Homer's Best Bets </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 6:23 PM on Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Homer's Best Bets

Sail into most any harbor around the world, and mariners will find many of the same things: working boats, fishing buoy middens, rock jetties, old pilings, rowdy bars, squawking gulls and on every roof ridge, white bird poop. The size and character of boats might vary, from Chinese junks to sleek white yachts, but every harbor calls home to the seafarer.

The planet's oceans unite every port. Let slip the mooring line, and the world is your oyster and your boat the only ticket you'll need. With enough fuel, enough wind, you can go anywhere and everywhere.

Photographer: Michael Armstrong, Homer News

Thanks, little sis Homer Flex High School graduate Tara Finney, right, kisses her little sister Shady after ceremonies last Wednesday at Land's End Resort. Eight Flex students attended the graduation ceremony, which featured no valedictorian speech and no formal commencement address.

Twice this month big white cruise ships have sailed into Homer, here for a day and off to new horizons. What must it be like to round Pogibshi Point and come into Kachemak Bay? Do wayfaring strangers stare at Grewingk Glacier dipping down to the beach? Do they hope for breaching whales, spyhopping seals or curious otters? Do they sip coffee on the deck and wonder about the people they'll meet, the things they'll see and the stories they'll hear?

"Too rough and too weird to be a tourist trap," the New York Times called Homer. We're not your average cruise ship destination. Most of our visitors come from land, driving out the long narrow Spit. We don't have rows of shops yards from the Pioneer Dock. The walk to Spit Central takes visitors past the Coast Guard's buoy yard, by fish buying sheds and a campground. The first photo op is the Seafarers Memorial, a reminder that like our harbormaster says, this is a working port, where men and women pay the ultimate price for the promise of riches.

Sail away, visitors. See us again, perhaps. We're glad to see you if only for a day. Stay a bit longer next time, and if you do, there's always plenty to do, like some of these Best Bets:

BEST ONE LAST CHANCE: Sure, school might be out for summer, but the boys and girls of the diamond are still at it. Catch the Mariner boys baseball team when they take on Palmer at noon Saturday at Karen Hornaday Park. The girls head up to Soldotna for a 6 p.m. game Friday if you're up for a road trip.

BEST BOOK BY BOOK BET: Libraries get built book by book, but before that, it's block by block and shelf by shelf. Help Anchor Point build its new library with a Fiesta Fundraiser from 4:30-7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Anchor Point Senior Center.

BEST BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND BET: One of the pleasures of having great musicians come visit us again is to see how they've changed and gotten better. Greg Brown has been wowing Homer since he was only most excellent. The guy just keeps getting better and better. Singer, musician, storyteller, he's the original deal. Catch him at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Mariner Theatre. Local virtuosos Atz Kilcher and Richard Randall open. Tickets are $30 at the Homer Bookstore.

BEST BIG WIDE WORLD BET: Earth's a pretty big place, and its inhabitants are amazing and wonderful -- including the ones who travel by fluke or foot. Catch the amazing "Earth," DisneyNature's epic film, at the 6 p.m. Friday showing at Homer Theatre. Proceeds benefit the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust.

BEST BYE-BYE BET: This is the problem with Homer. Wonderful as it is, sometimes people need to move on for bigger adventures or opportunities. Say farewell to another good citizen when Marilyn Sigman, former executive director of the Center of Alaskan Coastal Studies, heads off to a new job in Anchorage. CACS throws her a big bash at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Peterson Bay Field Station. A ride over is $20 on the Rainbow Connection; call 235-6667 for reservations.

BEST BIG BEAT BET: Like to find music in the oddest everyday objects? Itching to explore sounds in the unusual as well as mundane? Check out Yngvil Vatn Guttu's Found Sound with Envirobeat workshop, starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Homer Council on the Arts. The workshop runs to 1 p.m. daily and continues 10 a.m.-1 p.m. June 4-5. Admission is $90 general, $75 HCOA members. Call 235-4288.

Homer's Best Bets