This morning it was raining early but around 10:00 AM the weather changed to just overcast skies and some scattered drizzle. We seized the opportunity to take a spin to Ferndale and on to the coast south of Eureka Bay.
We started out the tour by checking out some of the Victorian buildings in downtown Eureka where an abundance of them exist but none equaling the beautiful Carson Mansion. This gorgeous harborside confection has unfortunately been turned into a private club where mere mortals are unwelcome. The clubbies have renamed it into something called Ingomar which means nothing in any language. The have substantial fences. Nevertheless, this absolutely magnificent structure is quite breathtaking from the outside.
From the Carson Mansion we headed through down US-101 through Old Town, past numerous homeless individuals and out of town headed for Ferndale. This is a little bitty town about 15 or 20 miles southwest of Eureka and here we found more really stunning Victorian buildings, most of them on the main street. Some of the old houses near here were unable to be saved and it is kind of bitter to see these grand structures falling down from neglect.
After covering all 4 of the streets passing through Ferndale we decided to go on to the section of California called “The Lost Coast,” maybe because there are almost no roads or people on the coast between Fort Bragg in Mendocino County all the way to Eureka. Unfortunately, it was Peggy’s turn to drive today and almost as soon as we left Ferndale the road turned to doo-doo and Peg started to get uncomfortable about continuing. Accordingly, we chickened out after about 5 miles and headed back to Eureka. It started to rain.
We made a short side trip to Humboldt Bay National Wildlife refuge and spotted lots of birds of lots of species, some deer, sheep, cows, dogs and even some pot-bellied pigs. When we passed a guy near the pigs he somehow felt compelled to holler ‘they aren’t mine” as we drove by in Charlotte. Strange.
We culminated our trip with a shopping excursion to Costco where we stocked up on some food and a whole lot of liquor because we will soon be in Oregon where getting liquor at most times is problematic and always expensive. After we got back to Redwood Acres RV the rain really ramped up and drummed on our little fiberglass house all night.
We got some pix which you can see by clicking here