things to do in eureka Archives - 2bearbear Singapore Travel Blog: Travel | Stay

During our drive from Vancouver Washington to San Francisco, we stopped by Eureka and this post will tell you what are some of the things to do and attractions in Eureka California!

1. Historic Buildings in Eureka California. With its beginnings in mining, logging and fishing, Eureka grew to become a significant sea port. Many came and established their homes here resulting in many beautiful historic buildings in this city…

Eureka Inn on the National Register of Historic Places

Facade of Eureka Inn - Stayed here during this trip — Facade of Eureka Inn – Stayed here during this trip

Old Historic Eureka Downtown - Resembles "wild wild west" doesn't it? — Old Historic Eureka Downtown – Resembles “wild wild west” doesn’t it?

2. Eureka Waterfront Promenade. Eureka has a beautiful waterfront promenade where you can enjoy a relaxing stroll and perhaps even get a glimpse of some wildlife…

Eureka Waterfront Promenade and Boardwalk

Video of the Eureka Waterfront

3. The Wooden Sculpture Garden of Romano Gabriel. Romano Gabriel was born in Italy but came to USA with his father to be furniture makers. After serving in WW1, he settled in Eureka and started to make wooden sculptures that filled his garden. As he progressed with the hundreds of sculptures he made, many visitors came from far and wide just to see his beautiful wooden sculpture garden. But he would just hide behind his windows and peer at his visitors as he was a little reserved. After he passed away, the garden was preserved and encased for future generations to enjoy…

Description of Romano Gabriel's Wooden Sculpture Garden — Description of Romano Gabriel’s Wooden Sculpture Garden

Romano Gabriel's Wooden Sculpture Garden Eureka — Romano Gabriel’s Wooden Sculpture Garden Eureka

4. Lost Coast Brewery. This seems to be the one restaurant that the entire Eureka city gathers at for dinner. While all the streets of Eureka were empty and quiet, Lost Coast Brewery was filled with people and we had to wait 20 minutes before we got to be seated!

Facade of Lost Coast Brewery 4th Street Eureka California - Seemingly quiet on the outside — Facade of Lost Coast Brewery 4th Street Eureka California – Seemingly quiet on the outside

Noisy and boisterous crowd inside Lost Coast Brewery

We tried the fruit beers at Lost Coast Brewery and totally enjoyed them! Unlike many other breweries that claim to have fruity-flavoured beers, they seldom taste fruity. But at Lost Coast, we tried both Tangerine Wheat and Raspberry Brown and they tasted flavourful and fruity! Yum!

Ordered Tangerine Wheat during our 20 minutes wait, therefore it was half full when we took this photo (3.75USD per pint)

As for the meal, we had the caesar’s salad, Lost Coast Brewery’s famous hot brown and 1 pound of its buffalo wings. Turns out that its buffalo wings were better than Anchor Bar’s original buffalo wings! It was tangy, juicy and tender! Shiok! And when we asked the waitress, she matter-of-factly said “Well, our buffalo wings are hard to beat!”

Caesar Salad $8.99USD (Lost Coast Brewery Eureka)

1 pound of Buffalo Wings at $10.99USD (Lost Coast Brewery Eureka)

Lost Coast Brewery's Famous Hot Brown - Generous servings of beef with melted cheese between crispy sourdough bread! — Lost Coast Brewery’s Famous Hot Brown – Generous servings of beef with melted cheese between crispy sourdough bread!

Total damage of $38.36USD at Lost Coast Brewery

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This is part of our coverage of San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver USA. Check out these posts if you’re visiting the West Coast of USA!

Top 5 Things to do and Attractions in Vancouver Washington USA!
Top 11 Things to do and Attractions in San Francisco USA
Top 8 Things to do and Attractions in Seattle USA!
Things to do and Attractions in Eureka California!
Metropolitan Grill Seattle : Are the steaks worth it?
Seattle Underground Tour by Bill Speidel : A tour not to be missed!
Seattle Space Needle , Chihuly Garden and Glass and the Monorail to Westlake Center
World’s first Starbucks in Seattle – Do not be confused!
The Crab Pot Sea Feast : A Seattle MUST TRY!
Pike Place Market : (Possibly) Seattle’s Top Tourist Attraction!
What’s YOU MUST DO at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf!
Pizza and beers at Umbria San Francisco!
Great Eastern Restaurant Chinatown San Francisco : Even Obama visits it!
The steep slopes of San Francisco : A Pictorial Post
San Francisco’s “Crookedest Street” at Lombard Street!
Scenic Oregon Drive from Vancouver to San Francisco!
Travel Through Time with Historic Monuments at Vancouver Washington!
Vancouver Washington’s Natural Wonders!
Catching Portland Winterhawks in action after Burgerville Meal!
Why You should eat at Beaches Restaurant than McMenamins in Vancouver Washington
Red Lobster….FINALLY!
Inn at the Market Seattle : All about Location Location Location!
San Remo San Francisco : Hotel with a PRIME location!
Palace Hotel San Francisco : A great mix of History, Class and Luxury!
Heathman Lodge Vancouver Washington : One of our best hotel stays EVER!
Hilton Vancouver Washington : Classy Stay & Room with a View!

For your convenience, we have arranged for the best hotel deals in Eureka right here!

All in all, it was a wonderful stopover at Eureka. The food was great and the experience of walking through the historic old town of Eureka while enjoying the waterfront was relaxing as well. Therefore if you’re doing an Oregon scenic ocean drive, we’ll definitely recommend a stopover in Eureka. A visit to Lost Coast Brewery is a must!

Eureka Inn was our next stop after our stay at Hilton Vancouver Washington. We decided to take the Oregon Scenic Drive via US Route 101 to Eureka before continuing our drive from there to San Francisco. The drive time from Vancouver, WA to San Francisco would have taken 10 hours but we decided to take a stop at Eureka so that we could enjoy the scenic drive and really just take in the sights. To give you an idea of what you can expect on the Oregon Scenic Drive, check this out…

Beautiful Ocean view on Oregon Scenic Drive via US 101

We set off at about 8am in the morning and finally reached Eureka at about 5pm. The original 7 hours drive became a 9 hours drive because of the breaks we took along the way. Well, with such views, you’ve got to stop somewhere and take it all in right?

Inside Eureka Inn California USA

After parking the car in the carpark right behind the hotel (parking is complimentary for guests), we headed into the lobby of Eureka Inn

Christmas Tree and Fire Place of Eureka Inn

Lobby of Eureka Inn with view of the 2nd Floor

Lynette who was the receptionist upon our arrival

We were promptly greeted by Lynette who was on duty that evening. She warmly welcomed us and introduced us to the facilities of the hotel including drinks and live music at Palm Lounge

Palm Lounge with Jazz Music from 9pm onwards

Offers at the Bristol Rose Cafe (drinks for a penny! – with some orders of food of course)

Inside Bristol Rose Cafe - notice its classy interior deco — Inside Bristol Rose Cafe – notice its classy interior deco

And the ballroom which JF Kennedy once held a party…

Actual Chandelier in Eureka Inn ballroom since 1952

Not to mention an outdoor swimming pool, which was too cold for us to swim at this time of the year

Outdoor pool area of Eureka Inn which must be really cool to hang out at during summer months

There’s also alot of history that the hotel is famous for. In fact, when it opened in 1922, it was considered a very classy place, which is why it is now given the name “Grand old dame of Eureka”. We also saw several interesting items scattered in the hotel…

Actual Telephone Switchboard used to connect calls between rooms

You literally “plug and play” to talk to the next room…

Queen Bedroom of Eureka Inn

When we were checking in, Lynette introduced us the newly refurnished room for an additional 30USD but we decided to stick to the “original”. Though we saw many bad comments on Tripadvisor about the rooms, we did not see the “cracks” and “dirty bathtubs” that were described. The room and toilet looked fairly clean as well.

Queen size bedroom in Eureka Inn - Non renovated rooms — Queen size bedroom in Eureka Inn – Non renovated rooms

Vintage arm chairs and curtains with cable TV

Clean bathroom and bathtub of Eureka Inn

Everything was above expectations, possibly because we lowered it due to what we saw on Tripadvisor. But there were some small things we noticed…

1. It took a REALLY LONG TIME before hot water came out of the taps.
2. If you look REALLY CLOSELY, there are indeed some parts that were old and needed to be changed (unless its intended to be there for the “rustic” feel which we do not think so)
3. The bed was too springy and whenever I rolled, Kate rolled too.

But nonetheless, for 90USD (including taxes), the room was really decent along with a great location. Within walking distance to the historic downtown and of course Lost Coast Brewery.

Why stay at Eureka Inn?

Historic Old Town of Eureka

Eureka Inn is placed on the National Register of Historic Places and from here, you can check out all the historic landmarks of the city…

Romano Gabriel was a carpenter from Italy who settled in Eureka after WW1 and built at least 6 houses in the town of Eureka. His greatest “marvel” was building wooden sculptures that covered the front yard of his Eureka home. As time went by, he built more little objects and visitors came by just to see his front yard. Being an introvert, he would peer from his home, happy to see these visitors enjoying his work of art.

Lost Coast Restaurant and Brewery

The other highlight of our stopover at Eureka was our visit to Lost Coast Restaurant. That evening, the restaurant was PACKED! We had to wait about 20 minutes (which is a long time considering the size of the town) before we were seated down. But the wait was well worth it. Let’s first talk about the beers…

Ordered Tangerine Wheat during our 20 minutes wait, therefore it was half full when we took this photo (3.75USD per pint) Lost Coast Brewery Eureka

Unlike some brewery at some well-known microbreweries in Singapore, you can ACTUALLY taste the fruity flavours of the fruit beers here. The tangerine and raspberry tastes were very apparent, much to Kate’s delight. But the highlight for us was the food…

We decided to have some vegetables to aid the “you know what” so we ordered the Caesars. Turns out that the portion was HUGE which really helped the “you know what”, if you know what I mean…

But the highlight was the Buffalo Wings.

You may say, “Hey Tom, didn’t you try out the original Buffalo Wings at Anchor Bar the last time you were in US?”

Well, that is true. But truth be told, this was MUCH BETTER! The meat was tender, chunky and juicy. The sauce on the other hand was tangy and appetising. When we told the waitress that it beats Anchor Bar’s original Buffalo Wings hands down, she just replied a humble

“Yeah, our wings are pretty hard to beat!”

By the time we reached the hot brown, we were already very full. But the beef was really juicy and packed in so much flavour that we didnt mind bloating ourselves up that evening. The sourdough bread made the sandwich all that more unique.

Well, the best part was that the total damage was less than 40USD (tips not included yet)! At this juncture, if you are vexed about how to tip in the USA, our rule of thumb is 10% + 1USD. This means that for this meal, we tipped 5USD. Do note however, that 10% means that you don’t really like the service but is still ok. Which means that our general rule of thumb doesn’t really please the waiter/waitress but don’t piss them off as well. Which makes it a good balance 😉

Breakfast at Eureka Inn

Inside small dining area of Eureka Inn for breakfast overlooking the pool

Nothing much to shout about for breakfast. It does keep you full and provides you with coffee to kick start the day. One gripe we had was that the microwave oven was not working and we were not able to warm up the cakes and croissant which would have made the breakfast more enjoyable.

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For your convenience, we have arranged for the best hotel deals in Eureka right here!

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our stopover at Eureka during our Oregon scenic drive. It is afterall the largest city between Portland and San Francisco on the west coast. If you want to have a nice place for stopover during this drive, do check out Eureka Inn!