Many weeks ago, Audrey asked “Should I do this?”

Next thing I know, we’re driving 7+ hours to Aracata, California so that Audrey could attend Godwit Days. She would spend the weekend birding around with various groups, snapping photos, talking about birds, birding birds, and meeting her birding idol: David Sibley.

Yes, THAT DAVID SIBLEY.

I would spend this same weekend sharing a very cute and comfortable Airbnb with her and spending my time doing a bit of work remotely, riding my mountain bike around trails near Arcata, and then spending the evenings searching for more birds with Audrey.

Arcata was a really nice town to visit with all its murals:

Bike lanes all over the town:

The Arcata Community Forest was such a great up-hill ride. Akin to Forest Park of Portland, but far more open to bicycles, horses, and just overall more old-growth and natury.

As I spent time exploring the city, there were a few things I noticed that differentiated it from Portland:

• Lots of bike lanes, but a distinct lack of bikes.
• Hardly any sirens. I saw police cars, but rarely ever heard a siren.
• Never once heard a train or anything on rails.
• Generally far more quiet.
• Very short buildings, hardly a building over 4 stories tall.

Although I only biked around Arcata Community Forest, I had a sense that there was so much nature to be appreciated in the surrounding area, that I wanted to return to the town to explore the forests far more than I had the chance this time around.

What else did we do?

Great beer at Lost Coast Brewery:

Twice:

and just generally relax and do our “thing”.

Oh,

I was able to get a couple of nice birdy pics with my D610, like this Great Egret:

Check out my Photo Album to see the rest of the photos.

Cheers!
-Tomas