Log:
Noelle, Krystal, and I started the day with a visit to the tree I found on my run yesterday. It’s really exciting for me to have a chance to share the treasures I find with willing friends. I really have seen so many amazing trees here! After the nice walk we went to the farmers’ market (of course!). The sun was breaking through the morning fog and despite our late arrival at the market we were lucky enough to get the last baskets of strawberries of the day. Yum!
After the market, Krystal and I went for a jog at the Arcata Marsh. It’s really great to have someone to run with. After our run we stopped by a garage sale in search of some kitchenware for Krystal’s new apartment. We found some pots and pans and accidentally caused a bit of a controversy. It turned out that the woman pricing items was not the woman who was running the garage sale, after some price confusion we were able to come away from the sale rather successfully. For four dollars we got: 1 stainless steel pot, 6 bread pans, 1 skillet, 1 wool sweater, and a free shiny blue kimono. There’s nothing better than appreciating someone else’s junk.
After all of that, Glenn took us all out to the beach. Sigh… It was so beautiful. We went for a swim in the ocean. (By swim I mean a quick run in and out of the freezing water). We made a small campfire on the beach and cooked our dinner. Shortly after we finished eating, some other friends showed up with more food! We did still have a fire going, so we didn’t object to Eddie’s shish-kabobs of freshly picked, homegrown, organic veggies. Neither did we object to Jessie’s homemade homegrown raspberry pie. I couldn’t have imagined a more wonderful evening than 7 friends huddled around a campfire on the beach listening to the ocean, eating phenomenal food, and telling stories under a clear starry sky. We were tempted to be annoyed at the two $90 parking tickets we got for being parked at the beach after the sunset, but what the heck it was worth it.

Questions:
-In Shelby County, Ohio, each town has a designated weekend for garage sales. Does Arcata organize their garage sales at all?
-Are the steep parking tickets in the parks a result of tight funding?
-Will I ever see trees such as these again in my life?

Feelings:
I appreciate the co-directors so much for really taking me under their wing, not only within CCAT work hours, but all of the time. At first I felt like I was an additional responsibility for them to worry about, but we’re all just a bunch of friends at this point.

• Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary