day 4 arcata, california
we started the day clean and pretty and well rested. lucas had class and then we all went to breakfast.....
at golden harvest; this place serves the best raspberry pancakes!
then we just relaxed the rest of the day....i had my photos developed (those of you who know
me well, know i can never wait very long to do that), spent a little time in
"sacred grounds", a coffee shop, with my computer, then back to the apartment and sat outside in the
sunshine, watched lucas play ball with blue and visited with the two and four legged neighbors.
look! no dreadlocks!!!
Peter had to work tonight, so lucas and I sort of had an international evening:
we drove to eureka (about 5 minutes away) and ate indian food for dinner....mmmm...good;
then we went and had "chair" massages from some chinese masseuses....then
a little shopping----jeans, socks and shoes.
Now we're just hanging out tonight, two of the three of us have already called it an evening.
no matter how old your kids get, watching them sleep never gets boring.
it's so good to be here with the boys and blue.
day 5 arcata, continued......
the boys slept in so i went downtown and had really good coffee and pastry at a new outdoor cafe right on the square and read a book.
the farmers market was just beginning and it's a beautiful day. (look at the multi-colored carrots, below.)
many people come to the market and it's great for people watching and, if a person enjoyed cooking,
it would be a great place to buy food.
There was a vendor selling vegetarian tamales...I hadn't had a tamale in 14 years (since i gave up meat).
Lucas and i shared a black bean/jack cheese tamale and peter ate a chile rellenos tamale (his first ever) ....
boy it was wonderful! The tamales didn't quite fill the boys up, so we went to the one of the local coffee shops
and they got really good smoothies.
taking advantage of the nice weather, we stopped by the apartment, picked up blue,
and went to the beach (about 3 miles from the apartment).
The wind picked up, and while peter thought it was very chilly, i thought it was wonderful!
blue loves to run at the beach and will chase a rock and bring it back hundreds of times
(he wasn't cold either.) after the beach, they dropped me off back down at the square,
and i went to my favorite used clothing store (found nothing), the head shop (where i like their glass rings),
and gear store (don't really need any, just like to look) and a skateboard store that had cool hoodies (didn't buy one).
but i wasn't totally good; i found this purse (I'd seen one similar in a magazine before and really liked it). great for summer!
The boys came back downtown and we all went for pizza before lucas took off to go to work.
day 6...........more arcata..
this morning we went for a late breakfast back to golden harvest....vegetarian biscuits and gravy.....not too
many places serve that....we all enjoyed the food. lucas played with blue a little and then
they both got ready for work...they had to go in at 12:30...all dressed
up and ready to keep those poker players in line.
Peter entrusted his car to me and i took off for the beach; it's
about 70 here today, sunny and beautiful!
this is me at the beach....it was just great.
after the boys got off work, we went to six rivers brewery which none of us had been to before.
the food was great and the beer was good; peter ordering the best and most unusual beer: a spicy beer
that you could smell and taste jalapeno peppers....it was really good!
they've been trying to teach me about poker.....texas hold'em. I'm so not a "logical thinker" so this
is a real stretch for me...but i'm trying. we're back at the apartment now, just chilling for the night.
lucas has two finals tomorrow and peter and i are taking off early in the morning for another adventure.
day 7 .... arcata.....last day of trip.....
lucas had two finals today, so peter and went up north to the redwoods national & state parks
i had read that there were supposed to be a group of gray whales
that stayed all year long at the mouth of the klamath river.....
and we saw one. the black spot you see in the photo below is a rock, not a whale,
(i should have brought the zoom lens!), but we saw it, rolling in the water and spouting.
This was a first for both of us.
there were also about 50 seals there too.
then we went on a drive through the big redwoods; they're always so neat.
really, really big tree
(okay, my camera can't get the whole tree in one shot...but here's the best i can do)
a different Really, really, big tree with peter standing in front of the trunk
the car, peter and another big tree
peter shared with me the other day that he's going to do an intensive study
on how to become a "monopoly king"....always the winner....and to learn
everything required to do so (he's been challenged by one of his friends here in arcata).
so when we ran across this cool "national parks monopoly game" it seemed
to be the perfect fit. so, i'm going to end my last night of my trip,
playing monopoly with the boys when they get home from work.
this has been such a great week...i've loved spending all this time with the boys!
They really like their jobs and working together,
lucas has had another successful year at Humboldt state, they've both made good friends and
love the life they have in arcata. as much as i miss them,
i'm glad they have adventured out in life and continue to embrace new people and experiences.
blue has slept with me every night (he's so sweet and is like an electric blanket). i will miss him too.
i won't ever forget seeing all the wonderful and beautiful places in the national parks, the amazing animals,
and the scenery along the way to california.
i'll be back in kansas on tuesday night.....and will start dreaming of my next adventure....
...it begins...
....may 26th…..