I spent the night in Arcata, CA, a city I last visited on my one nighter tour of The Producers. As anyone who has ever toured with me (and many who didn’t) will tell you, I have no memory for theatres or cities. I rarely remember what a place looked like, where that restaurant was that I liked or who worked with me in any given city. It’s probably why I write things down; otherwise, I’d have no history at all.

However, Arcata stands out in my memory as being the place where our spot light operator counted no fewer than 9 audience members lighting up joints in the balcony during the show and where my local wardrobe head offered me pot, bought us shots at the bar after the show, tried to pick up our actors and came into the work the next day with bruises on her leg, stories of back flips and the explanation “it’s crazy the things I can do when I’m drunk.” Basically, exactly the kind of place you hope you’ll hit on a one nighter tour. Of course, most venues on one nighter tours are story worthy, but that’s a different blog post all together.

Today I went to a local Arcata hot spot for breakfast:

And had something worthy of my car license plates (Hey, New York!):

Lox, onions, capers and plenty of cream cheese. Pretty delicious. What looks like a small Mexican village in the background is actually a mural on the wall.

Then I got on the road and drove through the Redwood National Park on my way up the rest of the CA coastline.

Like the Grand Canyon, pictures don’t capture redwoods well.

Appropriate that this highway is called Avenue of Giants.

There’s a lot of bad tourism centered around the redwoods, starting with drive through trees and continuing to kitschy theme parks like Trees of Mystery. Their $14 entry charge is about $10 too much so I passed it up despite the compelling gate statues:

I’ll explore America’s obsession with Paul Bunyon at a later date, but here’s a patriotic eyeless version in Tucson:

Apparently his axe was stolen and he got a flag instead…

I drove all the way up Highway 1 and took my last pictures of the California coast.

Then I drove into Oregon:

Had pak kee mao at Thailand Restaurant:

With bubble tea:

And a most intriguing table decoration, in case I wanted to purchase a runner and coaster set:

I spent most of the day in the car, covering ground and thinking about next month. I’ve driven straight through for the past couple of days, feeling this trip come to an end. Tomorrow is the last day and I expect to be in Bellingham in time for my sister’s party to celebrate the opening of gin & tonic season on May 1. Didn’t you know that g&t’s get their own season? Well, now you know so break out the ice and start cutting up limes!

It will take awhile to process that this trip is over. But this blog will continue, so come back.

See you tomorrow.