Day 16: Red Bluff to McKinleyville

It was a day of lots of little nothings. I feel like a bullet point list would be most practical.

• We drove to Redding. Redding had a Trader Joe’s and we instantly felt at home. We stocked up on the necessities: beer, water, and wine. We also grabbed cured meats, asiago, crackers, chips, guacamole, and salsa for dinner.
• We drove on highway 299, miles and miles through the location of the devastating Carr Fire. Last summer the Carr Fire burned over 200,000 acres. Seeing the destruction was heartbreaking. I made a small donation to the California Fire Foundation and urge you to as well.
• We were set on finding cute towns to meander through and found Weaverville. Our first stop in town was the blacksmith and museum. Zak found a dinner triangle. Made by an actual blacksmith. This has been on his wish list for years and it’s so exciting for us all that he found the perfect one. It means we won’t have to browse antique shops anymore.
• Second stop in Weaverville was Mama Llama for lunch. This was only the second non pbj&c of the trip, and it was so good. I had a caprese sandwich and everyone else was equally satisfied with their meal. Plus the diner was adorable, had a great vibe, and the staff was really friendly. Back to the ol’ pbj&c tomorrow. 🙁
• After lunch we drove. The road was continuously twisting and turning. Swerving and spinning. All three of us passengers were most certain car sickness would set it. We sucked on mints and jolly ranchers. We put away the phones. We closed our eyes. We opened our eyes and stared at the center yellow line. Everything we did worked and didn’t work. No one got sick, but no one felt good. At all.
• Along the drive, we went through about a dozen small towns. Most had populations in the tens and nothing but abandoned buildings. Some had a gas station, a campground, and maybe a diner. One had The Bigfoot Museum. We stopped in that one. And it was everything. In addition to getting us off the hellish road for a bit, we also got to read about each and every sighting of Bigfoot. We saw dozens of plaster casts of his footprint. We read newspaper articles about the Bigfoot hunters. (Fake news??) We left mostly convinced Bigfoot was lurking in the woods that surrounded us.
• We drove some more and found the town of Eureka. It was cute enough.
• We made it to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express McKinleyville. We are staying in the most newly renovated HIE room there is. I know this as a fact because the paint was still drying in the room and there were handy folks throughout the whole lobby glueing trim, laying carpet, and touching up paint. Our room is sweet.
• After checking in, we grabbed hot coffee and chocolate and headed up the coast. We found a beach and got to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time this trip. Actually, I was only planning on dipping my toes in, but Ellie dragged me in to my ankles and then a big wave came. I was drenched in cold (really cold!!) water from the knees down. Despite being cold, it was a lot of fun. We were on Clam Beach and were surrounded by clam shells.
• We drove farther north and ended up finding the the California Coastal National Monument. We spotted a bench and transformed it into the perfect little picnic table for our Trader Joe’s loot. The temperature is cool and crisp and the waves are hitting huge boulders in the harbor below us. The seagulls are squawking and the sun is setting. We’ve spent time blogging and will watch the sunset from this perfect little bench.

These kinds of days are my favorite. So much randomness. So many memories. So much laughter.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.