It's a burl!

When planning this road trip, we focused primarily on the locations to see and the paths to get between them. We did not, however, plan out the kitschy tourist traps that are an inevitable component to undertakings such as these, trusting in the divine spirit of adventure to reveal these treasures along the way.

Starting our drive down highway 199, we were immediately captivated by the sight of a towering, clearly handmade fountain gushing with water dyed in a purple hue normally reserved for Nickelodeon and Halloween. Flanking this eggplant geyser was a small army of beautifully twisted tree stumps and unusual carvings; any momentary hesitations quickly evaporated and we pulled a hasty u-turn despite our tight schedule.

"It's A Burl!" was a small gathering of 4 buildings, each filled to brim with handmade crafts sourced from local artisans. The first building contained metalwork in intricately manipulated sheets to form lanterns, candleholders, and furniture. I absolutely fell in love with a wall sconce made in the image of a delicate forest fungus, quivering layers of oxidized copper enveloping a small sheath of wax. Were it not for a price tag surpassing the triple digit borderline, it would have undoubtedly found a place in the growing collection of acquisitions steadily decreasing our gas mileage in the back seat.

We skipped the next two buildings for lack of time and interest, but could not resist the contorted, tortured distortions of what were once redwood trees settled about the wraparound porch of the fourth building like tired animals. Here we spent a legitimate amount of time, partially due to an overwhelming presentation of wooden deformities, and partially due to the caretaker Harvey who wandered verbally through topics concerning everything from political protesters to his mother.

After spending a good time perusing the wallpaper of pieced pulp transformed into stained, laquered, grotesquely beautiful household accessories, we finally agreed that anything we truly loved would put an unreasonable dent in our collective wallet. Unwilling to leave empty-handed however, we settled on two small unworked wood samples to bring home with us: a swirly fingerprint of Oak and a spiky, inflated slug of Bird's Eye Maple.

Clutching our new prizes, we sank into the scalding seats to continue our drive to Redwood renewed by the thrill of a jewel hunt and the satisfaction of knowing that our first shopping trip resulted in the purchase of objects far beyond the creative capabilities of anything manmade.

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