California: the big ass state

California is a big ass state. 163,700 square miles. On  Thursday we drove back home, 203 miles in seven hours. We were on the highways and byways was not a straight shot and it was beautiful. Iconic California oak trees dripping with lichen  -- marshes, deep forests, open cattle grazing land, vineyards.

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The Arcata Marsh was spectacular, and we were there during an extremely low tide.  Herons, ducks, geese.  There were loud V shaped masses flying through the sky -- reminding me of the flying creatures in the Wizard of Oz.

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Directly behind Humboldt State University is the Arcata Community Forest.  It is a land lost in time....I expected a large lumbering dinosaur to appear.  These trees are old.  There were notches in the trees, put there by loggers 150 years ago to aid in their work. 

One of the most wondrous things is the way the tree roots grow over fallen tree trunks.  Encircling the fallen giant, incorporating the horizontal wood in it's journey to grow upward toward the light.




On our last night there, we joined friends in Eureka for dinner.  We arrived early to watch the sunset over the bay.  It was glorious.  The evening's entertainment, the pre-dinner show, no cover charge.