Vacating, days 6 and 7: wrap-up.

THURSDAY
Thursday, Sir turned 30. We had a REAL barbeque (brisket, slow-cooked over a smoldering low-heat fire for a long period of time) with his family and he drank a 30th Anniversary Sierra Nevada. It seemed appropriate.

This trip was his 30th/my 26th birthday present (along with some new kitchen supplies). The correct way to birthday-party is surrounded by family and friends. So, I think we did it right. I hope he thinks so too.

We also rounded out the week with one last run, during which time I do believe I conquered those hills. Booya.

FRIDAY
6:30am - 12pm PST:             Drive to San Francisco, get incredibly carsick and crabby
12pm - 3:30pm PST:             SFO airport relaxation, breathe, undo carsickness
3:30pm PST - 12am EST:     SFO > JFK, re-induce motion sickness
Bed.

POST-SCRIPT
Upon our return, we received the below photos from my mom via snail-mail. Our hiking pictures reminded her of a trip she had taken with my father, the year before they got married. They're hiking around Wurtsboro, NY with my Aunt Jan and Uncle Wayne, who still live in Wurtsboro to this day.

Aunt Jan and Uncle Wayne, hiking

Uncle Wayne giving my dad (afro alert!!) a piggy-back ride

Mom, hiking

Aunt Jan, Uncle Wayne, Mom

Mom, nature

Waterfall.

I like that my dad isn't in too many of these pics, and instead was taking pics of my mom. That's cute.

Many thanks to the Parker Jones family for their hospitality. We'll miss you, vacation. Hope to see you again soon.

Vacating, days 4 and 5: lumberjacky pursuits.

TUESDAY
Tuesday's main event consisted of Sir and his father chopping down a tree in the yard and hauling it out to be made into chips. The tree had been cut down years ago when it looked as though it might fall on the house, but a whole bunch of new trees had grown out of the stump. Apparently those redwoods are tenacious little buggers.

A lumberjack of my very own - swoon.

We also got after that run again, which went much better this time. I didn't try to keep up with Sir and was able to finish without walking, hooray! I truly do not remember being able to run a marathon.

WEDNESDAY
We went on a seven-mile hike in the Arcata Community Forest, located basically right behind Sir's parents' house. Sir showed me where he had trained for cross-country in the forest, and again I was impressed with his lumberjacky qualities. There are some angry-steep hills in that forest.

All the beautiful forests here make me feel a little bit awful. Could Manhattan have looked like this, had we left it alone?

Run, day 3. Not great, but definitely doable. Legs feel happy to be running again.

Hello, Arcata.

After an entire day of traveling, we finally arrived in Arcata late last night. Let the vacationing begin! I suppose technically it began when we touched down in San Francisco, or when we stopped in Napa and St. Helena for a quick tasting and some grub, but it wasn't until nine hours after touching down in SF that we entered the cool stillness of Humboldt County and truly felt we'd arrived.

Wine tasting at Turnbull Winery.

Shrimp tacos and other yummies at Taylor's Refresher, aka Gott's Roadhouse.

We celebrated our arrival by passing out immediately. An eighteen-hour day of traveling can have that effect.

Cozy toesies.

We got up early and walked to town for breakfast at Los Bagels, where the kind folks of Arcata offered gluten-free bagels for me and my people (the gluten-intolerant). Not used to making bagel decisions, I hastily blurted out that I wanted cream cheese and lox, with onion. Some of the best decisions in life are hastily made; that bagel was definitely one of them.

Then we went to the farmer's market, where a girl was selling poems, written on the spot on a typewriter in a box. In my heart, I felt the unmistakable twinge of someone in Williamsburg, dying of happiness (and maybe jealousy).

We bought beautiful heirloom tomatoes, poblano chiles, jalapeño peppers, an onion, cilantro and some arugula. Oh, and a loaf of gluten-free bread that was described as containing carob and molasses, but pretty much tasted like a really good rye bread.

I read all afternoon in a sunny nook, with a slice of the bread and two big glasses of milk. I read the entire first book of the Hunger Games series. That book was intended to last me for the entire vacation, and instead I read the whole thing on day one. Whoops.

We made chiles rellenos with the poblanos, stuffed with sweet corn and cheese.

Overall, a pretty excellent start to the vacation.