For my birthday last month, my 4-year old grandson, Malcolm, gave me a dinosaur.  He is about 3 inches tall and named Steve.  We usually see Malcolm a few times a week, so two weeks without seems like a long time.  I decided to bring Steve along on vacation so that we could share our adventures with Malcolm via texts and Snapchats.  Hence Steve’s debut on the blog today.

It was a beautiful, clear, sunny morning at Patrick’s Point today.  We started out the day with a walk along Agate beach.  Not even the tsunami warning sign could deter us from our beach stroll.  It was an easy trail down to the beach, but I knew at some point I would have to hike back up the cliff.  The beach is covered with tiny to medium, polished rocks and driftwood.  Steve enjoyed collecting rocks, playing in the surf and running from seagulls.

In the afternoon, we drove south to Trinidad and Arcata (home of Humboldt State).  Our first lucky find was Katy’s Smokehouse.  We were in search of a restaurant serving fresh seafood, but Google sent us to Katy’s instead. Bob, the owner, gave us a lesson in how his family has been smoking fresh King salmon, albacore, and other fish for 83 years.  They also can their own tuna which is nothing like the mushy, triple cooked crap from China that you get at Safeway (according to Bob).  He convinced us to buy a few cans and said we would be ordering it by the case soon.  At $7.99/can, I’m afraid I may like it too much.  We also got a fresh piece of salmon that he had smoked that morning in the Native tradition using local Alder wood.  It is fabulous.  Even Shawn, the salmon hater, said it was good.

At Bob’s suggestion, we had lunch at the Lighthouse Grill because that’s where the locals eat (Bob said he doesn’t eat out because the only place that serves good fresh seafood is his house and he only has two chairs).  Any place that proclaims it is “Home of the Mashed Potato Waffle Cone” must be tried, and of course I had the mashed potato waffle cone “all the way.”  This includes a savory waffle cone filled with mashed potatoes, gravy, cheese, bacon, and brisket.  It was everything you’re imagining.  Shawn had the grass fed beef pepper jack cheeseburger, garlic fries, and a salted caramel milkshake.

The Mashed Potato Waffle Cone, It’s Better Than It Looks

In Arcata, our destination was Slice of Humboldt Pie.  Little did we know it was co-located with a cider bar.  Shawn had a piece of raspberry lemon pie (no picture because he inhaled it before I could even get out my camera).  We sampled a few ciders: four dry and one berry.  We finished with something called “We can’t call this a pommeau”.  We let it warm up to room temp and it was rich and somehow slightly sweet and dry.  Very nice.  We headed back over to the pie side of the establishment and grabbed some savory hand pies to take back to camp for dinner.  We also wandered through a huge bead and rock store and the local natural food co-op.

Heading out soon to watch the sunset…

Today’s Ratings & Stats
Agate Beach – 5 stars
Katy’s Smokehouse – 5 stars
Lighthouse Grill – 4 stars
Slice of Humboldt Pie – 4 stars
The Local Cider Bar – 5 stars
Steps taken: 4,741 so far but most of them were uphill or in the sand so they should count at least double
Weather conditions: sunny, windy, high of 61 and low of 45