Eureka and Back Again

It’s been over six weeks since I last posted, but that gives you an idea of how busy I’ve been with the business since the middle of December. Well, that and we did take a week to visit Eureka. And it was quite a trip.

We leave the house at about 10:30 Christmas morning, heading to the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. (The trip is, after all, our Christmas present to one another, so why not fly on the holiday? Also, much cheaper.) Steve has arranged parking at the Marriott across the street from the airport, and after some missed turns and dubious signage, the car is parked and we take the shuttle to the airport.

When we get to the airport, there was almost no one there. Security scans my laptop twice and stops Steve because he has a multifunction tool thingie clipped to his carry-on bag and a money clip with a tiny little knife in it. Rather than have them confiscated, he goes back out, jumps onto the shuttle and heads back to the car to leave them there. I get a Diet Dr. Pepper at Peet’s (the only food concessions there) and find a seat.

Steve at Burbank Airport: Outbound

Steve shows up about 45 minutes later—plenty of time for our 12:45 boarding time. Soon, we discover the plane we we’re taking doesn’t come into Burbank until 12:55, By 1:05, they announce there are “maintenance issues” with the aircraft, and they have to wait for a mechanic to arrive from LAX to assess the situation. But this is not a problem for us: Steve checks and is told that our connecting flight from San Francisco to Eureka is also running late. The 12:45 flight from Burbank finally left at 2:40. Adventure.

So we land in San Francisco around 4 o'clock. Rain. Waiting to collect checked carry-ons. Big loads of rain. It only takes a minute or two to retrieve the bags, just long enough to get soaked.

Now waiting in San Francisco for the plane from Monterey to arrive (which we will then board for Eureka). They’re announcing its status: It’s running late. It took off from Monterey. It’s approaching the airport. It just landed. Oh, no, sorry, it didn’t land yet. Seems to have turned back to Monterey. Oops, it’s not coming back; the flight’s canceled.

So Steve runs to the customer service desk (they won’t help us at the desk at the gate) and gets us on standby for the 6:15 flight. That one we get on (it’s running late, too, and they change the gate it’s to arrive at twice).

At this point you need to know we have Christmas 7:30 dinner reservations at the only good restaurant in Eureka that’s open Christmas Night. I call and they say they’ll move the reservation to 8 p.m.

The 6:15 flight leaves around 7 p.m. By the time we get our rental car, drive into Eureka and register at the motel, it’s 8:45. We have just enough time to pop over to Katrina’s (the coffee shop next door) to have a bite before they close at 9 p.m.

The Barback at the Waterfront Cafe

On Wednesday, we get up at 10 a.m., putter around and go down to Old Town to the Waterfront Cafe for lunch. The Old Town area is pretty much closed down this day after Christmas, with most of the shops closed, so we spend a couple hours driving around Eureka, getting a feel for the neighborhoods in town. We stop at a supermarket called Murphy’s in Cutten and pick up some sundries for the room (as much to check out the store as to do the shopping, since this looks like the area of town where we might want to live).

I’m getting tired of driving, so we head back to the motel and watch TV and the rain, which comes down lightly or in sheets, for the rest of the afternoon.

Thursday, we get up at 10:30 (therapeutic sleeping-in will become a theme of this trip). It’s raining lightly, so we head off for more sightseeing. I’m determined to have a solid and viable map of Eureka in my head by the time we return home.

We go south on Redwood Highway (aka US 101) and find the Bayshore Mall with its familiar occupants: Kohl’s; Sears; Walmart; Bed, Bath and Beyond; Petco; etc. The mall’s a little long in the tooth, and it’s shocking to see how many of the smaller storefronts are closed and empty: a good 60 percent are vacant. We stop at a fast-food Japanese place in the food court and have teriyaki chicken for lunch.

Steve at Sequioa City Park in Cutten

Having just downloaded the Google Maps app on our iPhones (and having figured out how to get “the directions lady” to talk), after lunch we consult a printout of house listings we brought, and Steve gets the clever idea of inputting the listed addresses and having “the lady” direct us around to the various properties. She knows more about Eureka than I ever will.

We drive out to Humboldt Hill (about 10 minutes south of Eureka on 101), then back to Cutten and Myrtletown (unincorporated areas on the northeast side of Eureka). Most of the houses in this area were built in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. It’s a nice part of town—indistinguishable from Eureka proper, with neighborhood stores, the Eureka Zoo and Sequoia Park (a chunk of old-growth redwood forest sitting in the middle of the neighborhood.)

Next, we drive back into what I refer to as “the avenues,” since it’s a grid of A-B-C streets and 1-2-3 avenues. Most of the Victorians are in this area, along with many bungalow houses built in the ’20s and ’30s. I notice that, in this county of tall forests, there are no mature trees in the avenues more than 25 feet high: why no old growth in an old neighborhood? I postulate that the greenery has fallen victim to Pacific storms sweeping through this unprotected area of town.

Back we go to the motel. Trying out local restaurants is also a goal of this trip, and Steve wants Mexican for dinner. We check Google Maps, call down to the desk for suggestions, then I go on Yelp! and find a place in Henderson Center (a pocket of neighbhorhood shops in the avenues) called Oaxaca Grill. The reviews say it has the best mole sauce, so we gave it a try.

Best. Mole. Ever. (Even Better Than in LaLaLand)

It’s a husband-wife-mom operation, with mom doing the cooking. We have the chicken enchiladas mole and the sauce is incredible: Chocolatey, mildly sweet and just a hint of the many varieties of chilis that went into its creation. I ask how long it took to make the sauce, and am proudly told, “Two days,” which is the right answer for really good mole.

Friday morning Realtor Jeff picks us up and takes us around to see houses. He shows us one in Humboldt Hill, an uphill drive and near the forest. It’s very 1960s and reminds me of the house I lived in when I was 7 and 8. The panoramic view of Eureka Bay from the living room os absolutely breathtaking, but the area’s just too far from town.

The second house is in Cutten, also near the woods. There is a redwood tree next to the driveway that’s 5 or 6 feet in diameter and at least 200 feet tall. There’s a deck and a hot tub. It’s a nice layout and has parquet floors (in excellent shape but definitely screaming 1980s).

Shrimp and Mac Salad, Rice With Pineapple Gravy

The third house is down in the avenues. It was built in the ’20s and has great period touches in every room (detailed soffet in the living room, built-in china cupboard in the dining room, and a telephone niche and shelf in the kicthen). The floors look original and are in pretty good shape. There’s also a guest suite (or master bedroom) in the attic space on the second floor. But the back yard is a patch of weeds, with nary a bush, and the overall feel is boxy and exposed.

Jeff drops us off at the motel, and we go back to Murphy’s Market in Cutten to get a couple of deli sandwiches for a late. That evening, neither of us are particularly hungry, so we stay in the room, watch TV and eat cookies we've bought.

We Saw "The Hobbit" Saturday Afternoon

Saturday we drop by the Banana Hut for lunch. (Hawaiian fare; more restaurant checking). I have the shrimp and Steve has the spare ribs, both accompanied by macaroni salad and rice with pineapple gravy (weird sounding, I know, but it’s really good—but sweet! We ask the waiter what’s the best pizza place in town (we’re checking out what life would be like, so I wanted to find out about the delivery pizza), and was told Paul's Live From New York Pizza.

In the afternoon we go to the movies and see “The Hobbit.” It’s an OK film, but I’m too spoiled by Arclight Cinemas and have a hard time with all the ads before the film. We get out in the early evening, go back to the motel and order our pizza. It’s really good: a real New York-style pizza place in Eureka.

Square in Old Town Eureka Decked Out in Holiday Cheer

Sunday we go down the Old Town on the bay and have lunch again at the Waterfront Cafe. This time, the stores are open and the area’s mildly bustling. Then we drive up to Arcata and, after some searching, putter around the town square and check out the shops. We run into a woman in one shop who recognizes us from when we’d been there a year and a half before: This is where we buy our souvenir refrigerator magnet. That evening, we have dinner at a place called Adele's; good coffee shop food in a kind of weird atmosphere. Heading back to the motel, we both agree that we miss our comfortable bed and just being at home. As I usually do, I pack the night before so checking out will go easily.

Demon Cats Greet
Returning Travelers

Our two flights back to Burbank via San Francisco are just as fraught with delays and wasted time, except that now we’re faced with perhaps overnighting in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve if our flight doesn't get out. We finally leave San Francisco and land in Burbank around 11:30. It’s unusually cold for Southern California, and we shiver waiting for the shuttle to arrive. We get back to our car and, sometime on the 134 freeway, we celebrate the arrival of 2013, arriving home in the first minutes of the new year.

New Year's Day we watch the Rose Parade, thanks to our DVR, and rejoice in the fact that we’re home again. It takes the cats a while to get used to us being here. Patty’s first reaction when we walk through the door is to hide under the bed like she did the day we first brought her home: I'm sure she thinks we we’re burglars. After a while, though, she’s sooooo happy to see us back. Marcel, the old, bad-mannered, aloof black cat, has been unbelievably social since our return. We’ve figured out he’s deaf, since he doesn’t react to sounds of any kind. These days, he spends most of his time sleeping, but he has taken to lying between Steve and myself when we’re sitting on the couch.

Since our return, I’ve been working on the wrap-up of the American Society of Cinematographers’ handbook (ending up at 950 pages) and a website for an Intuitive Healer and Animal Communicator who is really very fun to work with. Her website is extensive, and I’m not only launching it but also moving it from her current host service to a new one (same company that hosts my site: iPage). It’s so nice to have someone really appreciate the work I put in, and she's wonderful to collaborate with.

Steve Flanked by His Feline Fans

Steve has been whittled back to two days a week at work, and the 92-year-old boss seems bound and determined to drive his business into the ground. I don’t think he understands it’s the 21st century and things have changed since the 1950s. Steve only has to wait until June to retire, but he’ll probably have to keep working part time just to make up for the income lost in this last year of being employed by this relic of 20th century capitalism.

But best of all, this month marks the first full year of my being in business, and things are going well. Even though I’m wrapping up several big jobs that made up the lion’s share of my income last year, I’m looking forward to where the next batch of work will come from, feeling much more optimistic than I did when I sent out my brochure mailing a year ago.