It’s now Monday and we got ready for a tour of Ocean World. I wasn’t expecting too much but was pleasantly surprised, especially about a certain pirate maiden.
We had an excellent talk about tidepool critters,
especially about sea stars and sea anemones, their defenses and how they work. One of the guests used his tongue to touch an anemone for 20 seconds and allowed it to be stung.
It produced a slight numbing sensation. We then went to the shark tank and some touchy-feely with a leopard and horned shark.
Following the shark encounter, we did the rockfish tank and then went outside for a “show”, more of a behavioral exhibition, with a sea lion and two harbor seals.
All in all, a very good stop.
We then carpooled to the Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center where they rehab sick and injured varmints for release back into the wild, if possible.
It’s a good thing they do. I have been noticing that there are a few too many skinny sharks off our coast lately. It’s nice to add a few more sea lions to the food chain. A good healthy shark population is a good thing!
We then went to Battery Point Lighthouse. Today is beautifully clear with bright blue skies. When Claudia and I were here a few weeks ago, it was foggy and dismal. Today, I got a great photo. After Battery Point, it was off to lunch at the Chart Room by the harbor for some excellent fish & chips. Claudia had a calamari sandwich, also excellent. We then picked up some firewood for tonight’s briefing and social and returned to the park to catch up on paperwork, emails and phone calls. Included in one email was the news that Neil and Terry caught two legal crabs in Bandon and were having them for dinner tonight. There is nothing like fresh crab!
Today was a fabulous day! We all got out of the park between 9:00 and 9:30 and headed for the Trees of Mystery at Klamath.
We then carpooled to the Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center where they rehab sick and injured varmints for release back into the wild, if possible.
It’s a good thing they do. I have been noticing that there are a few too many skinny sharks off our coast lately. It’s nice to add a few more sea lions to the food chain. A good healthy shark population is a good thing!
We then went to Battery Point Lighthouse. Today is beautifully clear with bright blue skies. When Claudia and I were here a few weeks ago, it was foggy and dismal. Today, I got a great photo. After Battery Point, it was off to lunch at the Chart Room by the harbor for some excellent fish & chips. Claudia had a calamari sandwich, also excellent. We then picked up some firewood for tonight’s briefing and social and returned to the park to catch up on paperwork, emails and phone calls. Included in one email was the news that Neil and Terry caught two legal crabs in Bandon and were having them for dinner tonight. There is nothing like fresh crab!
Today was a fabulous day! We all got out of the park between 9:00 and 9:30 and headed for the Trees of Mystery at Klamath.
With my usual spectacular finesse, I maneuvered all the rigs into the south end of the parking lot like a beautiful symphony. Once parked, everyone went for the gondola ride
and then walked through the redwoods, stopping at the carved panels along the paths.
The only problem was that Paul Bunyan’s voice was inoperative and he couldn’t talk to the guests as they arrived. After the visit, we all trickled out for the hour-long drive to the Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka via the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, and scenic it was…a beautiful, winding shortcut through more redwoods. Can we ever get enough great scenery…nope! We even saw a few elk, all within an easy rifle shot from the road…not that I would even think of shooting such a beautiful animal with such beautiful brown eyes, delicious backstraps and tasty roasts.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the Samoa Cookhouse. The Samoa Cookhouse is an old cookhouse from the lumber heydays. They fed all the lumberjacks for the company in a family-style setting. It is operated that way today…family style and all you can eat. Today we had a vegetable-beef soup, fresh green salad, fresh green beans, barbecued beans, chicken parmesan and a side of pasta, all cooked perfectly. Dessert was strawberry cake. Did I say it was all you could eat? Well it was!
After getting much, much more than our money’s worth, we again headed south toward the Ancient Redwoods RV Park inside the Avenue of the Giants. This was a park that Claudia and I found on our way up the coast. We were exploring and were visiting the adjacent Burl ‘n’ Drift Café and Gift Shop when we were contacted by the Assistant Manager of the park. Even though the park we were scheduled to stay at in Benbow was a very nice park, this one really tripped our triggers, so we told Ron and Juanita about it when we saw them in Eureka. They stopped by, liked it, and made the change. It was the easiest parking job so far. Most sites were pull-thru’s so it was just a matter of bringing the rigs in and directing them into their sites on either side of the road…one left, one right, one left, and so on.
Piece of cake! I have never seen guests so happy with a park as they are with this one. Everyone has a smile on their face!
After parking and settling in, we started setting up for our combination anniversary/birthday party where everyone with a birthday or anniversary during the trip was honored. Claudia and Linda baked a pineapple upside-down cake, a Funfetti cake and cupcakes, all accompanied with ice cream, several jams, syrups and nuts.
We also had balloons and confetti poppers. The party went well into the evening around a Maytag firepit until the cold chased us all back into the warmth of our rigs. Tomorrow is a free day for the guests to explore the Avenue in their cars. Tonight, we will sleep well amongst the giants!
Claudia and I stayed in the rig all day with paperwork and putting out fires…forest fires. We had some big problems which will HOPEFULLY be resolved tomorrow. If they aren’t, we are in deep poop! Later in the afternoon, we quit and got ready for tonight’s festivities which will include a beanbag baseball game where the men will attempt to regain their honor by (hopefully) beating the women who trounced us in the first game last week.
We got started at 5:30 and the men prevailed.
Claudia and I stayed in the rig all day with paperwork and putting out fires…forest fires. We had some big problems which will HOPEFULLY be resolved tomorrow. If they aren’t, we are in deep poop! Later in the afternoon, we quit and got ready for tonight’s festivities which will include a beanbag baseball game where the men will attempt to regain their honor by (hopefully) beating the women who trounced us in the first game last week.
We got started at 5:30 and the men prevailed.
The score was 8 to 2. We then had a travel briefing and I did the presentation on catching and preparing slugs. I started with a dissertation on how to properly skin a slug and then prepare that skin for eating by soaking it in a mixture of yeast (to enlarge it) and cornstarch (to thicken it). Claudia then held up a triangle of crescent roll dough which I referred to as the processed slug skin. I then had three cans of pie filling that had labels of “Bloody, Chunky Guts” (Cherry pie filling), Chunky Banana Slug Guts (apple pie filling) and Blue Guts (blueberry pie filling).
I took a “volunteer” who had previously bet me a dollar she wouldn’t eat one of my slugs and brought her into the middle of the group. I handed her a “skin” and showed her how to wrap it on the slug stick. She then baked the skin over the campfire
and chose to fill it with Blue Guts. I then put a head of whipped cream on it. She handed me a dollar and ate the slug! (She came back later and ate another). I found out that one guest actually believed my story until I brought out the whipped cream. I had told them that I had cut off the heads of the slugs prior to skinning and later put the heads, after pulling off the tentacles, of course (too tough and stringy), into Claudia’s blender to puree the heads before putting them into a pressurized can. I guess that was a little too farfetched for her and she then realized it was all a tall tale…a VERY tall tale. We had a great time. The guests loved it. After everyone had eaten their fill, we packed up, cleaned up, put stuff away, walked the Giz and took a long, hot shower. Tomorrow, Fort Bragg.
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