Arcata punches above its weight for a town this size. The Arcata Plaza anchors daily life — ringed by independent shops, cafes, and the stately 1857 courthouse — and is the kind of place where you can spend an afternoon doing nothing in particular and feel good about it. Redwood Park connects directly to the HSU campus and opens into old-growth forest within minutes of the trailhead. The Arcata Marsh, on the edge of Humboldt Bay, is one of the better birding spots on the North Coast and doubles as a working wastewater treatment wetland — only in Arcata would that be a selling point.