Humboldt County, CA

From Saturday, July 26, to Tuesday, July 29, Phillip and I were in Humboldt County. Yea North Coast!

There was a little trouble getting a room because of the fire evacuees (I didn't realize that the fires were so close as the news at home wasn't showing where they were), a wedding, and Hoopa's High School reunion. I'm glad that we didn't try to go the weekend before when there was an orientation at HSU!

We stayed at the Seaview Motel in McKinleyville (across from Six Rivers Saloon) our first night. While the motel appears as dumpy and old as I remember (there was trash piled in front of the "office"), the cabin we were in was kinda cute. Plus, it was way quieter than I'd have expected. The cabin was in an old west theme. In the common room w/ two beds and the tv was a lot of toys: those horse heads on sticks, "Toy Story" toys, and random old west stuff. In the kitchen, there were trivits w/ the shiloettes of cowboys on horses, a tiny stove that belonged on the frontier, and a cute pig head that was attached to the wall by the sink to hang dish towels on. The bedroom was less decorated as it had the bed and dressers, but it followed the theme. This room was important because it stored the lasso for which to practice roping a steer in the front yard. Sadly, I couldn't get Phillip to rope the steer, but I don't blame him. I didn't want to do it either, b/ I felt like I was being watched when out in the yard. The yard had some cactus, a bbq, and some more iron wall decorations.

The rest of our stay in the area was at the Holiday Inn Express in McKinleyville. This is the newish hotel by the airport, and there ain't nothin' around aside from the small business park that hasn't attracted any food. We stayed in one of the jacuzzi suites as it was one of a extremely short list of options. The jacuzzi was nice (I only wished that there were some jets up by my neck), the hotel staff was beyond nice, and the airport was not a noise concern (I'm fairly sure that there aren't a lot of planes landing once the fog rolls in).

Activities:

• "X-Files" movie at the "new" theater in McKinleyville. The theater was fairly small, but huge by McKinleyville standards.
• Lunch at Arcata Pizza and Deli. I told Phillip that they're known for their large portions, but I was not expecting to see the size of the calzone he ordered. I shall post that picture.
• HSU half-tour as the time on my meter ran out. We saw the dorms, bookstore, Founder's Hall, athletic area, and the library area. Construction on the streets by the psychology building prevented a driving tour of the rest of campus.
• The new weightroom on campus is HUGE. It's in the fieldhouse instead of the main gym. It has all new, fancy equipment, vaulted ceilings w/ skylights, and two receptionists who wouldn't let me take a picture for Heather and Ian.
• Trinidad, but it was foggy and we couldn't see the big rocks.
• Patrick's Point State Park was very busy. We walked out onto Wedding Rock and then down to Aggate Beach. We brought home quite a few pretty rocks, and I have mine in my bamboo pot. They're purty.
• Drove thru Old Town Eureka as it was too early for anything to be open.
• Horrible dinner at the Chinese restaurant on 18th Street. The better one on the Plaza was closed on Monday, and the other restaurant was permanently closed. I'll never return to the home of the crab cheese puff.
• Yummy blackberry daquari at Toby and Jack's. It was pretty empty, less seating for three arcade games, and we got to see some kid with an expired ID get kicked out.
• Drove out to Willow Creek so Phillip could play in the river. :>) I couldn't find where it was we used to go, and I decided that it must have been out on the reservation instead. The park with all the shade and grass was taken over by evacuees' tents and government officials. We went down to the "beach" and collected more rocks, but it wasn't where I was trying to take Phillip.
• Saw a fire command station in Willow Creek (on the road out to Hoopa). I might have been there in the past cuz there is a sad little river, a new parking lot, and A TON of firetrucks, water trucks, and we even saw a helicopter land. Willow Creek was mighty smokey and the fires MUST have been close.
• I almost lost Phillip to bubbles. He put a tad too much in the tub and turned on the jets, and the result is a picture where he's almost gone... I was a tad slow getting the camera out and he was blowing the bubble away from his face. I'm sure the cleaning crew didn't like our soap scum everywhere, but I doubt we'll be the last couple to test out the rumor.
• Smug's Pizza didn't disappoint, and I was happy to recover from my bad Chinese suggestion.
• We also had an awesome fish taco from a new, permanent taco truck across from the new buildings by Hotel Arcata. Don't ask for the hot salsa as it burned off a few taste buds. I was super surprised by that. To cool the mouth down, I took Phillip to Bon Boniere. They've expanded into where Arcata Mainstreet used to be and have a larger ice cream counter. No lemon poppyseed for Claire, but I thoroughly enjoyed a scoop of Kaluha Fudge (there wasn't any Kona Coffee Crunch) and Phillip liked the Humboldt Creamery Sweet Cream.
• Loleta Cheese Factory was a must-stop on the way home. I sampled many cheeses and Phillip watched. No purchases as we were driving home.
• The brewery by the Arcata Plaza was closed, so I took Phillip to Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka. Out of the beer sampler, he liked the beers I didn't care for. The food was great and I couldn't finish mine. I brought it back to our hotel, but didn't have anything to eat it with after I microwaved it. Bummer.
• Drove thru Ferndale on our trip home. Literally. Phillip didn't want to get out of the car and walk the few blocks of "touristville". He was eager to get home, and so my plan to spend time here to avoid the evening rushhour in Santa Rosa was twarted.
• Saw an exciting episode of "The Closer" on TNT. It was on at 6pm instead of 9pm, so the hotel must have been getting the East Coast feed instead of West Coast.
• Found a building site for a bank that Phillip's company is working on. It's on Giuntolli Lane past all the hotels. It looked like a big pit to me, and Phillip said that they clearly hadn't done much work yet. He thought the project was further along and wanted to take pictures for one of the project managers at work.

no pictures. can't upload them x2! i'll try another day.