Fifth day on the road and we're still having a great time!  We spent the night in Arcata, which wasn't what I expected it to be.  This morning we explored Eureka.  They seem to have a problem with vagrants; a lot of people hanging around that look like they are pretty down on their luck.  Eureka has a lot of Victorian-style buildings.  Here is a photo of the most famous one in town.

It is kind of amazing how many coastal cities have Victorian-style buildings, similar to our own Astoria.

Eureka served us well.  We purchased gas, washed our car, bought Starbucks, then headed to the Avenue of the Giants - more redwoods.  This is a nice 32-mile drive that pretty much parallels Hwy. 101, but the Avenue of the Giants takes you in and among the redwood trees.  Since we had seen so many trees yesterday, we didn't stop much.

Ate lunch at Garberville; kind of a hippie town just south of the Avenue of the Giants.  About 30 miles south of there we headed west on hwy 1.  Boy is that a curvy road.  It took us well over an hour to drive the 30+ miles to the ocean.  I think Doug really liked the driving, though.

The coast just north of Fort Bragg (which is where we are staying tonight) is really rugged and beautiful.  We had another lovely day of weather.  Right on the ocean it was around 65 degrees and only a breath of a breeze.  We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Here is a view of what the coast looks like:

Once in Fort Bragg we found a room at the Emerald Dolphin Inn.  It is a nice place.  We also got to talk to Kellie on the phone.  What a treat!

Fort Bragg is not a military place.  Apparently, it was named Fort Bragg before the Civil War when a garrison was placed here to manage the Indian Reservation that had been set up in the area.  Now, it is a vacation spot.  We heard there was a beach here where glass has been recycled by the ocean and become "glass beach."  So, we just had to check it out.  I love beach combing, so this was a real treat for me!  I'm bringing home a small sample of glass beach.

Dianna looking for sea glass

We just got back to our room after strolling on the beach and eating fish and chips at a popular local place on the marina. What a wonderful ending to a fantastic day.