Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Looking back over our maps, brochures, and travel plans, Laura was in a bit of a panic, or, at least, in a state of disappointment. By turning off of Highway 101 early we had missed the “Avenue of the Giants” redwoods corridor. I looked at the maps a bit more, and it looked like all we had missed was a highly commercialized stretch of redwoods. This included another drive-through-tree (been there, done that) and the “Trees of Mystery,” a strange fun house sort of place. There was the Humboldt Redwood State Park, but there was also a gauntlet of campgrounds, old style motels and gift shops.
Our target was further on. Highway 101 bears the designation “Redwood Highway,” and the stretch north of Eureka runs through Redwoods National Park. That seemed much more appealing. First, however, we wanted to check out Eureka, and we wanted some breakfast.
Eureka is the largest town we had visited since leaving San Francisco. As we drove in last night we had noticed some neat architecture, similar to what we had seen in Ferndale. There were a couple of local maps and brochures in the hotel, and we had spotted that there was an “Old Town” district with shops and things, and a driving tour highlighting unique architecture.
Our first target was the Old Town section. There was certainly some unique architecture, and it looked like there were some cool shops that would open later in the morning. However, everything had a seedy quality to it that made Laura uneasy. Perhaps when there was more activity things would improve, but not right now.
