9/12/2010 - Yesterday in Eureka

Yesterday was a pretty typical Eureka day: mostly foggy. We headed to town around 9:00 to look for a wifi connection and to get some groceries. The first step in the trip in to town was to cross the first Samoa bridge. I assumed there would be sidewalks but, not so. There was a fairly wide strip between the fog line and the edge of the bridge but that was it. We walked facing traffic but I'm not sure what good it would have done since, if we had seen a car headed straight for us, there was really no where to go to get away. Maybe over the side of the bridge, but I don't know that drowning is any better than getting creamed by a Toyota. We just held our breaths and proceeded across and hoped the drivers would stay where they belonged. And, since I'm writing this, obviously they did.

The marina had provided us with a nice little map and we were able to find the library easily. Unfortunately, the library was closed until 11:00 and the free wifi they provide either did not extend outside the building or they turned it off when they were closed. Either way, no connection. Well, that's not entirely true. I managed to connect to someone's Belkin wireless router long enough to download e-mail but not long enough to upload the blog.

As we were starting our walk, my brother-in-law, Nick called to say that he still had a $50 credit at the Book Beggar bookstore in Old Town and I was welcome to use it. Coool. So, we headed to Old Town, mostly to locate the store. No plans to peruse the stock until Sunday or Monday. Old Town was apparently holding some sort of Saturday Market/Car Show as there were little booths all over, the streets were closed and there were quite a number of fancy old cars as well as some not-so-fancy project cars.

After Old Town, we headed south to try to find Rite-Aid so we'd know if it was a walkable distance when we needed to go pick up our prescriptions on (hopefully) Tuesday. It turns out that Rite-Aid is quite a ways away but Eureka is very walkable. I swear it's dead-flat. The only time we gained any elevation was when we crossed the Samoa bridge. We found Rite-Aid and then headed west to go to Winco to get our groceries. We had to be a little careful about what we bought as the weight adds up quickly. We got a bunch of produce, some cheese and meat, and a few other items. Once our packs were loaded, we were glad we stopped shopping when we did. They didn't seem that heavy at first but, by the time we got back to the boat they were plenty heavy enough.

After Winco we headed back to the library. By now they were open and I downloaded e-mail and uploaded the blog. I was also downloading some blogs we follow but the connection was painfully slow. When I was just about to give up, things suddenly sped up. Not sure if someone was hogging bandwidth with a huge download or what.

After the library we stopped at Burger King for lunch and noticed that the MacDonald's across the street as well as a Mexican restaurant nearby both offered free wifi. Have to keep that in mind.

Back across the bridge. This time, the idea of having to abandon ship over the side into the slough was even less appealing seeing as how we both were strapped in to 20 lb. backpacks. We arrived back at the boat safe and sound.

Later in the afternoon we went over to D dock to visit new friends Doug and Jody on their Westsail 32, El Gitano. Had a nice visit comparing notes about our trips down the coast. They started in Anacortes (just like we did although we made the Anacortes to Newport leg about three years before they did). They encouraged us to visit the National Weather Service office which is right here on Woodley Island. We'd planned to anyway after reading Mark & Vicki's blogs from a year ago. Doug and Jody said that the folks over at NWS did a great job of explaining why Cape Mendecino can be so dangerous as well as explaining what the various predicted wave heights really mean. Apparently you don't just add the wind wave height to the swell height. We plan a visit to the office tomorrow. Doug and Jody are also headed to Mexico and I'm sure we'll run in to them many times.

After we got back to the boat, fellow Willow Glen High School classmates Jeri & Joe, who live here in Eureka, stopped by with their grandson Carlos for a brief visit. We plan to get together for dinner and a longer visit before we depart Eureka.

Today it's beautiful. Sunny and clear. We're about to head to town to locate a Target store which we sort of think we know where it is. Need to get a few miscellaneous items that can't be found at Rite-Aid or Winco. We'll stop by MacD's and post this as well as get our e-mail.

An uncommonly sunny day in Eureka.