From Arcata we drove a few miles in the wrong direction to visit the town of Eureka. Well, you would, wouldn't you with a name like that? The town had a historic boardwalk and riverside commercial and boating area. All of which was pointless to us as the heavens had opened once more and the rain just fell and fell and fell.

From there we drove through the wetlands onto Crescent City and then to Brookings. For the few miles outside Eureka the road was surrounded on either side by marsh lands inhabited by white cranes (or maybe egrets).

In Brookings we booked into our motel - with sea view - and then headed down to the beach as the rain finally let up. The scenery was pretty dramatic with piles of driftwood washed up on the shore and huge bolders and rocks dotting the shore line. The tide was quite far out and there was a vast expanse of sand which looked like a mirror as the sea was still gently running over it and the sun reflecting on it. We stayed on the beach for the rest of the afternoon, walking barefoot in the wet sand, drinking beer and eating chocolate. We then climbed up on one of the large rocks and watched the sun go down.

For dinner we tried to find a place selling fish and chips like we'd seen earlier in the day, but they were all closed. Most of the food places shut at 8pm as it was closed season. So we found a Mexican place that styed open just for us and cooked a very strange, but wonderful, combination of seafood and Mexican food. Think I had a crab burrito, and it was lovely!

With not much to do in a town that was closed down by 8pm and the rain coming down in torrents again, we headed back to prepare for our final full day on the road...