Head to the mountains? Wine country? Oregon? Stay home?
Shawnee and Cory were over for dinner, and suggested we head over to Eureka to stay in the Carter House, a B&B right near downtown. As an added attraction, the first Saturday of the month is the "Arts Alive" festival, so we could wander downtown eating, drinking and looking at the art.
So, off for a quick weekend at the coast, and a few surprises.
We headed west on Highway 299, made our way through the major roadwork going on to straighten out the curvy road. (Bummer. I love driving those curves with a stick. On the other hand, it is not a daily commute for me...) We stopped for a quick breakfast in Weaverville, at the very cool, funk-a-licious Mama Llama Café. The streets were lined with quilts, for the quilt show, so we walked the few blocks and admired some really clever work. I kind of want to return next weekend for the salmon festival... I figure they will have salmon drying in the sun!
Less than two hours later we hit highway 101 and turned north along the coast. It was a sunny, warm day, just perfect (and unusual) weather, so we made a quick stop along Clam Beach then zipped into Trinidad to pick up our case of fresh packed Albacore Tuna from Katy's Smokehouse. My mom sends us gift certificates each year for Christmas (Thanks, mom!) and we fork out the rest to buy what is probably the best canned tuna I have ever had. We walked a little around Trinidad, and found a new winery had opened. Moonstone Crossing does not use local grapes, but they do bottle locally, so we went in and had a nice time tasting their huge variety of mostly red wines. We walked away with two bottles and headed south.
Our next stop was Arcata, home of Humboldt State University, and a thriving counter-culture movement. I always love going to Arcata and just walking around watching the people, so while Gail went in the little boutique shops lining the plaza I sat and watched pot-smoking drummers, the chalk artists lining the sidewalks, the jugglers and dreadlock-topped students doing yoga-type acrobatics. God, what a great place just to hang out for a few hours. Thank god I was wearing my Hard Rock "Amsterdam" shirt, and have not had time to cut my hair since May!
Well, as the afternoon wore on we decided to head to our Bed and Breakfast in Eureka, where we were greeted with a glass of wine and a free upgrade to a fireplace room. We spent a fun evening wandering the streets of old town Eureka, looking for but not finding much in the way of appetizers and wine (False advertising!) listening to music and just enjoying the warm evening.
All in all it was a fast, enjoyable weekend away.