We finally made it to Oregon!
I was a bit worn down from the past few days and wasn't looking forward to the 7 hour drive from Arcata to our hotel outside Portland, but oh my goodness...the drive was absolutely beautiful! I can't wait to explore Portland tomorrow!
The rest of our time in Davis was awesome. It actually reminded me a lot of Athens, GA (where I was an undergrad)- small, friendly, young, active...I really enjoyed it. And, of course, the biking was great. It's super flat and everything is very accessible. It's definitely one of those places where you feel silly driving around town. Emily and I biked around for quite a while, visited one of the co-op houses and chatted with some of the people who live there (one was conveniently wearing a "go green" shirt :) ). We enjoyed the fun and food at the Farmer's Market, and then stayed with some friends of a friend (thanks Shannon!) who actually live across the street from a cooperative block. Basically all the homes on the block have opened up their backyards and share the space for gardening, hanging out, and any other outdoor activity- very cool! Davis in general had a really strong community feel- so here we have, once again, community playing a huge role in the 'greening' of spaces for people.
Thursday morning we left Davis super early and drove the 5 hours to Arcata (it was a gorgeous drive). After getting a bit oriented with Arcata, we headed over to City Hall where I had the chance to speak with two city employees in the Environmental Services Department. Arcata has SO many great programs going on! Not only are they increasingly working on habitat restoration, particularly in the wetlands and Redwoods, but the energy saving initiatives are incredible.
After City Hall, we made our way to the main downtown square and chatted with several people. Arcata is very unique- I've never been anywhere like it. It's an active city- I felt like everyone was out and about and enjoying interacting with each other and their surroundings. The people of Arcata most definitely have an open appreciation and an understanding of their environment.
Before heading to our campsite for the night, Emily and I checked out the Marsh Interpretive Center and then hiked on some of the trails surrounding the waste water treatment ponds- very cool!
Patrick's Point State Park (about 19 miles north of Arcata) was a beautiful camping spot. We were literally sleeping among the redwoods...incredible stuff!
This morning- Day 7- we packed up camp, went back down to Arcata, walked a bit through the city's Community Forest (for trails and sustainable logging), and then hung out at Humboldt State University's Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT). It's a on campus student-run house dedicated to showing appropriate technologies for sustainable living- they want to demonstrate that living a low impact life is not that difficult to do (and won't cost a fortune). We went on a tour of the house to hear about some of the amazing features (the list will have to be a detailed entry later!) and then got a chance to speak with several of the student employee and the Co-directors for the coming year. Some of the things they are clearly demonstrating (gardening, natural cleaning products and paint, and insulation techniques) are really simple things that people can easily adapt to....which brings me to my overall green lesson from Arcata: minimize and simplify. Minimize needs and wants by simplifying the way you do daily activities. Most of your biggest needs can be easily met and safely handled just by working with your surrounding environment.
Like I mentioned before, the drive the Arcata was beautiful and Emily and I had a nice run on the way at Prairie Creek State Park.
Ah, another good day for the Green Tour.
Tomorrow is going to be super exciting- I've made it to Portland!
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