A Few Random Memories...

Going on two weeks ago now, on a sunny warmish Wednesday afternoon, Hayley and I went to the movie theater, where we watched the third installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I was none too impressed with the second one, but they really made up for it in the third film. I hadn't been to a movie since I moved out here so perhaps I was also just excited to be in a movie theater again. But I thought it was funny, original enough, never a dull moment, and wholly entertaining.

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Yesterday Mike and I went for a stroll at the Arcata Marsh, where we witnessed an amazing sight. Hundreds of large birds flying in the sky, all landing in this small pond. As we approached, we noticed their shape, their long beaks and the curve of their necks. As they flew they resembled pterodactyls, and we both agreed on that point. As we continued to approach the pond, more and more continued to swoop down, flying low over our heads, dark gray in color, eerie against the overcast sky. They appeared to be Pelicans! Hundreds of them! Mike and I sat on a bench overlooking the pond and enjoyed the show. It was one of those moments where you really wish you had your camera. Trying to explain it doesn't even do it justice. The pelicans appeared to be having a meeting of some kind, and there was quite a racket in that pond. After the meeting was apparently over they began to bathe, hunt, and/or fly away, always in packs (flocks?) of about 10-20. They were so big! Mike said they resembled huge humminbirds, and I thought their dark color and the sheer number of them against the sky was like looking at a bunch of odd-shaped bats or a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds (except they were not attacking us, or even acknowledging us, for that matter, which was A-OK with me)! It was pretty awesome to behold, though I wish I could share a glimpse of it with you.

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Yesterday on our way to the grocery store we drove by a man sitting on a fire hydrant using his laptop. I wouldn't think that would be an ideal place to use your laptop, but perhaps he was walking along on his way to a more suitable spot, a coffee shop for instance, when some laptop emergency arose, so he looked around for the nearest chair, and there was a very convenient fire hydrant. The fire hydrant was yellow, in case you were wondering.

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Speaking of weird, if you are ever in a very small and strange town called Cloverdale, just north of Santa Rosa, and you are wondering to yourself, "Self, where is the best place to purchase some gasoline in this town of Cloverdale?" Then you should go to the place where the gas is cheap, about 20 cents cheaper than any other spot for literally hundreds of miles, and that is at some guy's house. I kid you not. The gas station was his house. I know, because he let me use his bathroom. It wasn't like he lived in a gas station, it was like their was a gas pump at his house, and he had a window at which you paid, and when you looked in that window, it was his living room.

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Also, while Hayley and Dan were here, we discovered the fun that is Uno. I mean, I already knew it was fun previously, but it doesn't get more serious than when the four of us sit around our roommates' gigantic poker table, and play some SERIOUS UNO. Another fun thing we did was stay at this place up in Trinidad called Cabin in the Redwoods, in Emerald Forest, where it was just the four of us, no roommates in our very own cute little cabin. We went to the grocery store together and got some food. We prepared about three meals together: spaghetti and red sauce and salad and garlic bread one night (Hayley and Dan made that one); eggs, bacon and toast the next morning (I made the bacon! Hayley did the toast, Mike is the egg-master); and pesto noodles, salad and pizza the following night (that was Mike and me but it was leftover salad from the night before, a frozen pizza and an already prepared pesto sauce that you just stir into the noodles, and it's very delicious). Sitting down at the table together and eating was so nice. It felt so familiar and good to me.

Another food-realated thing we did while they were here that I'm glad about is have some delicious seafood. We ate at a place in Eureka called Gallagher's which is an Irish pub that has some delicious fried calamari and New England clam chowder. We also ate at a place in Fortuna called Eel River Brewery, where we dined on lobster and oysters and fish and chips and calamari and prawns galore. We even had some to reheat the next day.

And then the aforementioned bonfire night - Mike and Hayley ran around collecting driftwood (this is totally legal I promise) and Dan and I had the important job of holding down the log on which we were sitting. Mike had brought a pocketfull of scrap paper and pretty soon we had a pretty little fire going, an ocean, warm sand on our feet, a sunset, a few beverages and unlimited good fun. It was my favorite memory of the time they were here, by far.

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OK back to working on pictures, Stay Tuned for some pictures, y'all.