Last Hurrah

For as long we've had kids, we've always waited until the end of summer vacation to go up to my parents' home in Northern California. The main reason was to make sure that we would be able to go to the Humboldt County Fair at least one time. That tradition has been railroaded, however, by my school schedule, which has been set back a week earlier, so that my first day back at work coincides with the first day of the fair. I see on the website that Guy Fieri will be at the fair on the opening day, which also makes me just a tiny bit sad. He's not my favorite T.V. food personality, but I'd still go see him, and he is from Ferndale, which is kind of cool. (That he's from Ferndale, not  that Ferndale is kind of cool; Ferndale is way cool!)

So, this is our second year of missing the fair, but we're managing to enjoy the North Coast, ha, ha. There are just a few other things to enjoy up here. We had an array of de rigueur activities, but this year we  strayed from tradition and made a stop in Fort Bragg, where my runner partner , Diane and her husband, just happened to be staying there for a week of abalone diving and relaxing with her extended in-laws. We splurged and stayed at a hotel right on the beach and then met Aron and Diane for breakfast at Eggheads in Fort Bragg. It was a tiny place, but really, really good. Russ's egg benedict with tequila lime hollandaise sauce probably took a few years off of his life, but he would say it was worth it. Delicious!

View out our hotel window.

Not great a great picture, but the scenery itself is perfect.

We hadn't been to Fort Bragg with the kids that I can remember. It's 20 miles off of the hwy we take to get to Fortuna--20 miles that takes a good hour to cover. Usually, by the time we get to the turn off for Fort Bragg, we've been driving for nine or ten hours, and have no desire to add onto our time. But, we're glad we did it this time. If you like overcast weather with beautiful coastlines, which we do; it's perfect.