It turns out Eureka has an escape room and you can go there at nine in the morning. We did so!
The owner said that for the early morning slots, he mostly got tourists doing one last thing before they got out of town.
It was just the two of us, which was nice, as doing escape rooms with strangers is awkward. We escaped, and I enjoyed the variety of puzzles. The clues given came at just the right time.
We also happened upon the Wooden Sculpture Garden of Romano Gabriel, which is kept safe inside in a building downtown.
There was a lot to look at.
And I got my fortune told!
Dispatch from six months later: I do not believe I have yet received a letter that has changed the course of my life. Also, I think I’m hardwired already to avoid the flatterers. And I do wonder if I had played again, as the fortune teller commands me to do, would the next fortune have contradicted this one?
I think Los Bagels was our best find on the trip. The bagels were delicious, the cream cheese was generous, and they even sold “slugs” in honor of the slugs that abound in the county.
Also, if you’re looking for Mexican/Jewish-inspired things, Los Bagels is your place.
And there she is! The Carson Mansion, now home to the Ingomar Club. You can see it by googling Eureka California, or just go to Eureka and see it in person. Though only from the street. The Ingomar Club is a private club.
I looked for information about this private club and there wasn’t much. Here is a link to a 1995 newspaper story in which the articles lists a $3,500 initiation fee and $130/month dues (which includes $50 worth of food). The club at the time was males only and required formal wear.
The view from this side shows some additions, cleverly hidden from the front view.
A detail of the house.
Leaving the Carson House, here is another mural, this one giving us a view of the house it blocks.
I enjoyed the name of this shop.
Los Bagels was my favorite Eureka find. Their bagels and cream cheese were delicious!
Here’s a handy Eureka plaque.
Having purchased bagels and cream cheese for our breakfast, I headed back to the room.
Advantage to staying in Eureka instead of Crescent City? The Humbolt County Fair coincided with our visit. The Del Norte County Fair was the previous weekend.
To the fair we went!
After our hike and drive through the Avenue of the Giants, we started with some fair food. Matt got some Pad Thai and I got a street hot dog which I had to eat quickly because the stuff on it was making the bun get soggy, but it was quite delicious!
I love a good “any other vegetable” category
Waiting for the start of the Ukel Aliens concert.
The Ukel Aliens turned out to be rad. Someday I’m going to have enough time to be in a community band that plays and sings songs from my younger years.
Look at how much fun they are having! They sounded great too. The woman on the right is Spanky McFarlane who sang, among other things “Sunday Will Never be the Same” with Spanky and Our Gang. She was a guest singer.
Having enjoyed the Ukle Aliens, we headed into the 4-H barn to watch a bit of the pig judging. I love their 4-H uniforms.
This girl eventually sensed I was taking photos.
A picture of a cow is required for all fair visits with livestock shows. I love how pretty the animals look at the fair. And I know they do not look like that on a day-to-day basis.
Into the handmade goods, I found this quilt, which should probably be the eighth wonder of the world.
I’m quite curious as to how it’s maker came by all the crown royal bags. Just the 15 in the bottom row would be more than a lifetime’s consumption of the blended whisky for me. I stand in awe of this quilt.
Some good race car driving.
Then we discovered the Willamette Pie company, which is from our neck of the woods, but which we could not resist.
I got Marionberry pie a la mode, and Matt got an ice cream sandwich. I would have liked smaller portions. However, both items were delicious!
We attended a performance of Special Head. His website says that Special Head “is an Entertainer, specializing in Magic, Levitation, Music, and Performance art. ” (I question the capitalization in that sentence.)
We didn’t know who Special Head (the guy on the right) was, but free shows are fun. Partway through his act an “audience member” started heckling Special Head and eventually joined him on stage.
And eventually showed off his cowboy skills.
Special Head’s act was hampered by a light rain. A few tricks didn’t work because of it, but both performers played off the hitches in their routine as best they could, which made the comedy even funnier.
Although at one point, Special Head said to the cowboy guy, well, at least your mother thinks you are doing well.” And by “your mother” he meant me. Which was not exactly how I was picturing our age demographic breakdown.
Special Head eventually convinces the cowboy to help out with the routine and we get the head in a box.
Plus, this full-on levitation.
Because we arrived early to the Uke Aliens show, we had time to people watch. The girl on the left in the picture above, and her brother were talking with the cowboy about tricks. They both demonstrated to him that they new how to make a pebble disappear from their hand by tossing it behind them.
“Well, there’s a little more nuance than that, but that’s essentially it,” he told them.
Matt and I debated if the kids were also audience plants, or just people who glommed onto the show. I was on the glomming side, Matt was on the plant side.
Special Head and his cowboy friend were a great part of the Humboldt County Fair.
I love starting a hike when we are the only car in the parking lot.
Our map. We didn’t make it terribly far on this trail. There was so much to do today!
Red Alders on the trail.
This sign is the reason I know the above are red alders. I really appreciated the signage on this trail.
Here’s a picture of an interpretive sign with a banana slug adding something extra to observe.
No salmon spawning today.
Matt on the trail.
Investigating in a big tree.
Disappearing into a big tree.
Climbing up into a big tree.
While my anemic lens cover retraction is mostly annoying, I kind of like how it all lined up here for this photo. (Also, am I even looking at the screen before I take the picture anymore? I really need to concentrate on taking a good photo.)
Our turnaround point.
This trail winds through a ghost town. This sign leads you off the trail to the site of the caretaker’s cottage. There’s a foundation, and the yew trees, but not much else.
I love this photo!
What a great hike! I’m glad there was a general hue and cry in the past and this site was preserved.
Having finished our hike, we headed south for the Avenue of the Giants. Also known as the World-Famous Avenue of the Giants.
The Avenue of the Giants is a scenic-type drive which used to be Highway 101, but now lives on as State Route 254. We started at the north end of the drive, which seems to be the backward way to do the drive. I assume most people are driving north from San Francisco.
This is where we started.
I liked a few things about the Avenue of the Giants. First of all, though we were there in peak season (albeit on a weekday) it was not at all crowded. Secondly, it had a variety of short hikes or wanderings you could pull off the road to take part in. This could easily be a full day trip. Third, the trees are amazing and the road is narrow, so it’s a very fun drive. And last but not least there are kitschy tourist opportunities galore. I love me a roadside tourist attraction.
A big tree. How big, do you ask?
This big!
Here we are inside a tree.
And here’s Matt inside a tree.
This was a clever monument to two preservationists. The marker celebrating their efforts to preserve the redwoods was located far off the main road, so to see it, you had to walk through the redwoods they preserved.
More tall trees.
More of Matt in trees.
Hark! We found the sign. The sign says: Laura Perrott Mahan 1867–1937, James P. Mahan 1867–1937. Pioneers in the Save-the-Redwoods League. The California State Park Commission has dedicated to their memory this site where on Nov-19-1924 Mr. and Mrs. Mahan discovered that logging had begun and led the moment that resulted in the saving of this grove.
No matter how he stretches, Matt cannot reach the high water mark from 1964.
Some history of early preservationists.
Some information about the people who were there first.
Including a closeup of the photo. I love the grin on “child’s” face.
We drove through a tree! This is not us, because we were in our car. But unless your car is small, it’s wise to have a guide through the tree. We scraped the passenger side mirror. Not too badly. Before we left, we ran through the tree and that was even more fun.
That same site had some tree houses for children to play in.
Which gave us an opportunity to pose.
Also the children could step through a tree.
The view from inside.
The Avenue of Giants was a great way to see the redwoods and to get my fill of tourist trap stuff. Having now hiked and hit a major tourist marker, we moved on to our next activity: the Humbolt County Fair!
After our kayak trip, we ate and then started the 90-minute drive back to Eureka. We got tired at the halfway point, so pulled off to have a nap on the beach.
Here’s the building where we are staying. I love the mural on the side. Much more than I loved our room.
The building is partially artist’s studios and there are also four rooms to stay in. I had fun wandering through the halls and I think at least one artist lived in her studio full time.
Due to the fact we were staying 90 minutes away from the place we thought we were staying, we cancelled one other planned activity, but we decided to still do the half-day kayak trip.
This meant getting out the door at six a.m. and retracing our tracks from where we had been. But we did it.
We were picked up at a gas station and taken to our launch point. First, we picked out jackets and life jackets. Matt is excited.
(I have no idea what that black shape in the upper right corner of the picture is.)
We kayaked for a spell. It was the first time either of us had done so. Aside from our guide, our group consisted of a father and daughter who had experience kayaking in bays. The woman was from Portland.
The day was nice and the river was low, so it was a leisurely trip. Halfway in, we got out to do a short walk through the redwoods.
Our guide grew up on the Smith River, which is the only free-flowing river in California. He showed us the rock where he got married that summer, and the house he grew up in, which overlooked the river. The next day, he was starting back as an eighth grade English teacher.
He was a great guide and gave us lots of good information about the trees.
It was very cool how the redwoods loomed.
This platform was built to protect the tree’s root structure. It’s fairly shallow.
Since Redwoods don’t have a tap root, they can keep growing even when their center rots out. Hence the ability to drive through trees.
Or stand inside a still-growing tree.
After that, it was back in the water. I enjoyed kayaking and would like to do it again someday.
Here we are, ready to go! Matt looks a little more ready than I do.
We stopped for a quick picture in front of this Coast Guard light house station.
Our next stop was the John Dellenback Dunes Trail.
Matt wanted to hike all the way to the beach and back but 1)hiking on sand is not my favorite thing and 2)the sign said to allow five hours (FIVE HOURS!) to do this and I was already hungry for lunch.
We did a loop instead.
Thanks to a hot tip from the Oregonian, we stopped for fish and chips at the Bandon Bait Shop.
It was a full-on bait shop that also offered food. Someone had collected a variety of those plastic figures that move when the sun hits them.
The Oregonian did not steer us wrong. This was an excellent plate of fish and chips. It also came with ketchup, which I gave to Matt. He gave me his tarter sauce.
Then a good meal called for a good dessert.
This was the place where I was thinking about getting fudge, but then noticed the workers loading dry powder into a fudge “machine.” I chose ice cream instead. I can make real fudge at home.
Onward to California!
In fun vacation planning news, we planned our vacation around Crescent City, where we were staying. A week before we left, I discovered that though we had made a reservation for a place in what I thought was Crescent City, we had actually made a reservation for a place in Eureka.
Both of us are terrible vacation planners. The trip to Eurika added another 90 minutes of driving and turned a short day’s drive into a long day’s drive.
Gene Stupnitsky’s Good Boys is a hilarious capturing of sixth grade boys who know exactly how very young they are as they navigate the choppy waters of middle school.* All three leads are brilliant, and this is the kind of boy movie baked in the Apatow mold: boys have feelings, their lives and friendships are complex, and there are a lot of reasons to cry. I loved the adventure, but what made this movie incredibly funny was their nascent understanding of life.**
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: $15.00 Where watched: Studio One Theaters (this is a new theater and my first time visiting. It’s very fancy and not that much more than a non-discount Regal admission.) (Although I rarely pay full price at Regal)
*When we watched the preview, I thought it looked like a very funny movie. I also felt torn, because I think tweens should stay children for much longer than they do, and I think this R-rated film will propel that age group in the opposite direction of my preference. **This carried out in a number of ways, but is most hilarious in the verbal realm, such as the use of the term “social piranha” and thinking that a misogynist has something to do with giving massages.
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
In the opening Point Grey logo, one of the things written on a school desk is “Thor=Sippy Cup,” which later becomes a film plot point. (I noticed this!)
