Family Vacation, Part 5 - Redwoods

Okay, here we go! This morning we slept in. I mean REALLY slept in. The motel room had really heavy blinds and when I noticed Joe playing with his night vision goggles I rolled over and asked James what time it was. 9:00!!! Whoa!!! I couldn't believe it. I had been up late, but still--9:00?! I think we all hit the mid-trip lull. Everybody was still in bed at that time, though Katie and Joe were awake. I felt pretty rough. Still had the sore throat and had also developed a sharp and sporadic pain in my left ear. I hate ear aches! I've had very few of them in my life and I prefer to keep it that way. Anyway...

By the time I had taken a really hot shower (felt so good!), got packed, and gathered up all of the wet ocean clothes it was about 10:30. We had a good prayer and God touched my throat immediately, relieving most of the pain. Praise the Lord! --It made for a much better day, I'm sure. :-) We went to the grocery store and picked up some stuff for lunch--fried chicken and potato wedges for James and the kids, and a bowl of chicken and dumplings for me. Cookies for all. :-)

From where we were it only took a few minutes to get to the entrance of the Avenue of the Giants, an alternate route to Highway 101 that has some spectacular Redwood trees. It was actually one of the most impressive parts of the whole day--we LOVED it.

I feel like I have to insert a disclaimer here. There is NO POSSIBLE WAY that a picture can begin to convey how enormous and WOWING these trees are. You can't take a picture of a whole tree, that's for sure. You have to do it in sections. I kept thinking I'd be able to stand way back and take a picture of an entire tree, but they grow together to tight and plenteous that I just couldn't ever find a place that would work. Oh well. Use your imaginations. Just realize that these tress are so much bigger, better, and cooler in person than any picture could translate!



This is where we stopped to have our picnic.



Sam found this nifty tree with a hollow spot. "A hollow tree!" :-)



Looking up...



Where James and I sat...



And where the kids sat to enjoy their lunch--in the center of a toppled over tree! WOW!!! I love it!



After the Avenue of the Giants we came across another great beach area. We told the kids they couldn't get wet this time, but we could go walk and look for shells one last time before they said goodbye to the ocean. This beach was so different. The sand here was much more firm and the waves much stiller. It was nice, though a little windy. I just kept my ears covered as we walked to avoid any further aggrivation to my sore ear.

Here is Sam, the mighty sea shell hunter.

He found several crab shells (and various crab appendages, too) on this beach and thought they were very cool. He was disappointed when I said he couldn't keep them, but perked right up when I offered to take his picture with them.
James found this nifty little clam shell.
Farther on up the road we were shocked to see a herd of elk--just a mile or two from the ocean! Who knew?! I mean, looking at the terrain they really do fit there... but it just seems so weird. We had already driven through a town called Elk, California, but we thought they were just joking. ;-) We've seen lots of black tail deer on this trip--which I'd never even heard of before. We've learned so much on this trip!
Wow... I liked this picture so much I thought I'd post it again. Hhmmm...
They say that everything's big in Texas. I think most everything is big in California, too! Look at this clover...
Here we are FINALLY in Redwood National Park. :-) Up close...
Far away...
Ad up high...
James adding some scale to the shot. :-)
Though you come here to see the Redwoods, there are LOTS of neat looking trees here.
Here's a picture just for Isaac Hays. Sam with a tree known as Big Tree. Imagine that. ;-) James said this tree is 1500 years old and 310' tall. The tallest known Redwood is 368' or something like that. Soooooo amazing.
What's a walk in the woods without being able to climb. Of course, it's difficult to climb the Redwoods... until they break to pieces and fall down! And really... when you see how many fallen trees are all over the place it makes you a little nervous. I mean, when's the next one going to drop?! Who wants to try to dodge a REDWOOD?!






If only you know what it's like to see this in person--WOW.





The woods here were just soooo cool. It really does look like something out of a movie. Actually, I read that it IS something out of a movie! They filmed all of the Endor scenes (you know, with the Ewoks and the little hover-jet chases) from Return of the Jedi in Redwood Park. I stopped watching those movies years ago (just to be clear--ha!), but those were some pretty amazing scenes. :-)



We went into a gift store somewhere and James was excited to find this. He's always had a thing for Bigfoot. Ha!



I can't believe he didn't put his arm around him!



And like I said, everything is big in California. See the kids?



We made it to Crescent City at about 5:30 tonight and had dinner at a nice little restaurant, then decided to call it a night. We've been driving until dark each night, but everybody is acting pretty worn out at this point and we thought an early night might do us all well. Especially me! Ha! I thank the Lord that I'm not really and truly SICK--that would be a terrible way to vacation! The sore throat has returned a bit, but my ear has all but stopped hurting. Thank God for that!!! The biggest thing is that I just feel soooooo tired and my whole body just aches. But it's been the perfect day to feel bad (if I must feel bad, that is) because we've just done some very light walking through the woods and lots of driving through gorgeous places. It's been so nice and relaxing. The Redwood forests are amazing. It just feels so calm and peaceful and quiet there, almost like nothing at all lives there other than the foliage. I couldn't even hear birds most of the time. It's just so serene. And the PERFECT time of year to come--gorgeous weather and no crowds. :-)

When we got checked in to our motel I headed to the guest laundry room for a while to finally get all of our ocean clothes dried. That feels better! Came back, blogged my little heart out, and now I'm actually going to go to bed at a decent hour and pray for God to touch me and totally heal me so I don't slow down the rest of this vacation for the family! I appreciate your prayers. :-)

Be sure to scroll down and see the pictures for Family Vacation, Part 4 -- I posted BOTH tonight. :-)