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Up early due to the chirpy birds and campers, back on route 1 heading north within a couple of hours - the Claire and Will roadshow is becoming a slicker operation. Our route took us past lots of small communities and lumber mills in the morning, the road is full of monster trucks being driven at crazy speeds towards petrified tourists. In Eureka we turned off US 1 to take a look at an impressive Victorian mansion (Carson Mansion) built by one of the first people to exploit the lumber resources in northern California. It was a very grand house with lots of ornate woodwork - a little too much for our tastes and a colour scheme of mustard and gray - no thankyou. One of our guidebooks recommended a lumberjacks cookhouse nearby, so stopped there for lunch - huge 3 course meal for around $7. If you take up the offer of 2nd / 3rd helpings (no I didn't - Will) you could easily end up looking like the 'healthy' staff and patrons we noticed (Claire think's she may be paranoid about putting on weight!)
In an effort to reduce our daily mileage, or at least not be on the road for the majority of every day, we reached our campsite usual and were setup and "good to go" by mid-afternoon. The campsite was situated on the coast shrouded in fog - as is much of northern California's coast in the summer, it helps the redwoods grow - however we were determined to do something active and took a long walk along the foggy beach. Down on the beach were lots of folks sifting through the fine pebbles near the water looking for Agate, after which the beach and campsite are named. In the evening as it turned colder and damper, in an attempt to stay warm we drank cup after cup of tea whilst sitting around a fire. The tea idea backfired later when Claire had to get up to pee in the middle of the night - there's bears in these here parts - scary!
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