he Sterling Highway sweeps through the city of Homer, cutting across the "original" town. To see Homer properly, therefore, it is a good idea to find the original Main Street and wander through the center of town. Homer is on a hill, and the spectacular views of the Bay are reflected in the names of its streets: "Skyline Drive," "City View," "Island View," "Mountain View," and even (registering a slight pang of disappointment) "No View."

Homer is located on Kachemak Bay, home of the biggest estuary scientific research reserve in America, totalling 365,000 acres. (An estuary, by the way, occurs when the tide flows into the broad mouth of a river.) Homer is also a former coal-producing town. There is still so much coal around that you can pick it up for fuel. The Homer Spit, a natural feature which extends several miles out into the Bay, once had a railroad track that carried the coal. Todoay, the Spit is a busy area, full of shops, boardwalks, charter boat operations, and other businesses. This photograph shows a floatplane on Beluga Lake at the entrance to the Homer Spit.