Eureka (We Found It)

I'd have to check with my sister the archeology major on what the plural of Eureka is, but Steve and I did indeed find it this last week, and it was a great vacation. And, like all good vacations, we were more than ready to return home by the time it all ended.

In case you haven't been reading the blog recently, I have wanted to take Steve up to Eureka to see if it would be a spot where he'd like to retire (one of the few towns in California where the population has remained constant for the last decade). And for those of you who don't know where Eureka is, exactly, here's a map giving you an idea. It's a town of 26,000 people, situated on Humboldt Bay smack dab in the middle of the old-growth redwood forests of the Northern Coast of California. It has quite a history, mostly of being overlooked or passed over, so that it still has a small-town feel of post World War II but without the McCarthyism. (Although the county does have its share of rednecks, it was one of a handful of counties in California to vote against Proposition 8.

We flew Horizon Air (Alaska Airlines commuter service) direct from Los Angeles to Eureka. I was amazed to have found a direct flight, expecting to have to change planes at least once to get there. The only drawback was that it was an 8:20 a.m. departure, meaning we had to be up around 4 a.m. to make it to the airport and through security.

Once in the air, it was only an hour and 45 minutes until we landed at the Arcata-Eureka airport. Our rental car was waiting (we got upgraded because they had run out of cars; ours was the last available. It seems there was something going on at Humboldt State University, which is situated in Arcata, just seven miles north of Eureka.

The airport is actually situated north of Arcata, so it was about a 15-mile drive to Eureka. When we got there we stopped in Old Town and had some lunch, then checked into our motel. Most of the buildings in Old Town are over 100 years old, with lots of Victorian influence. Some of the most famous Victorian houses, in fact, are a part of Old Town: The Carson Mansion and the Pink Lady.

Thursday evening we went to a gay meeting in Arcata which was very friendly and supportive. A woman suggested we go to Hurricane Kate's for dinner after the meeting. We took the suggestion and went to the restaurant (also in Old Town Eureka) and had some of the best food I have enjoyed in a long time. The preparation and presentation would compete with anything in a four-star restaurant here in Southern California.

On Friday, a local Realtor named Jeff Katz picked us up at the motel around 10 a.m. and we spent the next six hours being chauffeured around Eureka and Arcata and Loleta (a small town to the south), looking at the kinds of real estate available in the area: From new condo to farmhouse on acreage, and all in our price range. They were all nice properties (one in particular we fell in love with) but not being in the market at the moment, Jeff was just trying to give us a lay of the land and the variety of properties typically available.

We took Jeff out for lunch for all his efforts on our behalf. We stopped at a place at the Marina. The food was nothing really special, but the views were amazing. After Jeff dropped us off back at the motel, we hopped in our own car and went exploring the wonderful world of merchandising in Eureka (i.e., the shopping malls). I purchased a pair of walking shoes for the next day's activities, and Steve picked up some ibuprofen. Like most places, Eureka's shopping mall and the Old Town and Downtown districts are suffering from empty retail spaces, but Jeff said things seem to be looking up, slowly.

We grabbed dinner at the diner next door to the motel and just hung out in our room for Friday evening. The sidewalks seem to roll up about 10 p.m.

On Saturday we started out with our complimentary breakfast at the motel, then I drove Steve north up the coast to show him more of the area. We drove about 45 miles on often twisting road (U.S. 101) to Elk Prairie National Park, to check out the Roosevelt Elk and hike through the old-growth forest. Steve did see some elk (I did not because I was driving) and we did get to spend about an hour wandering amongst the trees.

It's hard to describe the experience of walking among these giant, ancient trees. They bear the scars of fires and lightning strikes and a hundred other natural disasters, but still they grow skyward, reaching up into the sunlight, each unique, with its own form and history of growth.

As I told Steve, it was refreshing to be dwarfed by things that are not manmade: Standing next to a skyscraper in the city one feels insignificant and the architecture's very existence suggests a power far greater than any one human: The effect is intended to impress and intimidate, both at the same time. But standing in this expansive cathedral of ancient trees, one feels connected in a very strong and spiritual sense to the earth itself and all the life upon it. There's no other feeling like it in the world.

After visiting these giants, we drove back down the coast and stopped off at Humboldt Lagoons State Beach. The freshwater lagoon was situated on the eastern side of the road and to the west was a vast expanse of sloping beach, the waves breaking on the gray sand that stretched for a mile or more. Huge twisted burls of redwood littered the beach and there was no one else on the sand save the two of us.

The day was cloudy and cool, as all of the days on the shore were during our visit, and the clouds hung down like a veil into the forests to the east. On the beach itself, the wind blew strong, the waves whipped into foam and the continuity of nature was palpable.

We continued driving south, visiting Patrick's Point State Park, with breathtaking views of the rugged ocean cliffs. We hiked about halfway down to the rocks on the shoreline but decided to go no further. Like every other park in the county, there were numerous trails to discover and not enough time to locate them all.

We drove the frontage road from Patrick's Point to the fishing village of Trinidad and made a quick circuit around the small town. Heading south, we stopped back at Old Town Eureka and wandered through more of the shops. I was looking for a shop with art glass. I soon found out that the term "hand-blown glass" in the window usually meant they had glass hash pipes for sale. We did finally find a shop with art glass, and I fell in love with a huge floor sculpture, about four feet tall. I told the proprietor I had to think about the purchase, since it wasn't a trifle.

We got back to the motel in time to shower and head out to dinner at Sea Grill, where the owner came over to our table and talked about the different areas of the county to live and what she liked best about living on the North Coast.

Sunday we spent driving around town on our own, trying to relocate the various neighborhoods that Jeff had shown us on Friday. We also went to the local redwood park in the city and toured the Eureka Zoo, which was situated on the edge of the park. We got lost and turned around just enough to feel as though we were having a great adventure, and we ended the tour by heading back to Old Town, taking pictures of the Carson Mansion, then stopping by the glass shop to purchase my sculpture and arrange for shipping. We wrapped up the day by having dinner at Adele's, a kind of upscale coffee shop and doing most of the packing before turning in for the night.

On Monday we slept in until 10 a.m. and went down to Old Town to have lunch at Los Bagels. We strolled around to kill a little time, since the rental car didn't have to be back until 4 p.m., and our plane home didn't leave until 6:15. On the drive back to the airport we stopped off in Arcata at the town square, which is its equivalent to Old Town in Eureka: Lots of nice little shops, good places to eat and a place to hang out, to see and be seen.

Even with the diversions, we ended up waiting at the airport about four hours. But, all in all, it was an excellent trip.

A few quirky things that happened: Reading over the want ads in the free copy of the local daily paper on Friday morning, I discovered the paper was looking for a full-time graphic designer, so I applied. Also, on Monday, Steve got a phone call from a recruiter in Glendale here in Southern California about a full-time position available that paid significantly more than his present position, but they wanted him to start the very next day. Both seemed situations of opportunity knocking but in an off-kilter way. Whether either situation pans out is almost immaterial: the fact that this kind of energy is popping up on a regular basis these days is refreshing.

Now that we're home, we're turning our attention to doing some remodeling on the condo, making it a special place. I'm sure my sculpture will act as a design catalyst for the revisions we make.

And as for Steve: he fell in love with Eureka, just like I thought he would, and he's all for retiring there, ASAP.

And now it's late and I have to be off to bed. After all, tomorrow is another day. (except now it's today.)