Apr 28th - Eureka Sight Seeing Day

Today we spent the afternoon looking around Eureka. I laid about all morning. Kathy did some laundry and a little laying about.

Our first stop with the Blue Ox Millworks http://www.blueoxmill.com/index.html

The bad news was that since they had they ran their trolley car in the Rhododendron parade today. (We didn't get around in time to go watch the parade) A lot of Blue Ox people were riding the trolley and the place was officially closed today. The good news was that they let us just wander around anyway.

First, getting there is interesting. The tourist information says they are located at the corner of 1st Street and X Street. Below is a photo of that corner and yes it is the entrance to the place. There are absolutely no signs. Even after driving into the driveway I wasn't sure what we were getting in to.

 Walking around the grounds you find some strange things.

This building is one of the "skid" buildings. It represents a "theater" building that might have been part of a logging camp. Some times it would take two years to log an area. Many of the loggers would be a long way from home and the "theater" served as a place for meetings and entertainment. The trim around the top is all plaster crown molding, it would not have been that way in a logging camp. The buildings were call "skid" buildings because they were built on skids. After an area had been logged, oxen were hooked to the skids and the buildings were "skidded" to the next site.

 This is part of the blacksmith area.

 Now we are getting into the millwork area. This is only a small part of the wood working area. They can saw up to 30" diameter timbers.

 This is the view out the "back door" of the property.

This place was fantastic. If you ever are in the Eureka area put it on your list of things that you have to see. By the way, check out their web site. The place is fully operational. They continually make historic trim, gutters, etc.

Lunch at the Cafe Nooner came next. I had a cup of soup with lots of mushrooms, celery and chili peppers and a a Creole BBQ Pork Sandwich. Kathy had a Nooner Club Chicken sandwich. We split an order of really good onion rings.

After lunch we walked around the old town area of Eureka. There are many, many beautiful buildings.

 And lots of murals.

This photo is of the boardwalk along the bay area. Lots of beautiful boats in the harbor.

After the sightseeing we came back to the RV, at the fairgrounds. There is a 3/8 mile, asphalt track here and the cars are out practicing for a tonights races. We are less than a half mile from the center of the track. It is beautiful, maybe a little cool, here and we will probably go over and check out the racing later. The gates were supposed to have opened at 5:00, about 20 minutes ago, but I don't see a lot of cars in the lot yet. Racing is supposed to start at 7:00 or 7:30, I can't remember which.

After we got back from sight seeing I walked around the fair grounds. There are over a hundred horses boarded here, out beyond the race track. There are several large pens/lots for rodeos and/or showing horses.

We are still trying to decide whether or not to move north, into Oregon, tomorrow. We don't know of anything else in the area that we really want to see.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.