It was a gray and rainy day, but it did not deter hundreds of people joining the festivities on the Arcata  Plaza for the 38th Annual North County Fair and Harvest Festival. Those who did not go south to the EarthDance, the last one to be held in Laytonville, came for music, crafts and lots of great food. Where else but in Arcata can you find booth after booth of wholesome and delicious vegan and vegetarian food at a fair? From the Same Old People website: “The North Country Fair is an annual two-day festival held on the Arcata Plaza in Arcata, CA every September since it’s inception in 1974. The fair includes around 200 craft, food, and information booths, two parades, two stages, and a lawn performance area. An estimated 10,000 people come from everywhere to help us celebrate the diversity within our community and our world and ring in the change of seasons that accompanies the Autumnal Equinox”.

It has been a year since my hitchhiking and backpacking trip with Chelsea to the Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the Lost Coast trail. We emerged in Shelter Cove, tired and hungry, from backpacking along the trail, and spent the last night of the trip camping on a bluff above a beautiful black beach. That trip was the catalyst for my move from Juneau, Alaska to northern California four months later. Ironically enough, at the same time next year, I would find myself in Shelter Cove again, working for the California Department of Fish and Game.