as a circus, a colony, a puffinry, a burrow, a gathering, or an improbability.

A group of puffins.

Enlarge to see the Oystercatcher.
It has a red bill.

The birds in a row on the top right
are Common Murres. They frequently
stand shoulder-to-shoulder like penguins.

Double-crested Cormorants.

A little later, we saw a raft of sea otters. I think they are incredibly adorable!

Part of the raft of sea otters.

Did you know? Sea otters are known to wrap their pups and themselves in kelp to keep them from floating out to sea.

In the foreground are lots and lots
of sea otters!

A bald eagle.

Formation name: "Man banging his
head against a wall."

Below is a photo of a very rare geologic occurrence. I didn't have anything to write with so I can't remember what it's called. Apparently, for the two disparate types of rock below to meld so seamlessly, they had to be superheated.

A unique rock formation.

Bald eagle on top of the rock.

A sea arch.

We weren't very excited when the captain decided they had to net one plastic bottle out of the bay. That took 10-15 minutes by the time she got the boat back into a position where a crew member could then reach down with a net to scoop up the plastic bottle. I guess it's good for the ecology, but not so good for our time in Seldovia.

We discussed where we would have lunch with some of our friends from the caravan. Six of us decided to go to Linwood Grill "Where You Otter Be." Our plan was to be the first group off the boat and hustle to the restaurant to beat the rush. However, Bob talked to the crew on the boat and they gave him a set of menus. They told him we can call ahead and our food will be ready for us when we get there. Yay, great plan. So that's what we did, called in the order before the boat docked. Genius!

Port of Seldovia.

Port of Seldovia.

As soon as we could, we headed into town. There's a lot of art in Seldovia, especially wood carvings. Seldovia is a small, coastal community that is only accessible by air or boat. There is a small grocery store in Seldovia. The grocery store gets shipments once a week or so. There is also a guy in Anchorage who puts together Costco orders for people and ships them to Seldovia for a fee. They also can order from Amazon, but it takes two weeks to receive orders from Amazon. 

Puffin, sea star, and 
otter carving.

Carving on Linwood 
Grill's front porch.

Their motto sold me on this place, 
"Where you otter be!"

Wood carving on Linwood
Grill's back deck.

Wood carving on Linwood
Grill's back deck.

Their cute menu.

Inside Linwood Grill.

Charlene and Rick.

Joan and Joe.

Linwood Bar: "Drink Like a Local."

We had an excellent lunch with great service. All of us would definitely return here if we came back. 

After lunch, it was raining. Bob and I wanted to go to the museum, explore the town, and had hoped to walk to the beach on the boardwalk. Turns out, we didn't have enough time to make it to the beach. 

The Crab Pot Grocery looks like
it's undergoing renovations.

Instead, we looked in a shop, took photos of the wood carvings, visited the museum, walked the historic boardwalk in town, and went to the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1891 with a bell tower added in 1906. 

A very cute gallery with fun gifts!

Asta Gallery's front porch.

Inside Asta Gallery.

Annie, the gallery cat.

An Orca and a sea lion. The Orca
must be having a "Snack Attack."

John and Lorraine in Seldovia.

Bob in front of the Visitor Center.

Joan and Joe at the Visitor Center.
Our coats match the color scheme.

Whale carving outside the 
Visitor Center.

Carved porch seat with
footrest.

Carved otter on the floor of the
Visitor Center

The next three photos are places to visit in Seldovia.

We really wanted to do this hike to
The Outside Beach.

We made it here, but we couldn't
go inside to see the artifacts.

We, unfortunately, did not make it here.

The gorgeous stained glass window is in 
the Visitor Center.

There are a lot of photos of displays in the museum. Read them if you're interested, skip them if you're not. You will have to enlarge them to read most of them.

See "Seldovia Scenes" below.

Next, we walked to the Historic Boardwalk. 

A carved anglerfish.

Where Seldovia's farmers market
is held.

Carvings on a front porch.

Eagle carving in a 
front yard.

Seldovia's historic boardwalk.

Reflections.

The tide is way out. Usually, these
houses are reflected in the water.

Artistic birdhouse.

Thyme on the Boardwalk, garden
nursery and gift shop.

Thyme on the Boardwalk, garden
nursery and gift shop.

A bench that matches the St. Nicholas
Russian Orthodox Church colors.

Hermit crab carving.

Boot planters.

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign."

Mermaid crossing.

Muted reflections due to the rain.

The tide's coming in sufficiently to 
see the reflections. 

This bridge is made out of wood.

Stilt houses in Seldovia.

On the other end of the
historic boardwalk.

Central Park wood carving.

A large, carved mosquito in front of a
business.

Carved husky.

Central Park wood carving.

Central Park wood carving.

This appears to be a raven and
a raspberry.

The front of the owl carving.

Stairs up to St. Nicholas Russian 
Orthodox Church.

The side and back of the
owl carving.

From the historic marker in front of the church, we read the following: "St. Nicholas is known to keep close watch on Seldovia's fishermen and sea farers--bringing them prosperity, peace, and safety. The church is one of the first things our fishermen see as they return home, and one of the last landmarks to fade from sight as they head out to sea."

From St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, we wandered back along the main street of town and down to the waterfront trail. 

Kachemak Bay Water Trail.

The Tustumena Ferry is now in 
Seldovia. It returns to Homer 1/2-hour
after we do.

This map shows coves, fjords, 
glaciers, bays, rivers, lakes, and trails.

The map below shows the trail we took to Grewingk Glacier Lake and then to our take-out point at #13 (the Saddle Trail).

A cute weather vane.

When we headed back to the Discovery at 3:50 pm, we saw jellyfish in the harbor.

Jellyfish.

Jellyfish.

Jellyfish.

We are headed aboard the Discovery for our ride back to the Homer Marina.

Goodbye to Seldovia's Marina.

Remember at the beginning of the blog I said how low the tide was in Homer? Compare that photo to the one below. You can see how much more level the ramp is now that the tide is almost all the way back in.

Homer Marina with the tide
coming in. Look at the ramp.

When we returned to the 5th wheel, Bob took off on a bike ride along the Homer Spit. I stayed in and edited photos and wrote a blog. TravelBug out.