August Trip 2019 - Part 2 (Arcata)

Now that Brahms lives in Humboldt County, it is a lot easier to conjure a reason to travel north than it used to.  Having said that, he has traveled back home since he moved more times that we traveled to visit him.  This time he will be a student again working on acquiring a California Teaching Credential and probably he will be busier than before.

Brahms has the gift of making his family feel at home no matter where we are.  He makes sure that we do the things we do as a family regardless of our situation.  For example, he brought a game and some dessert to enjoy while we played.  When he could not be with us on Sunday morning, because he was working to prep for the church service, he directed us to go walking at the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary   It was a delightful place especially for us who appreciate wild flowers and for Miriam who paid attention to the numerous species of birds that inhabited the place.  We could have lingered there were it not for other things on our agenda for the day.

Brahms works as Children's Director at Catalyst Church.  We attended  service there which was held outside on the church's courtyard.  There was a fabric awning to attenuate the sunshine but the pastor and the worship team did their thing under the direct sunlight.  We guessed that because this is Arcata where they get few sunny days in a year they were trying to harvest as much sunshine as they can get.  Later on we went to eat at one of his recommended burger place where we again dined on the patio where I had a fancy salmon burger and a very good green salad - I recognized pea sprouts in it!   It was generally a beautiful day with temperatures between 65-75 degrees (F) and knowing that the temperature back home was a lot higher.  Then we walked to Brahms' new place, since we have not seen it before.  He showed us the backyard which has a lot of potential as a garden.  In fact Brahms already staked his claim on one of the planter boxes with the token bean plants which he started in coke cans back when he was in his old apartment.  We strolled a few blocks to go to a used bookstore called Tin Can Mailman.  There I bought a book, 'The Orchid Paintings of Franz Bauer'.  Miriam browsed the music section but nothing begged her to buy it.  

That was the first half of the day.