Friday, August 28, 2009
Wise Words
"Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough." -Charles Dudley Warner
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Abundance!
We are euphoric in Eureka! Words may fail to explain why we are reluctant to leave. Once you've looked at the photos you will understand. From the moment we arrived at Alice's coffee shop in Trinidad it has been glorious abundance. (If you ever find yourselves in Trinidad, make sure and visit the Beachcomber Cafe. Bring your own cup, they don't do "to go" but a better choice is to hangout and soak it up). Every night of our stay we have had an outrageous home cooked meal from bounty of the peak of the produce season here. I went to two Farmers Markets including the Arcata Farmer's Market which really needs to be seen to be believed. We visited our friend Amy from our PCT hike in 1996. Her and her husband and daughter have a beautiful farm in Willow Creek. We got a tour and a fantastic lunch. They specialize in heirloom tomatoes and peaches which were right at their peak season here. They also served homemade wine and lots of other goodies from their land. It was all my romantic images of farming layed out before us. Afterwards we swam in the Trinity River, a short walk behind their farm. Of course no visit is complete without the requisite brewery visits. Griz was happy to be our tour guide on visits to Mad River, Lost Coast and Humbrews. In the spirit of the local movement here in Humboldt County, Christian and Griz took an afternoon to brew their own beer (a SUPER hoppy Brutal B). On Sunday, eight of us spent the afternoon floating the Trinity River. It was the perfect afternoon. Coming home sun saturated and exhausted we enjoyed a fish taco night with halibut (that Griz caught), homemade tortillas and salsa made from gorgeous heirloom tomatoes. We are tearing ourselves away finally although I did enquire about a quote for the monthly rent at Griz and Alice's wonderful home. There are not sufficient words to thanks our hosts, we hope they know (as you do now) what a fantastic time we had!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
California
We made it to our friend's Griz and Alice house in Eureka! You may remember that we traveled to their wedding in New Zealand a couple of years ago. We are so excited to be here at their warm and welcoming home. We were excited to cross the California border and are hoping to enjoy some redwoods. It has been a little difficult because we concentrate more on survival cycling then taking in the views. We are challenged daily by motorists who get too close to us. I had to jump out of the way of a charging logging truck the other day. It is loud and scary out here so we were really excited to happen across a mountain bike trail that got us off the road and allowed us to camp in the backcountry. It was so quiet I nearly cried. We have both missed the silence that our backpacking adventures bring us. We are also excited to be in the land of many organic farms. I was lamenting to our friend Sara that we were finding limited organic produce and she suggested that if we spent half the energy we have invested in seeking out local breweries and applied it to finding farmers markets I might have better luck. I went to a beautiful farmers market today with Alice. A friend we know from the Pacific Crest Trail in 1996 is a farmer in the area and we will be going to her farm tomorrow. She set us up with gorgeous heirloom tomatoes and sweet melons to hold us over until our farm tour and lunch tomorrow which I'm sure will warrant a blog post of it's very own. Tonight we will make dinner at home and enjoy a "taste of Humbolt" yummy!
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