Today, we took a water taxi to the other side of the bay so we could hike to Grewingk Glacier Lake in Kachemak Bay State Park. We hiked the 2.2 mile Glacier Lake Trail from Rusty’s Beach to the lake. The glacier flows right into the lake and you can see chunks of ice floating around. It’s an impressive sight, but we couldn’t help but compare it to the much more spectacular glacial lagoon in Iceland. After a quick lunch, we hiked back to the saddle trail to meet our water taxi for the return trip. Valerie was cold after the hike, so we stopped by Two Sisters Bakery for some hearty soup.

Tomorrow, we’re headed north toward Denali National Park. Since it’s a long drive to Denali, we’ll probably break the drive into two segments and spend the night in Portage or Wasilla.

Today, we went on an all-day hike of Peterson Bay organized by the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. Our guides Caitlin and Rebecca were incredibly knowledgable about the area and the local flora and fauna. After a brief lunch stop at China Poot Beach, Valerie was excited to visit some tide pools, which are teeming with an almost unbelievable amount of life. On our way back from the tide pools, Valerie saw a black bear running away from us. This was our first (and hopefully last) on-foot encounter with a wild bear.

For dinner, we ate at AJ’s Steakhouse in Old Town. It was nice to take a break from seafood and the food and service were excellent.

Valerie’s parents have been looking for smoked salmon this entire trip. Fortunately, one of the fish shops in Seward pointed us to T-N-T Custom Smoke & Processing near Exit Glacier Road. We had stopped by T-N-T a couple days ago and were very happy with the high quality and relatively low price of their smoked salmon. Unfortunately, at the time, they didn’t have any cans of smoked salmon in stock. Luckily, they found some for us and we stopped by in the morning and picked up several cans and a few vacuum-sealed packages of smoked fish.

Afterward, we packed up the rental car, dumped the RV for the last time, said our goodbyes, and split up from Valerie’s parents. We ate lunch at Chinooks at the small boat harbor before leaving town. Their fish was delicious.

A couple days ago, we stopped at the Safeway in Seward and I couldn’t help but ogle the baked goods, but Valerie convinced me not to buy any. Later, Valerie discovered online that the baked goods at the Seward Safeway are better than an average Safeway, so we went back and loaded up for our drive to Homer.

We’re staying at the Majestic View Bed & Breakfast up the hill in Homer. It’s a bit of a drive up the hill from Old Town Homer or Homer Spit, but offers great views of the bay and the spit.

For dinner, we ate at Two Sisters Bakery in Old Town. Their kimchi pancake (made with homemade kimchi) was surprisingly tasty. Unfortunately, they were out of their famous sticky buns. We’ll need to come back another day.

In the morning, Valerie’s parents boarded a cruise of the Kenai Fjords. Valerie and I slept in and then couldn’t decide what to do. At the last minute, Valerie decided that she too wanted to take a cruise, and we quickly walked to the small boat harbor and boarded a shorter cruise of Resurrection Bay. During the cruise, we saw a few glaciers, some orcas, a humpback whale, and many birds, including a couple eagles. (Valerie says she saw a flying puffin.) At the outer edge of the bay, the water was very choppy and the boat rocked enough to knock all of the stuff off of our table. Overall, I think the cruise of Prince William Sound was more enjoyable because of the calmer waters.

We returned to port about an hour before Valerie’s parents. Their cruise was much more rocky than ours and Valerie’s mom became quite seasick. Tomorrow, Valerie and I are splitting up from Valerie’s parents. They are driving the RV to Anchorage to return it to Great Alaskan Holidays while we will be driving the rental car west to Homer.