More coastal days till the weather cools

Saturday (Sep 10)

The moon was SOOO bright last night. It was like a waking dream. So cool.

It turns out this is the southernmost outpost of Westport Union Landing State Beach. There are two more units of this campground. So driving out north in the morning, I take a few minutes to check ’em out.

The middle unit is park headquarters. There’s a ranger building and a little more infrastructure. It’s smaller and more squared away than the rambling, shambling field that I slept in.

The highway heads down the hill to cross Howard Creek. On the far side of the creek is Westport Beach and the third unit of the campground. I did not drive in. This place will hold a lot o campers on busy summer nights!

It’s been a long time since I’ve driven Route 1 all the way to Leggett. It’s a pretty winding road.

I was monitoring the outside temperature to see when it would start getting hot. It stayed in the 70’s well over the last hill, but by the time I joined 101 it was mid-80’s. Hottest I’ve seen for six days, which means I’ve been doing something right! :)

Having joined 101, it’s a very short drive to the Peg House and its excellent burgers. I had the classic burger and it really was burger perfection.

So I’ve had lunch, but I haven’t had my morning coffee. I stepped inside at the store and fixed that, also getting a big ole brownie because it was right there in front of me, how could I not?! I stopped a few miles up the road at a pullout looking over the river valley and enjoyed my late, after-burger breakfast!

As I almost always do, I drove the Avenue of Giants instead of that stretch of 101. And as always it was relaxing and kind of meditative.

Katie wasn’t home yet, so I drove straight to my favorite hanging out place, a parking lot near the water, off of Waterfront Drive, east of the Adorni Center. 

At Katies, we shoot the breeze, and catch up for a coupla hours. She’s tired and needs to study for some online course she’s taking. For myself, it’s Saturday night and I’m a little hungry, and want to do something.. Not necessarily a lot, but something.  After Yelping around a bit, I decide that a beer and a fried calamari appetizer at the Waterfront Cafe will hit the spot perfectly.

It’s 9:30-ish and they close at 10, but the nice lady says sure, come on in and we’ll fix you up. So I’m happily sitting in my window seat crunching my calamari, when Chad’s sister Paige appears and says what are you doing here? She works here now, it turns out!

That’s a cool little serendipitous event!  I like her and it was good to see her. Not so cool was find out that she was there because she couldn’t live on what College of the Redwoods pays an entry level instructor. A Masters in math from Berkeley, and waitressing for a living. That’s f—ed up.

Anyway, it was great to see her and to get out and experience not so happening downtown Eureka for a while. I had parked near the Speakeasy. There was a jazz vocals thing going on. When I went back to the van it was verging on dancable and fun, so I was talking myself into staying for a beer when they broke for a set break, which made my decision for me. Go home and get ready for NFL Opening Day!

Sunday

I’ve done my research for this landmark day in my sports fan year. I didn’t bother to ask former Eurekan and current son-in-law Chad because he’s not a football fan. However, his buddy and also former Eurekan Cliff IS a football guy, so I texted him for the best place to watch Sunday morning football and eat breakfast. Boy did he come through! The #1 option was a place called the AA Bar,

Turns out I had been there with Chad. It’s actually a steak house. One of those places every town should have, been there forever, affordable, totally unpretentious and under-decorated, but the best steaks in town. They serve breakfast on the weekends, and I lucked out and got the last steak and eggs special of the morning. Boy was it good! The Niners game was very disappointing, but the steak and bloody marys were excellent!

So, well fed but kinda depressed about the game I returned to Katie’s. I was puttering around the van when I realized with a shock that I was so wrapped up in football that I plumb forgot that this is Sunday and I MUST get my Sunday SF Chronicle!

It’s 3pm, so I don’t feel good my odds of finding one, but I head out and got lucky again! First place I stopped, the Myrtle Market had a stack of 5-6 papers right there at the register. Woo!

Back at Katie’s again I decide to take a nice long walk in the cool, refreshing air of Eureka. That got sidetracked about 100 steps from Katie’s.

I took a left on P Street to get to the stairs down to Waterfront Street and right there out of nowhere was something called the Humboldt Bay Bistro! Where have you been all my life Humboldt Bay Bistro? A really pleasant little bar/cafe just steps from Katie’s. How did I not know about this? I peeked in the window, and a nice fellow came out and invited me in. They had just opened for the evening, and it was happy hour! I ordered a beer at the bar, then decided to have another. It was a pleasant place, the servers were cool, and the Sunday evening crowd was starting to pack in. Because I came in and went straight to the bar my impression was of a tiny little place, but it turns out there’s an addition built on to the other side with a good-sized dining room. Cool place!

So, two beers later I resume my walk. Navigate the shaky little path down to harbor level, cross Waterfront Street and take up the Waterfront Trail walking west. Thanks to the bar sojourn, I am perfectly timed for the sunset!

I go all the way :) Past the Bayfront area with the little ice cream shop that everyone in Eureka goes to, all the way to the restaurant at the end of the boardwalk, whose name I will not print because the dude was kind of a dick to me for standing there watching the sunset. The only downer in an otherwise really nice evening walk.