Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Eureka, California Drive and Doxie goes Berserk- August 19, 2013

Every day we have been waking up to blue skies and are so grateful for these picture perfect days!  Since we are in the same area for the bulk of our time, we try to travel to new sights each day.  We
decided to drive south again through the smaller of the State Redwood forest and on down to Eureka to check out that area.  Every turn is breathtaking with the trees and at some points of the road the canopies of trees over the highway.  If that isn't enough, the coastline appears with crashing waves for miles and miles.  There was a great breeze today and so the waves were especially large.  We just had to stop and take some pictures, as if we haven't documented about every scene with a picture by now!
Anyway, we were so surprised to find flies on this portion of the beach, as there are barely any insects to deal with in this area.  Well, so glad we stopped for a while and just took in the sounds, sights and the beauty.  But, so sad that we stopped to pick up some flies, which made us think of home, but also is the dreaded enemy of our doxie, Grace.  Of course, when we got ready to leave, a couple of the flies decided to hitch a ride.  It didn't seem to bad at first, but as Grace realized there were flies on her turf, she started jumping around the back seat.  She fell to the floor once or twice as she was tracking down her prey.  She got so upset that she started crawling under my seat and we could hear this pitiful whining, over and over.  Finally, I realized she was caught under my seat and thought she was still in pursuit of a fly.  We decided to stop and try to rid the car of these little bugs, but that wasn't good enough for Grace.  She was traumatized for the next few hours and would only calm down if she had her paws up on the console with my arm under her.  Never have we had a dog that hates flies so much and at home she will chase them down and kill them.  I guess being trapped in the car was just too something she couldn't handle.  Poor thing, but she finally calmed down by the time we reached Eureka, but she continued to look over her shoulder.

Not sure what we were expecting from Eureka, but we were disappointed.  It wasn't the interesting architecture of Old Town, that was beautiful.  The historical mansion was also worth the drive and we got some great pictures, too.  What we have been seeing which is disturbing are so many homeless, so many young drug users and so many people that seemed to be living in poverty.  This was the first time I was harassed by someone when I was taking pictures.  There was a young man on a bicycle that was riding in circles and he started throwing insults at me for having my camera phone.  Evidently, he thought it was an overprivileged item that one uses to "show off" and it annoyed him.  Anyway, there
were lots of "twenty" somethings roaming around with nothing to do, some friendly and then like "Mr. Bicycle," not so much.  We did get a hint of home as we ran into a horse and carriage on the corner offering rides around the area.  Seems like the areas that have so much potential in growth are hindered by loitering and questionable characters.

The Old Town of Eureka had some of the most interesting buildings, and obviously a community that save and appreciates this historical architecture.  One of the buildings outside of the area was a theater for performing, just incredible and so glad we captured the beauty.  So much of the community planning reminded me of home, with brick streets and old lamp posts, classic looking street signs.
There was even a star at one of the intersections of Old Town, a reminder of our quilt blocks in Kalona.

We enjoyed our stop in Orick, California which seemed to be there only to showcase their abilities or chainsaw art work with wood.  We took so many pictures and were fascinated by the variety of pieces available for sale.  Of course, myrtle wood is a big seller here and Orick certainly showcased what could be made from this product.  Everything from: coffee tables, bar stools, clocks, coat racks, and lamps were up for sale.  All of the indoor products are highly sealed with glossy finishes and you can see the time and care taken with the craftsmanship of these items.

In all, it was a six hour journey today and every minute was memorable, well except for the bicycler that chose to harass me!  It truly was a great day!


























































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