Don't miss the Pratt, and try to see it soon after you get to town. It will give you a hands-on grounding in the region's natural and cultural history that you can apply throughout your stay. Surprises lie in wait for you here at every turn. Look up and there's the front end of a Dall sheep, or the skeleton of a whale, or a kayak over you head. Look down and there’s another drawer to look into. This one has samples of the coal, the shale and the sandstone you'll see when you stroll Bishop's Beach. That one has the contents of a 2,000-year-old midden, a prehistoric garbage pile that reveals the early people of Kachemak Bay ate things still served in Homer today (clams, halibut, salmon) and some things that aren't (beluga whales, murres, sea lions). Pick up the receiver of an early model telephone and listen to a homesteader talking pickled eggs. Pick up the receiver of a marine radio and listen to Capt. Joseph Hazelwood notifying the Coast Guard that the Exxon Valdez is hard aground. Pull a bright orange survival suit from a bin, and see if you can get into it in 30 seconds, which is about how much time you'd get if your fishing trawler were to suddenly start going down. Outside, don't miss touring the garden for a chance to learn about local botany.