Eureka

[Kyle]Eureka was looking much more appealing the next morning. The light was bright and diffuse in the late morning fog. We started by walking away from the town center on the path that runs along the river-front.

The very grand (and private) Ingomar Club

The first thing we encountered was the grand and beautiful Ingomar Club – a place formerly known as the Carson Mansion that is home to a very posh and exclusive men’s club in a grand Victorian Mansion with lots of intricate gingerbread woodwork sitting atop a hill overlooking the town. We didn’t venture past the many ‘Private’ signs, but admired the grounds from the street nevertheless.

Beautiful 'Gingerbread' Victorian houses adorn the town (not all in the best of repair)

We then meandered off along a route that took in many of the towns lesser but also beautiful examples of the town’s penchant for Victorian architecture with a lot of intricate woodwork. The sun broke through the fog. Our tour of pretty houses became the underlying framework for a long walk in the sun talking about anything and everything that came to our minds without the pressure of time. It’s easy to fall into the habit of skipping time for real conversations about what makes you tick in favor of seemingly more pressing talks about day-to-day admin.

The Eureka Inn, recently renovated and reopened - Maryanne was hoping to take tea there, but being Sunday it was closed (along with the bar!)

Or tour of the town’s architecture culminated at the Eureka Inn, a grand old wooden structure in the center of town. One of the men at the front desk took note of our interest and was kind enough to show us around a bit even though we weren’t guests at the hotel. He seemed to enjoy showing the place off and was clearly proud of it.

We had wanted to have a meal at their beautiful restaurant, but it was closed, so we headed back to the part of the town we had seen the night before with all of the restaurants and pubs. We almost stopped in several of them, but managed to hold off until reaching the Tourism Center.

In addition to the usual stuff you would find in such a place, like brochures, souvenirs and advice on what’s good to do in the area, they also had a bar, which served lots of local food and drink from Humboldt County. We had a six-glass wine taster and a seven-glass beer taster as well as a sampler of four cheeses, all in a wonderful and friendly atmosphere. Maryanne also had one of their garlic and ginger kumamoto oysters. We left wishing we had found the place first. Our initial impression of Eureka would have been so much better.

The town is full of murals, a pleasure to discover as we wandered around

We went home for a dinner of pasta with the smoked salmon we bought from Brookings. We weren’t done yet, though. At the urging of the lovely staff at the Tourism Center, we returned afterwards for Cake Night.

One of the local high-end cake shops had brought out a free sampling of some of their absolutely delectable creations in little melt-in-your-mouth morsels. The chef was in attendance and she was more than happy to share her process as well as feeding us more than we strictly needed. It was a good thing we ate before coming back. It made it easier to avoid eating another dinner of macaroons and s’mores. (We were even given a couple of extra cakes to take home with us and enjoy at a later time.. Mmmm, we LOVE the cake!)