We rented a car and drove to Homer and then to Seward. Our journey was rainy most of the route, but the views were still charming.

We saw a few moose, including two running across an open area. We tried to turn around and find them, but they must have disappeared into the trees.

Here’s a moose we found enjoying some food in the aptly named Moose River.

We drove past a sign that said 219 moose have been killed on Kenai Peninsula roads since last July. That’s so many moose! Some areas have fencing to encourage the moose towards safer areas.

Some parts of our journey had previously been burned in wildfires a few years ago.

We learned that moose lose their antlers every year and grow them back. It is early in the season, so none of the moose have antlers yet. We thought we were only seeing girl moose. The way to differentiate the moose is by their size, but it’s hard to know the size of a moose from far away. To me, they all are big moose.

Here you can see the mountains just barely uncovered from the clouds. This is the view right before heading into Homer.

It’s not salmon season just yet, but there are a lot of fishing boats and tour companies gearing up for the season.

Here’s a cool view from the Homer Spit, which is a really cool area on this long strip of land at the very end of Homer.

We wanted to at least patron one place in Homer before heading to our accomodation, so we went to Salty Dawg Saloon. The inside was covered in dollar bills. The bartender estimated it is 50 to 60 thousand dollars worth on the walls. Of course we added a dollar bill!

Mom beat me at pool. She is the Alaska champion.

We are tired and head to our inn. With over 17 hours of daylight, the sun sets very late and rises really early. Here’s the view at bedtime. It is still very bright. All of the places have great blackout curtains.

In the morning, we woke up and drove to Seward. We wanted to visit the Alaska SeaLife Center. On the way, we stopped and met a man at the lake, watching bald eagles with his two dogs.

The lake is nearby the local dump which apparently attracts bears and eagles. We didn’t see any bears, but we saw some eagles. Here’s a mama bald eagle and her baby chicks, I think he said they were two or 3 year olds.

Here’s a one year old bald eagle in a tree waiting for its mama to come back. It isn’t independent enough to wait on the ice so it is left in a tree.

Here’s another pretty view on the journey.

And here’s an even prettier view. It’s us!

When we got to the SeaLife Center, in Seward, we learned a lot about the marine life in Alaska.

Here’s a view of the birds being fed. There are a variety of puffins and eiders.

If you wanna hear more facts about the sea life, check out my mom’s blog (rtwstreets.com)

Here’s a beautiful and weird bird, a male king eider. He’s got a cool face and cool wings.

There were underwater creatures that you got to gently touch. Sea cucumbers are softer than you think! Also anemones are sticky!

We met a man in a coffeeshop advertising the Salmon and Song Festival in Seward this weekend. It sounded really cool. Unfortunately we aren’t in town for the festival, but we have told any traveler we have met that is headed to Seward to check it out.

We are headed back to return the car in Anchorage!