Thursday, October 13, 2011

North on the 101

We departed from the lovely amenities of the bungalow at Pacific Star Winery and headed north on Highway 1 until it joined with the 101. The 1 turns from the coast and starts to head inland winding in and out of a large canyon. Rumor has it there are over 400 turns within the 30-40 miles of that connecting road. Sheldon drew the short straw. It's helping him with his inexperience. I just looked out the window and tried catching all the items jostling around when he was pretending he was in a BMW racing in the Indianapolis 500. Good times. :)
           We connected up with the 101 and stopped in a town called Garberville where we had lunch. The town was a very rural farming community filled with hippies and tourists. I think I saw more 'legit' hippies in this town than all of San Francisco. Sounds impossible right? They were everywhere. Full-on hippy hip. The definition or rather the image of a legitimate hippy is debatable and I'm sure there might be different breeds/looks/offspring/incest of the hippy, regardless however I considered the ones in Garberville rather legit. I'm no professional hippy-spotter though. Anyways, we left Garberville and headed to the REDWOOD FOREST! I had my eyes peeled for Robin Hood, Lil' John (white version), and Friar Tuck the whole time in the forest. I kept looking around waiting for the brave Robin Hood to swing out of a treetop, swoop down and steal my shillings... It didn't happen though. Also, I was kind of on the lookout for a Velociraptor or Tyrannosaurus Rex to charge out of the ferns and chase me down in a sci-fi sort of way through the forest dodging fallen giant redwoods, creeks, rocks, vines... I can see it now. It gets me a little worked up. Ready to sprint off into the forest for safety. (I think I've watched too many second-rate Sci-Fi Channel dinosaur movies...)
       The forest we visited was Rockefeller Forest. It is a side road off the 101 that takes you through an almost jungle with redwood trees towering hundreds of feet above you. Some of the trees are over 300 feet tall! Mind-blowing stuff. The lush green shrubbery in the forest was fascinating. We played some tunes for the giants and wandered around for a little, keeping lookout for prehistoric animals, and enjoyed the beauty of the forest. Great time in the forest and it was wonderful to visit a part of the park that had not been touched by a chainsaw. The Rockefeller Forest was purchased back in the early 1900's by John D. Rockefeller and set aside to be preserved. The views were stunning.
       After the dinosaur daydream, we left the Rockefeller Forest and headed to Arcata. Our sweet and dear cousin Holly lives in Arcata and attends Humboldt State University. We met up with her at her lovely Victorian home and reminisced late into the night. She told us wonderful stories of Arcata. Somewhat eye-opening to be honest. However in the daylight it's a pretty cool city I must say. The hipster look is in full-swing and this strange smell keeps appearing... Who knows?
           After catching up with Holly we headed to our home and slept. Great dreams I must say.

Pictures are still to come! I need to edit them! In time... :)

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