Arcata to San Francisco

Last time I wrote the blog, it was from the library in Arcata, Ca. It opened at 10.00am, and we were there early to do some research on the local area and things to see and do. We were going to go on a bird watching guided tour, but we don't have our own binoculars, which was a requirement, so i did all the bird research i could do in the library, and we headed off to the marsh ourselves to go 'twitching'. We saw lots, Red shouldered Hawk was good to see and American Avocet were great to watch, searching for food with their bills in the mud.

We then moved onto Manila Beach, and walked across some sand dunes to a peaceful and almost empty beach, with huge Pacific Ocean waves crashing onto the shore, and large pieces of driftwood as big as a car drifting in and out of the sea-mist either side of us. We read our books, splashed in the cool sea, then around 4pm we made our way back to the marsh for another look.

The following link to a local newspaper article explains what happened next in Eureka, about 10 miles down the road;

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-eureka-quake10-2010jan10,0,4204701.story

For us, at 4.26pm we got out of our van at the marsh, started walking along a path with a large grazed field on one side and a line of trees on the other. which led to a freshwater lagoon, right by another coastal path, in the tsunami zone (this is critical information for the story, but pretty much all the way up the coast we were in the tsunami zone. There are signs to tell you when you enter and when you leave). We had only walked for about a minute when we heard a large boom, the birds took flight into the air straight away, with huge screeches, a split second of silence followed, then the earth shook, wobbled and waved. We were surfing the ground in an earthquake.

I had time to get my bearings, turn around and make sure we were far enough away from the trees in case they were knocked over by the force of the quake. We were safe. The trees were shaking and rustling uncontrollably in every direction. I have no idea how they stayed standing, the ground had turned to liquid almost. Its hard to say how long it lasted, maybe 5 to 10 seconds of shaking. I'm so glad we were outside; I imagine it would have been a very scary experience inside.

Initially I thought a bomb had exploded, but halfway through the shaking I quickly realised we were experiencing an earthquake, which was confirmed directly after when i heard other walkers in our vicinity talking. I ran towards a guy in front of me who i thought had fallen over; he got up and seemed fine and summoned me to run the other way. I knew what he was concerned about, we were in the tsunami zone, and he didn't have a car. So without introduction, after we ran over to the van, we bundled him into the back and headed for town and higher ground.

Ab (Abraham), has lived in Arcata for a while, and fuelled my fear of tsunami by informing us this was the biggest earthquake he had ever felt. So as I'm driving I'm looking in the rear view mirror for a wave. People are running in all directions, red-faced and scared trying to get to their cars.

We get to town and everyone is out in the street just looking at each other. Crucially, there is no destruction, people are pretty calm, but all the lights are out in most of the buildings, so electricity is knocked out, we know that much. We drive up the hill just past the town square; it feels safer, so we decide to find a coffee house. We just have to stop, take stock and talk this out with our new friend and figure out what we and everyone else should do next.

Ab knew a Finnish coffee house and spa near his house, we tried there but no electricity. There are people standing in wet towels, who have just exited the hot-tub which is suspected to have developed a crack. We go to the other side of town to a vegetarian restaurant/cafe and take stock. The staff and most of the locals are calm, they have electricity, and we hear from the waiter how they lost some plates and cups but that's all. There is no tsunami siren, and after about an hour we can relax. Ab invites us to park up outside his house for the night, and we drop him off home as he has to work early.

Walking around town that night was surreal, it was Saturday night so town should have been busy, and was busy, but people didn't have many places to go. But where they could hang out they did, even it was the supermarket to buy candles, and information on the size of the quake was exchanged by word of mouth, the radio station had been affected and was not on air. We were disturbed yet calmed by a man dressed in a bunny suit, bowler hat, with red clowns nose who sat beside us in the burrito bar later that evening, quietly reading his paper. But thats Arcata any night of the week to be honest! We knew already that there would be no local newspaper the next day, and relied on the coffee house the following morning for information.

We had experienced a 6.5 earthquake, and for its scale please see the link below;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

I wasn't sure how to describe our experience to you, and i apologise if it seems insensitive in light of the recent devastation in Haiti, but our experience helps us understand the power of tectonic activity now, having never experienced such a force before, and the feeling of helplessness, shock and fear when it strikes so unexpetedly.

The next day we went back to the beach and reflected on what had happened. We set off for Fort Bragg to say goodbye to our new found friends from our new years eve party, Jeanie, Greg, Todd, Heidi, Hilary, Martin and Ginger the cat, who affectionately clawed me to death before we left again for Sunnyvale to be reunited with Tinkerbell and Phoenix.

With a stop at Mendicino for more yarn so as Nic could finish her skirt (!), and one last goodbye to the beautifully rugged northern California coast, we headed toward the 101 to San Francisco, through the vineyards of Anderson, Napa and Sonoma valleys, entering the city via the impressive Golden Gate bridge.

We dropped off the van, 'Vegas' (absolutely heartbreaking), in San Francisco, and walked through the Mission district toward town. We found a really good and cheap curry house on 3rd street (near Yerba Buena gardens if anyone ever goes in the future), headed for China town, then over to the Jazz district (Fillmore and Sutter), where we went into a lovely Lebanese restaurant for a glass of water, and some Hookah. Hookah is a giant water pipe that one smokes flavoured tobacco through. Both Nicole and i had never tried it before, and had been told it was something we should try, and we loved it. Apple flavoured tobacco, cooled and filtered through water, heated at the top by hot coals, very relaxing.

We're now planning our last 2 weeks in the U.S. and awaiting the arrival of our buddy Floyd, who is taking us home to Prescott Arizona at the weekend, but its not over yet. Hopefully there,s time for a few more surprises.

That's it for now, thanks again for all your responses, take care.

G