Catching Up

I know that I need to catch up on my blog entries, but I have a good excuse for not posting, I have been catching up with old friends and trying to catch me some internet and cell service.

After visiting the lighthouse and Russian Gulch, we drove inland and stopped for the night at the KOA campground in Benbow along the Eel River.  We hiked under the freeway to check out the Benbow Historic Inn.  The inn was designed by architect, Albert Farr, who is best known for The Wolf House which he designed for author Jack London in Glen Ellen, CA. The inn was built by the talented Benbow family, consisting of nine brothers and sisters who also constructed the Benbow Dam and Power Company.  The inn opened to the public in July of 1926 and became a popular destination for folks traveling on the new Redwood Highway.  The hotel guests have included Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Basil Rathbone, Eleanor Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and many others.

 

 
After one night in Benbow, we headed north toward Arcata.  We decided to take the Avenue of the Giants to fully enjoy the majesty of the redwoods.  So much for our conversation about the smallest road.

Along the way we stopped in our favorite north coast small town, Ferndale.  Ferndale is an historic town which has a Victorian charm that we haven’t seen anywhere else.  Every time we travel to this area we take a detour over the Ferndale bridge and through the cow pastures to visit this quaint town.  The Golden Gait Merchantile is a wonderful place to browse back in time.

 

The rain started to come down so we continued on to Arcata and checked into the Mad River RV Park.  Unlike previous years, we had called ahead and gave our friends John and Kate advance notice that we were coming.  John was committed to his Wednesday evening bike ride, so we met up with Kate for a Mexican dinner.  Excellent chili rellenos, yum!  After dinner we drove to Kate and John’s house for a great visit (and the use of their dryer to finish drying our jeans, thank you!). Since lots of rain was in the forecast, John and Kate insisted that we use their car to get around while in Arcata (thanks again!).

Our Arcata ride.

We made excellent use of the car the next day and made a run to K Mart for dog food, water and other items too awkward for the motorcycle.  After shopping, we headed to the North Coast Co-Op for some granola and then drove to the Humboldt State campus (Bill’s alma mata)  to see if anything has changed in the last 40 years.  The campus has changed quite a lot since the mid 70s when Bill attended, new buildings, new entrance, new sports complex, and a few less trees.  The campus is still quite the stair master work out to traverse.  John told us his daughter calls HSU, the Hills and Stairs University, which seems very appropriate. According to Bill the most dramatic change is there are a lot more women attending HSU now.

Founder's Hall at HSU

We caught up with John and Kate after work and while dinner was cooking we went for a lovely 45 minute hike in the community forest.  The rain held off while we were hiking and the forest was beautiful with the glistening ferns and tall redwoods.  Dinner was delicious and so was the visit.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a camera so the evening was not captured on film, just wonderful memories.

Today’s 3 Fun Facts:

1. The Benbow Historic Inn was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1983.
2. During WWII, Founder's Hall, which can be seen from the Pacific Ocean, was camouflaged so Japanese submarines would not use it as a navigational aid.
3. Roads along our route can get smaller.