Eureka!

This is the fourth time I've been to Eureka, CA, so we really had to work to find new things to do.  One thing we repeated was a lunch at Samoa Cookhouse.  What a fun place.  They serve all the dishes family style and the menu is set - you get whatever they're serving that day.  No matter, the food is all terrific.

It was pretty empty when we first arrived, but by the time we left, all the smart people were there.  You need to work up a big hunger to do justice to all the food.

We had soup, salad, fried chicken, two kinds of beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn, really good bread, and spiced cake.  It's all you can eat, but we didn't even finish what they brought out initially.  As usual, I have a suggestion how it could be improved - not the food, but the execution.  It's supposed to be a cookhouse atmosphere, so they should fill the tables as people arrive.  Then when they bring out those big dishes of food, it would be true family style, except with strangers. 

There is a lot of memorabilia from the logging industry.

I love all the old pictures.

Leaving the cookhouse, we happened upon the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center built right into the sand dune.  Cool!

The center and dunes trails were okay, but what interested me was the building's history.  In 1985, Charles and Rachel Stamps built the unique house as their retirement home.  It was altered to serve as the nature center, but you can see the basic shape.

The large open area was partitioned with walls but no ceilings.

There was a loft over part of the area and a cupola.

I just thought it was interesting.  I wish they had more pictures that I could shamelessly photograph like I did these three.

We also found some pleasant hiking in neighboring Arcata.  The Arcata Community Forest is a 620 acre forest of 80 to 100 year old redwood, Douglas fir, and spruce.  Not old growth by any means, but I bet they were 100 feet tall.

Wow!  Looks like a train wreck here.

This old growth stump had the notches visible where the loggers would position their springboards.  Misnamed in my opinion since it was just a board the men would jam into the hole to stand on as they cut the tree down.  No springs involved.

(The lower one was just to get up into position.)

We stopped in Arcata where we walked around the cute town square.

And discovered mosaic tiles on a trash can.  Wow!  That's fancy.

Two of the times I was here were during the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race on Memorial Day weekend.  What a hoot!  The sculptures are human-powered works of art that race 42 miles in three days over land, water, and mud.  It's truly amazing.  Click here for some pictures of this year's entries.