Five Hours North of San Francisco, lots and lots of towering Redwoods, some quirky tourist attractions and you’ve landed in Humbolt County’s Eureka, California. After leaving San Francisco, we decided to take our tour of California even further north to visit Mike’s brother, Dave, his wife, Courtney, and their new bundle of joy, 7 week-old Baby Estelle. But before we dive into that adventure, we must touch on the little stops that got us to Eureka.
About two hours north of San Francisco on the 101 or the Redwood Highway, is a little town of Ukiah. Based on the advice of Dave, we decided to stop at this vegan restaurant located in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is one of the first Buddhist monastories to be built in the United States and is an important hub for Buddhist around the world. I’m not positive on exactly what type of activity went on in the “city” but from what I observed, it looked like it was a type of boarding school since there were schools of uniformed children around. As we drove through the impressive golden-arched entrance, it was like we were entering another world. There were free-ranged peacocks EVERYWHERE and you could feel the peaceful aura surrounding the area.
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| City of Ten Thousand Buddhas entrance |
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| Wild Peacock |
The restaurant we ate at was called Jyun Kang Vegetarian Restaurant.I loved the purpose of the restaurant but the food was pretty mediocre. We ordered a curry noodle dish that was good at first bite, but blanded out toward the end. We also ordered eggrolls and vegan satay that weren’t that good. Usually if you fry something, the grease will masks any bad taste but this was NOT the case in this situation. We also ordered these things called Jasmine Rolls which were bean sprouts wrapped in soy sheets. Again, not really impressed. Maybe I’m a food snob, but honestly I was pretty disappointed. I wouldn’t recommend coming here for the food, but if you want to bask in the Buddhist lifestyle, it’s a cool place to visit. If we weren’t on such a schedule to arrive in Eureka, I would have liked to explore their exhibits a little more.
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| At least Cedar liked the food.... |
Next stop on the list was in the little town of Willets.
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| Willets... Gateway to the Redwoods... |
There was a skate park that Jeff worked on back in the day so we made it a point to stop in and see how the park was doing. Since the weather was on the brink of rain, the park was relatively empty. I think we had the park to ourselves for almost 30 minutes before we saw some kids roll in.
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| Cedar telling Papa to remember to put on his helmet... |
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| WHOOA... |
After the skate park, we decided to make the long drive up to Eureka without any distractions (even though I wanted to stop at the cool tourist attractions deep in the Redwoods). Even though we didn’t get to visit these sights this time, it was pretty cool to drive through the Redwood forest. If you have the chance to venture up into Mendicino and Humbolt counties, some fun tourist attractions (at least they looked fun from the road) were Confusion Hill, where apparently the laws of gravity are defied because of an energy vortex the spot is located on, a scenic alternate to the 101 called the Avenue of the Giants and the Bigfoot Exhibit.
Once we arrived in Eureka it was pretty dark so there wasn’t really anything to see.
Side note: Night coach driving is no bueno….
We did stop at a gas station to fill up before getting the Dave and Courtney’s. It’s pretty funny the type of people that stop at the local gas station/AMPM. I think it was about 5PM and almost 90 percent of the folks that went in were dressed in sweatpants. We would later learn during our 9-day stay that sweats are the preferred attire for most in this small town.
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| Cedar wearing his new boots in Dave and Courtney's backyard |
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| Exploring at the playground |
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| I'm such a cutie pie... |
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| Cedar's mischievous smile.... |
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| .....as we are telling him not to turn on the windshield wipers... Do you think he's listening? |
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| A cool playground surrounded by Sequoias |
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| crawling... |
We finally set up camp in Dave and Courtney’s backyard. The coach ended up fitting almost perfectly in their side yard. It was pretty awesome to have a spot to hang out and also have neighbors.
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| A mini live Christmas tree we found at the local grocery store |
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| This year's Christmas set up... :) |
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| I liked this tree because we could plant it somewhere after the holidays... |
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| My little bear.... |
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| ...can put on his own boots... |
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| Ready for a walk Papa.... |
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| More presents under our tree... |
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| Nice and toasty.... it was pretty chilly in Eureka |
Eureka is a small town where almost everyone knows everyone.
Eureka’s got a pretty cute little downtown and old town area. The Downtown area is right on the marina and the Old Town had a pretty good Vietnamese restaurant there. Again, like Morro Bay (but even moreso), there are minimal "corporate" stores to shop at. There were only a handful of huge store like Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. It was great to get away from the huge department stores that usually crowd big cities. I did almost all my Christmas shopping at little local boutique in town! :)
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| A local hunting store where I got one of Jeff's gifts... |
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| A old town view.... |
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| They had so many awesome book stores in the area! :) |
I was also surprised how awesome the grocery stores were here! I mean usually at home I have to got to 3-4 grocery stores in order to get all the things I want, but this particular one, the North Coast Co-op, had almost everything I could ever want!!! There was also a HUGE Bulk section where you could get refill shampoos, soaps, cooking oils, vinegars and so much more!! I think that more grocery stores should follow in the footsteps of the CO-OP.
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| Nice vegetarian selection at the Co-Op |
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| I wish I got some better photos of the market.. |
During our stay, Jeff got the opportunity to work in Dave’s woodshop. Dave works for the local high school, Eureka High as the woodshop teacher. After 4 days of turning, Jeff managed to get a pretty bowl made out of Walnut, a cool centerpiece made of Redwood, a couple plates for Cedar and I for Christmas made out of Myrtle, and oh yeah…a broken finger.
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| Makeshift tool and what broke Jeff's finger.... |
We’ve been dying to get a little car to tow behind the coach for little grocery runs and such. After some intense searching, Dave found a ’88 Ford Festiva (not Festival… Festiva.. haha)
After some modifications, a quick bath, and some obstacles getting it registered, we were ready to hitch up and test the new tow vehicle.
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| Doing some minor work in the Festiva in Dave's garage |
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| '88 Ford Festiva... our new car |
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| Came with a custom paint job :) |
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| Proud new car owner |
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| Cedar's future car... haha... |
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| Gia was stoked on it |
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| Some indoor photos of the Festiva |
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| Gotta make sure the hair looks good ;) |
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| Mama and Cedo |
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| Driving it into town |
It was a bit cold and wet up here for my blood, by the air up in Eureka is a definite change from the city air we are used to. It was great to be up in the mountains and hang with some good friends, meet some new additions to the extended family, and rest for more than our typical 3 night stay at a campground. Many thanks to Dave, Courtney, and Estelle for the electricity, water, food, fun, and laughs!!
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| Cedar being a little model ;) |
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| Giving a kiss to Baby Estelle... |
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| Cedar and his future girlfriend.... Estelle doesn't look too happy about that!(haha) |
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| The Stevens' guard dog... Captain!!! |
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| Our hosts....the Stevens Family :) |
And where would our adventures take us next? Even further north (yes…. still cold and wet) to the tiny town of Klamath, California.
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| Ready for our next adventure!!! |
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