|
Click
n' Return:
Trip
Kickoff Page
Week Two Page
Main
Intro
Page
|
DAY
ELEVEN COMMENTARY
This town, I will reiterate, is lovely, and if you enjoy the coziness
of places like Carmel, CA and the neighborhoods which especially cling
to the hills of San Francisco, then you owe it to yourself to visit
here. While I don’t mean to exclude anyone,
this is especially true if you are
married and/or involved with a special someone, for the potential for
romance is high whether staying right in town or at one of the
little B&B’s within walking distance. How exactly one actually
gets
here -- no, no, I don’t mean by first walking away from one’s career,
divorcing, losing one’s house, and overloading a motorcycle to ride
here -- I mean how to get here via
air I do not know, but I can’t hold your hands all the
time now, can I? Get on Expedia and figure it out, people!
The
day was almost a wash, trying to update pages, but I bolted out of my
hotel with more sightseeing and eventual dining in mind. I was very
psyched to hear that the “Historic Loop” walk continued well beyond the
several blocks I had walked past the center of town, although I knew I
likely wouldn’t be walking its entire 2.5-mile length that evening.
Still, there were more uniquely-designed and historical structures to
be seen nearby, and I decided I would drive its length during my
departure the next morning.
I walked around back in town a
little more in an attempt to decide where to take dinner. There was a
place called the “Mud Street Café”, which was closed, but an historical
marker on its building told of how the first Main Street traveled down
through a steep embankment which often flooded and became a pool of
mud. During a thorough renovation of the downtown roadway area, several
streets were raised upon foundations one “story” above their previous
level, which meant that storefronts and the like found themselves
facing the new retaining walls just a yard or so away. These surviving
passageways became the “Underground Eureka” (www.undergroundeureka.com)
of
legend.
Running out of dining options, then realizing that I
hadn’t yet taken advantage of the hotel’s outdoor spot perched
literally above the town center, I climbed the stairs to the Balcony
Restaurant, whereupon I saw some of the younger folk with whom I had
rubbed elbows at Jack’s Lounge the night before. I axed my waiter to
direct the kitchen to fire up an “Arkansas Sloppy Sandwich”, a BBQ pork
concoction that featured a tangy sauce to go along with sliced onions.
Sated, and having enjoyed the view, I retired to the room to do some
more late night web page updating and to prepare for an orderly
departure the next morning.
|
|