End of the Road

I have been stalling, delaying the inevitable, but the time has pretty much come. With Jake having very nearly fully recovered, there seems little point in continuing to blog on about his rehabilitation. I think I may have a post or two left in the story though.

When last we left our intrepid little family, we were snug in our room at the Holiday Inn Express in Ukiah. Ukiah is in some very pretty country, but we weren't really there for the sight seeing. Just a quick stay for the night and then we were off again on the road to Humboldt State. The last few hours drive goes through some beautiful country, but a lot of two lane, combined with several construction zones made the drive a bit of a pain.

We did take one touristy little side trip to the drive-through "Chandelier Tree." There are apparently three different drive through trees up in the neighborhood of the Avenue of the Giants and we were informed that this particular one was the best. I actually chickened out on the first pass, shown below, and drove around the tree.


Later, I decided we had paid FIVE bucks to get in to this stupid little park and I wasn't going to get my money's worth by driving around a drive-through tree. I seized the bull by the horns, or rather the Pilot by the wheel, pulled in the mirrors and went on through. Made it with an inch or two to spare. Jake's shot below is not much of a photo, but you can just make out the wood outside the window.
It didn't occur to me until I was through the tree that I had no idea about my overhead clearance. Could have ripped the roof racks right off.

We arrived in Arcata a little after noon and headed to the school. The line for registration was well out the door of the Jolly Giant Commons. It was apparent that we were going nowhere fast. Should have stopped for lunch on the way into town because we were pretty hungry, but now we didn't want to lose our place in the queue and dining options were few and far between.

Fortunately, Jake's roommate Pendar had already registered and checked into their dorm room. Jake and I left Denise holding our place in the registration line, jumped in the car and drove it up to his dormitory, Redwood Hall. A couple trips with our collapsible hand truck and Pendar's room key we had all his junk moved in.

Jake elected to hang out in his room for a while and I rejoined my spousal unit in the registration line. When we finally got within what we figured to be 15 minutes from the door we phoned Jake and had him come down and join us. Once inside, the process went a little quicker. Another 20 minutes or so and we had the registration process behind us.

Unfortunately, that didn't present much of an opportunity to catch up on the lunch we had missed, because the cafeteria in the Commons had already closed. We settled for getting something at the Giant's Cupboard, a little store catering to the college student with just about everything you could image in microwaveable fare.

While we had been waiting for Jake to complete the registration process, we met up with Jake's buddy Ryan Valesi and family. Ryan's dad Rick suggested a trip to the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka. Being only a couple blocks from our hotel and being a brewery, it seemed like a good idea to me. We agreed to meet up there later.

We headed up to Jake's room so that Denise could get a look, Jake continued unboxing and setting up his stuff and then proceeded to blow us off, preferring to hang out with his friends. I guess that after 4 days and 3 nights sharing a vehicle, motel rooms and about every waking hour with his parents he was justified in wanting a little separation.

We took off, drove back down to Eureka and checked into our hotel.

A bit later, after coordinating with Ryan's family, we decided that we would drive back to the school to get Jake, head to the Target to dump a bunch more money into supplies for the little ingrate and then hook up for a few brews at Lost Coast. Since the Valesi's were staying in Arcata, the plan was that they would take Jake with them when they returned Ryan to his dorm, which would save us a trip.

Unfortunately, I screwed all that up. It's a long story, but I was tired and in a kind of foul mood when we got to the brewery, a situation that was not helped by finding standing room only around the bar. I was informed that my first choice, 8-Ball Stout, was out. Strike two. I went with my second choice, their Pale Ale, and followed that up with an IPA and my mood was starting to improve. Eventually they had a table ready for us. The Valesi's had already eaten, so we were planning to order food for just the three of us. We asked the hostess for an extra chair for Jake and were told "No!" Not, "I'm sorry, there's no other chairs available" or "Sorry, we can't add a chair because it would block traffic," just "No!"

Fine whatever. So 30 minutes later (OK, maybe it was only 20, but my beer was empty so it seemed like hours) no one has been by to offer so much as a glass of water. Rick got up and spoke to the hostess about getting some service. As he was returning to the table the hostess flagged a server down and gestured to our table with what I interpretted as a sort of "These jackasses are complaining about the service" sort of attitude. SO, I got up and said "That's it, I'm out of here!" The hostess immediately tried to apologize, but I wasn't having any of that and stormed on out.

In retrospect I may have slightly overreacted. Normally I will suffer the most incompetent of service in silence, but for some reason the combination of exhaustion from the trip, frustration with Jake and the whole check-in process and my perception of rude service conspired to force a short little melt down. The only good news was that the brewery gave Rick a 10% discount on his purchase of a T-shirt and case of Alleycat Amber, as a means to make amends.

In fairness to Lost Coast, the beers I was able to try were pretty good (especially considering that my taste for anyone else's IPA has been pretty much ruined by Stone Ruination IPA) and the menu looked like it might actually have been a decent place to dine. Maybe I should give them a second chance whenever next I find myself in Eureka.

We ended up taking Jake with us in search of food and parted company with the Valesi family, much to their relief I can only assume. Ended up in Arcata at Rita's Margaritas, which turned out to be excellent. Some of the best fish tacos I've had anywhere and an extensive selection of tequilas which would have been entertaining had I been in a more festive mood.

That concluded a fairly long and hectic Tuesday. The remainder of the week was pretty uneventful. Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to the HOP (Humboldt Orientation Program) with separate sessions for the parents and students, so we saw very little of our son during those days. In my humble opinion, the parent orientation program was pretty much a waste of time, better suited to first-time parents of college students. Since we already had experience with Nick a lot of what was presented was old news. Denise on the other hand thought the few little pearls of information we were able to gleen from the proceedings made the whole event worthwhile. We were able to get some information about the Geology program which could turn out to be very useful, if Jake sticks with that as his major.

The school hosted a staff/parent mixer at the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center on Wednesday evening. Never one to miss out on free food and drink, I decided we should attend. Technically, it was not free; we paid for it through our registration fees for the HOP. It was a nice event and we had the opportunity to speak with the Dean of the College of Natural Resource Sciences, the campus Chief of Police, a representative from the HSU Foundation and several other members of the school staff. It turned out the we had parked next to the President of HSU, Rollin Richmond, and ended up walking out with him. When he found out we were from Temecula he told us that he had spent quite a bit of time around Lake Elsinore several years back. It's a small world.

Thursday had very little of interest to us on the HOP agenda, so we cut out early and drove off north along the coast sight seeing. Took a short hike through the Lady Bird Johnson Grove in Redwoods National Park and stopped in at the park visitor center near Orick for very short walk along the beach.

Headed back later in the afternoon to HSU and the HOP BBQ. There we met Jake for a quick bite to eat. It was pretty apparent that Jake was ready to be rid of us. Maybe a couple of months sleeping in the dorms and dining on cafeteria food will make him actually miss us. Maybe not. At any rate, we drove him back to his dorm, said goodbye and headed back to our Best Western in Eureka.

Decided that we should put a positive spin on things, so stopped and picked up a bottle of bubbly, Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs, some hors d'oeuvres and a romantic DVD (Quantum of Solace, what's more romantic than James Bond) and spent our last night in Eureka in our room. Actually, Denise spent the night reading and I watching another DVD, U571, which was not very good.

Friday morning we got up, originally intending to drive until we got tired or found someplace interesting to stay. Reaching wine country by mid-morning we decided we were making good time and couldn't contemplate another night in a motel, so we committed to the full trip to Temecula in one shot. We did take a couple breaks for wine tasting in the Alexander Valley and at Sutter Home, but beyond that it was pedal to the metal all the way home. We did not even stop for lunch or dinner. We dined in transit on a ciabata loaf from Boudin's in San Francisco, an assortment of cheeses, a little olive tapenade, assorted fresh fruit. Quite a picnic considering it was in the front seat of the Pilot.

Arrived home at 9:00 PM, just a little over 13 hours for the entire trip, which was not bad considering the few stops along the way. Leo and Nick both appeared happy enough to see us, so it was good to be home. I think Nick was especially happy, because our being home meant that he would again have his bed to himself. Apparently Leo was a little traumatized by our being gone. He would wedge himself into Nick's bed, eventually taking over all but a small corner for Nick to try to sleep in. I think that Friday night was the first full night of sleep that Nick had had in a week.

Miscellaneous pictures of the drive to and around Arcata can be found here for anyone interested.

There is quite a bit more I want to say and there are a few loose ends with Jake's recovery that need to be tied off, so I will be making a few more posts. For now I have been sitting at this laptop for entirely too long and need to give my lap a break. More later. Bye.