Alan and Sandra's RV Travels: Ferndale, CA

Ferndale, CA is a small town about 6 miles west of where we were staying in Fortuna, CA. It is the childhood hometown of Guy Fieri from the food channel. We saw where they were having their County Fair in Ferndale and decided to ride over. What we discovered while we were driving around was that this small town of Ferndale has live horse racing. They have the rows of horse stables, the race track and the grandstands. From what I read, horse racing flourished in Ferndale in the late 1800's . Banished for a while, horse racing was legalized again and in 1935 became a mainstay of the fair. There are 6 days of racing during the 10 day fair: on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. There is live and satellite horse racing. It is a quaint little town full of Victorian downtown buildings as well as many old Victorian homes.
We found out that Guy Fieri was going to be the emcee at the races for the "Ladies Hat Day" on Saturday. Unfortunately, we were heading south that morning and wouldn't be able to get back to Ferndale to see him.

Here are some pictures we took while visiting Ferndale.

The old "Victorian Inn" in downtown Ferndale.

One of the many Victorian homes.

Some of the downtown buildings.

The horse stables are located on the fairground property.

Left and right side of the racetrack.

Spectators horseracing grandstand.

Ready for race day!

Eureka, CA:

Eureka, CA is about 15 miles north of where we were staying. We rode up to explore and see the sights. We rode out to the ocean, but the fog was so thick at the shore, you couldn't see anything. We rode out by the marina and downtown. Here are some of the interesting things we saw:

This mural was on one of the downtown buildings depicting the Murray Field. The airfield was established in 1919 and is now a county owned airport.