July 10-13: Eureka, California

We continued our journey northward with another easy driving day. Get on US-101 in Petaluma and get of in Eureka. Easy Peasey. It’s a slower drive than the Interstate and there are some hills to climb and descend but the scenery is beautiful, even on a cloudy and drizzle-y day.

This summer is the first time that we’ve done the “Elks Lodge Crawl” going north relatively early in the season, and we’ve been hearing stories about parking being full up and down the coast. There were only a few open spots when we arrived in Eureka, and the remaining ones filled up quickly. Elks are on the move this year!

"No Vacancy" at the Eureka Elks Lodge!

It wasn’t raining when we arrived and we still had part of a truffle burning a hole in our refrigerator’s pocket (“crisper”), so I got out the outdoor oven and we had one of our favorite meals for dinner: Rack of Lamb with Mushroom Risotto. Pan-seared and oven-finished, with a light Panko-Horseradish crust, plus shaved truffle (!), it made a nice match for one of the premium Pinot Noirs that we picked up in the Lompoc wine ghetto earlier in our trip.

We didn’t have much planned for our stop in Eureka this time, other than taking advantage of their “Cook Your Own Steak” night on Friday. We were pleasantly surprised that they have changed purveyors and now feature NY Strips. Not that the Rib-Eyes were “bad” per se, but they aren’t our favorite cut. If I can’t have a Porterhouse, give me a NY Strip, I say. We made new friends, as usual, at the pit, and enjoyed the evening. We were pleased to see a lot of younger families and even children enjoying the dinner and evening entertainment, as many Lodges are struggling to attract new members these days.

We continued to eat well on Saturday. Since I had the oven out, we made the Porchetta that (on impulse) I bought at The Fatted Calf. No matter how adept we get at cooking on the road, there are some things better done in a “real” oven, and this was one of them. It was tricky to get the large roast to cook evenly in the small oven, and there wasn’t really enough room for those nice Fingerling Potatoes that we had gotten from the last Farmer’s Market. But, it all came together nicely on the plate!

We didn’t see the sun at all on this visit, and there was plenty of drizzle and a little rain, but that’s what you get on the Pacific Coast in the early summer. The drizzle did coat everything with little droplets, though, and those can sometimes enhance a spider’s web for a photo made while the pups and I were out for a morning walk. Overall, it was a nice stop for us.