A Little Time in Eureka

I’m going to blame technical issues for not posting for a while (the Husband says, yeah, right)…

Many people asked us, when finding out that we were staying in Eureka, Why? Why stay there (of all places – this part unsaid)? We asked ourselves that same question after arriving here. From 101 it’s not much to see. In fact it’s rather divey looking. Sorry to anyone reading this who is from there, but you know it’s true! And even towards the water, where it looks nicer, there’s another issue – the homeless population here is astounding. It does make sense, the weather is very mild – I don’t think it’s been over 70 degrees the entire month of July. It’s so sad to see this. There does seem to be a goodly amount of public involvement in helping this population though, whether places for them to get a decent meal, bathing facilities, or just people who go around and try to help where they can. The big negative – other than for the people themselves – is that they very much congregate along the waterfront. There is a fabulous trail that takes you through parks and marshes, but the homeless population is very heavy all along it. I would never walk that path alone, even in daylight. We generally choose to walk elsewhere. The people that walk around yelling at the top of their lungs is sad, but it’s always a question of what they will yell about today!

We reveled in the long walks we were able to take in the afternoons (it was a novelty to be off exploring yet still in our home time zone). The local co-op was less than a mile away so we used that for our groceries…and right out on highway 101 was a chocolate maker, Dick Taylor, that smelled heavenly every time we walked by. We resisted going in until the final couple of days we were there. Then I did my part to support the local economy.

Eureka was a very prosperous place from the 1850s through about 1940. There are many, many Victorian homes, some of them very grand, still standing. A fair amount of them have become rundown, but a lot have either been maintained through the years or restored to their original elegance. The city is an amazing study in contrasts.

The grandest of the grand Victorians, the Carson Mansion was just down the street from us. It’s now a private club and sadly does not offer tours.

There were many smaller homes such as this one that are in a beautiful state of preservation, at least on the outside. There’s a wood shop in town that specializes in rehabilitating these homes.

But, there was all too many of these. So sad.

This would be horrifically expensive to restore, but what a beauty it would be!

The evidence of Eureka’s prosperity really shows in its public buildings. It’s nice to see that they have been preserved and are still being used to this day.

The Municipal Auditorium is classic 1930’s architecture

Beautiful Art Deco style Veteran’s Memorial, built in 1930

Eureka High School with Art Deco architecture. I was impressed that it appears that later additions followed the same style. Until we came to a section past the end of this building…done in the very worst 1960/1970s style <shudder>

This was painted on the sidewalk outside the high school

A photo looking out at the marina from our deck

A fun bench down on the water. This was right near one of the best ice cream shops EVER! Vanilla malt ice cream…mmmmm!

I liked this shop with the old school style lunch boxes. I really wanted the human organ one. I was told I could not buy it (everything has to flt in suitcases, sigh).

All in all it was a good experience to be in Eureka. The place really grew on us. We made the walk (twice!) to Sequoia City Park – 3.5 miles each way. The park is full of coastal Sequoias (Redwoods) -such a gorgeous place! It even has the cutest little zoo (which happens to be the oldest zoo in California).

Some of the younger, smaller trees in the park

I know I’ve been very remiss in blogging recently – most apologetic! I have another post I’d like to do on the Redwoods and then I can catch you up on where we are now (you might be surprised)!