Eating & Travelling 101...

Next we stopped in the charming little community of Trinidad, mostly to visit the Humboldt State University's Marine Lab, which has a really cool touch tank full of starfish and anemonies (did you know they stick to you?). But ... oh happy day ... we also found Katy's Smokehouse, where both canned and jerkied smoked albacore was available! Not only do they have a delicious assortment of smoked fishes, but they were also selling (for $7 can) what Home & Garden and the Today Show believe is the best canned tuna in the country. In Trinidad, population 311! Huh.

We also visited a tiny farmer's market in Arcata. The most notable thing was a local variety of high-acid strawberries; imagine strawberries dosed with a little lemon juice on the inside and they were sort of like that.

For dinner, we went to Hurricane Kate's, a restaurant we'd spotted on our last visit to Eureka, when it had been closed. Pictured here is what was undoubtedly their best single item; the tomato-mozzarella croquettes. Each one is a stack of tomato and mozzarella slices skewered on a rosemary branch, then breaded and deep-fried. Wow. We also had pizza, which was good but less exciting.

For dessert, we had decided to skip over to Old Town Coffee & Chocolates, partly because our server at Kate's was so slow we didn't want to take a chance of never getting the check. To our surprise, Old Town had stopped serving made desserts! We were crushingly disappointed, until we discovered the reason why ... a new ice cream parlor and dessertery called "Bon Boniere" two doors down. There we ordered ginger ice cream atop a blackberry crumble. Yum.

Wednesday, we went to the Fair. One thing we spotted early on in the schedule was "The Performing Kitchen-Aires" who turned out to be a funny senior kazoo band with kazoos made from kitchen implements. Worth seeing once.

Of course, it wouldn't be a county fair without pie. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm pie. Other fair food wasn't so exciting, although I got a mound of curly fries as big as my head while watching the mule races.

Yeah, you heard me. Mule races.

Of course, we also had to stop at the Loleta Cheese Factory and buy smoked cheddar cheese and roasted garlic jack. That place ought to do sandwiches. Instead, we at sandwiches from the Ferndale Meat Company.

On the drive home, I'd planned on stopping by Lazy Creek Winery, but found out that they'd been sold. Stopping at wineries on the 101 was out of the question; it was 107 degrees in Ukiah. We didn't stop the car.

Someday you should visit the Lost Coast, too!

(as usual, larger/more images on my photo site)