Everyone woke up fairly early in the forest, and Lover made us a fire to warm up from our chilly night. We ate more Franz Cinnamon Raisin bread. That’s definitely something I’ll miss about the Pacific Coast! We’ll have to stop on our way out of town for one last stock up. 🙂 We packed up the tent and the rest of our campsite, and headed out. We only needed to drive about 1.5 hours to Eureka, where we are staying through the weekend, so we knew we could take our time and stop anywhere we wanted – always our favorite kind of days!
Our first stop was Crescent City, which was a lovely little sea town. We diverted to a lighthouse, and walked along the rocky beach for a bit. Then we headed out on the pier, where we learned about crab fishing from some very patient people who answered all of our questions. They were fishing with raw chicken legs for Dungeness crabs, and we learned about the size that they’re allowed to keep them, and saw one that had to be thrown back in. There were also some tiny little ones on the rocks that we watched for quite a while, but then they all got washed into the ocean!
As we headed back, we saw a few people feeding a bunch of little squirrels! This super delightful couple insisted we take a bunch of the peanuts and let the kids try feeding them. And those squirrels were bold! All of the kids got them to take a peanut right out of their fingers! It was super cool and those squirrels were crazy greedy! We chatted with the couple; Mr. and Mrs. Daniels. They were lovely people and they encouraged us to move to Crescent City! 🙂 They also told us that in a normal year, Crescent City is THE place to be for 4th of July. Bummer!
We eventually continued on, and stopped again when we saw signs for the Tour Thru The Tree. The entry fee was only $5, which we figured was totally worth it for the touristy photo. Fun! The lady was super nice and I think she undercharged us. 🙂 We got our pictures, and then checked out the emus across the street too! Totally hoaky, but totally fun.
We finally made it to Eureka, and found a place for lunch. I was really wanting burgers, and I’m a sucker for a vintage fries, burgers and shakes place. We chose Fresh Freeze, and everything was perfection – the vintage sign! The retro building! The walk up window to order the shakes! But – the food was terrible. Really terrible, considering this place has been in business for almost 70 years! Too bad. Still fun though.
We got to our Airbnb, which is really nice! It’s just a little studio, but it’s roomy, clean and well appointed. Always a pleasant surprise! Although, the exterior was a little unnerving. See the pic? Lover took the kids to a nearby park (and the neighbors told him they had just re-opened it that day!) and they had a blast on a slide that came out of massive redwood tree!
All in all it was an atypical 4th of July. But we still made the best of it, and we look forward to returning to our traditions in the years to come!