Tuesday night and we're watching Law and Order at a motel on the side of 101 in Blandon, OR. The day started in Arcata at the rad old Victorian Steve rents a room in near downtown Arcata. Steve was still sleeping when E and I woke up so we went over to the food co-op a couple blocks away and got a little snack. After Steve got up we went to Prairie Creek State Park and Steve and I went on an incredible 6-mile run in the forest of Endor. The redwoods were enormous and majestic and it was so hard to stay on my feet because the trail had lots of exposed roots but all I could do was look up at the tree canopy. Then we ate a greasy meal and went to Fern Canyon, the location used for scenes from Jurassic Park 2. Besides the amazing fern-covered walls we also saw some small steelhead trout in the stream.

Yesterday we kicked around Arcata with Steve after he and I did an 8-miler on the HSU campus known as Suicide. 4 miles up and 4 miles down. All the little tendons in my lower legs are feeling it today. We also cruised around town on our bikes and decided that Arcata is a really wonderful town. The weather was totally sunny and perfect and it's getting harder to imagine going back to Sacramento. We ended the day with a quick frisbee session on the beach at Sunset, and then an ice cream cone and a viewing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. After that we went back to Steve's spot and watched "Harriers", a short film recorded in the early 70s that features some great footage of the HSU Cross Country team running around Humboldt. The film is really pretty beautiful and earnest and a great piece of history of the area and the team.

Before we were in Arcata we spent 2 days with Jen and Sebastian and their children in Ft. Bragg. It was really fun to see them in their own environment with the kids and their cool old house. We ate great food and I had a lot of fun getting to know the kids and hanging out with Jen and Seb. I also scored some records at a thrift shop. The top find was another copy of "Raising Hell" by Run-DMC. It's in good shape and all records were just a quarter.

Tomorrow we're planning to get to at least Eugene. I might end up getting some new running shoes. My racing flats are hurting my feet on all of these rocky and rooty trail runs. It could be time to invest in some cross country shoes for the fall. by Thursday we'll be in Portland. Yeeah!

There's a horrible new Target commercial that re-works Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" into a song about back to school gear. Avoid it.