This week was the traditional (or at least very common) route up highway 101. Nothing fancy, basically an easy freeway type drive but not much traffic.
Monday was a tour around Arcata, historic downtown Eureka and Ferndale. Fortuna is about 25 miles south of Arcata and we decided to start there and work our way back so grabbed a couple of coffees at Starbucks and headed north on 101 to Arcata.
Downtown Arcata is a nice easy stroll mainly around the town square (green park where a fair number of young folks chill out) with numerous cool little shops to wander into. The two main shops (yarn and shoes) we wanted to look in were both closed on Monday so that was pretty quick. We had to mail a letter to our condo association back in Calgary, so dipped into a stationery store, bought an envelope, found the post office and that was that. After strolling a bit we decided it was getting close to lunch so headed south past Eureka to King Salmon Ave, the exit to the shoreline where "Gil's by the Bay" is situated. A little seafood cafe/restaurant where they make great food without screwing around with it. Beautiful garden patio and a small seawall esplanade attached to the property. Wonderful.
Back to Eureka old town where Brian went spelunking in an old antique/second hand/junk store for a couple of old HO scale model train cars while Kris revisited the Talisman Bead store to score more beads. Afterwards we wandered down to the waterfront and watched a harbor seal who happened to be there at that time. More strolling old town before we decided to head south to Ferndale.
We had seen ads for historic Victorian Ferndale but this was our first visit. It's about 5 miles off the 101 but well worth the drive. Short little main street (about 4-5 blocks) but pretty well all very well maintained Victorian style buildings...
We went into a nice yarn (of course) store where we ended up having a chat with the proprietor about the history of the town, ordinances for keeping it Victorian, impact of the tsunami, etc etc. A place to come back to for sure.
Tuesday we headed north to Crescent City where we stayed about 9 miles east in the spectacular Jedidiah Smith State Park at a RV park in the little hamlet named Hiouchi. Arriving in Crescent City we immediately stopped at the wharf to lunch at the Chart Room restaurant where you can watch Sea Lions from the windows. Excellent seafood lunches as well.
We had decided to stay out at Hiouchi as it is on highway 199 going towards O'Brien Oregon up the Smith River valley where Marcy Tilton's Art Barn is located...
a must for Kris to visit for fabric shopping...
and a great opportunity for Brian to park the car in the shade, lay back and have a snooze.
The drive up and back down the Smith River valley proved to be worth it, scenery wise, even if there had not been the Art Barn up there. Later we drove back into Crescent City and toured around there for about an hour before heading back to Hiouchi for the night.
Wednesday morning leaving Hiouchi we decided to try a different secondary highway cutoff to hit 101 about 10 miles north of Crescent City. Nice. Our destination for the day was the Bandon/Port Orford KOA where we spent 2 nights. The drive into Oregon was under a beautiful blue sky, albeit a tad windy. Contrast that to last November when it was so foggy, cloudy and rainy that we did not once see the ocean. Much nicer this time with the beautiful ocean and coast vistas.
After checking into the KOA we drove 6 miles back to Port Orford to have lunch at Griff's on the Dock.
Great view, great food.
On the way back to the KOA we drove out to Cape Blanco to see if was as foggy as it was last year. This year it was bright blue sky but so windy it was even hard to stand still. That said, we still got a good look at the lighthouse although it was closed on Wednesday, so nothing up close. Here's the difference in what we saw last year vs this year...
Last year...
This year...
Then it was back to the KOA for a late afternoon dip in the pool and spa (hot tub) before settling in beside a good fire as it gets dark very quickly in the well forested recesses of the KOA.
Thursday we drove up to Bandon for a browse around the "Old Town" and another dockside lunch of shrimp cocktails and fish tacos. Later we returned back to Port Orford in time to take in the museum at the Historic Port Orford Lifeboat Station before it closed for the day (it was closed Wednesday)...
This is a fabulous little museum detailing the dramatic rescue missions in some pretty horrific offshore seas.
Back to the KOA for another swim then back into Port Orford for a most excellent seating in the relatively new Redfish restaurant and wine bar. Beautiful view over the coastline...
We asked our waitress what their experience was after the Japan tsunami. As with other places, she said it was lucky that it occurred at low tide but what they saw was a series of super low tides followed by high tides at about 10 minute intervals; awesome. It continues to amaze just how much the tsunami, all the way across the Pacific, impacted the west coast.
Friday we headed north to Florence where we decided to hunker down for the Labor Day Weekend. We had made reservations about two weeks ago and as we drove north it looked like it was a good thing we did. Many RVs, campers, etc on the highway and numerous parks with no vacancy signs out already early on Friday.
The place we reserved did not disappoint. Prior to this trip we had never heard of Mercer Lake. The Mercer Lake RV resort is about 6 miles north east of Florence and sits on a most beautiful lakeside property...
Friday night we sat out on the dock with a glass (paper cup) of wine and watched as an Osprey made several passes, each time diving down to take a small trout as it surfaced. Beautiful evening.
Saturday we drove south to Winchester Bay to take in the BBQ on the dock. We did this last year and it did not disappoint this year either. A couple of orders of bbq'd salmon and tuna once again did us for lunch, dinner and dinner again the next day. This year we thought we'd try the Blackened Snapper and bbq'd oysters as well. Contrary to the salmon and tuna, they were not really all that great. The oysters were not bbq'd in the shell, rather they were cooked in a garlic bath in a pan on the bbq. The snapper wasn't really "blackened", just seasoned with some so-so cajun sauce. Not great in either case... just messing with perfectly good seafood.
Later on Saturday after returning to Mercer Lake, it being a beautiful sunny day we decided it was time for a lake swim. WOW... the water was fantastic. Not quite as clear as Lake Tahoe (you can still see your feet in about 5 feet of water but might not be able to count toes... you just hope they are still there) but every bit as warm. Sitting on the dock in the sun afterwards... very fine!
Sunday we took a drive around "greater Florence". Bordering the delta of the Siuslaw River along Rhododendron Drive there are some rather large gated communities. Even in the early afternoon the fog along there had not fully lifted and the temperature was a good 10 degrees cooler than over by Mercer Lake. We continued on into the Old Town area. It was busier, with tourists, than any other time we have been here but we managed to find a parking spot and did a pleasant stroll along the main drag looking in some shops and stopping for a decent lunch in an old refurbished building. Later we stopped at a place which advertised "Blow your own Glass" and after watching a bit and inquiring as to "what it is they do", we decided it would be fun to try but would have to come back tomorrow... so we have to wait until next week's blog to say how that worked out.
After returning to the lake for a swim and a sit in the sun on the dock, we decided to go back down to Old Town and have some wine and munchies at one of the small places overlooking the river watching the fog slowly seep in and overtake the remaining sunlight of the day...
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