Redwoods

Last month my entire family (minus 1 brother) made the trek out to the Redwoods in Northern California.  It was absolutely amazing and we had such a great time.  We left Sunday morning (after being at the Utah/BYU game til midnight) and drove to Reno.  We stayed the night and let the bambinos get their wiggles out in the pool.  The next morning we ate breakfast and drove the rest of the way to Crescent City, California (stopping in Medford of course to stash up on our Costco supplies).  It is approximately a 14-15 hour drive.  Long time in the car but the boys were troopers. 

 Once we were getting closer to our destination it was just beautiful.  The road is windey and the trees are on both sides of the road.  Huge, massive trees.  I tell you, I don't know that I'm happier anywhere more than in nature.  I love, love, love the forests, the mountains.  Brandt and I are determined to be camp hosts when we retire.  Anyway, I digress, trees.  We arrived on Monday afternoon/evening and unpacked, checked out the place, and had dinner. 

Tuesday we drove down and met Paul Bunyan and Babe.

  It was hilarious.  The Paul Bunyan talks, welcoming you to the little attraction, and comments when you are talking amoungst yourselves.  My brother Craig had said something like, "I wish I had chest hair like that."  You know, just being funny, and all of a sudden he says, "You'll grow into it, son."  We died.  One of us also called Babe a cow and he corrected us that he is an Ox. 

Anyway, you pay money and you get to go look at their little preserve they have and see all these amazing trees, and then you get to take a gondola ride up the mountain which was really cool to see the ginormous trees at that perspective. 

 Then we drove further down the coast and went to this Fern Grotto, Fern Gully, Fern Something place.  I forget what it is called.  It was awesome.  It was just a little walk but you go through streams and climb over trees and there are walls of ferns and it is breath-taking.  You think that you are in Jurassic Park. 

The next day we went to another little walking trail called Stout Grove.  Also awesome.  The kids had a blast climbing over these huge trees and playing.  Seriously in awe of the amazing creations of our Heavenly Father.  Unbelievable.  I've never seen anything like it.  It was a really, really fun day. 

The next day we drove through a tree...because you have to.  It's on private property and you pay them money and they let you drive through it.  Kinda silly but we really wanted to do it.  The truck BARELY fit.  There was probably a couple inches on each side. 

And the last day we went to the lighthouse.  It's only accessable during low tide.  We checked it out (it was closed for renovations so we couldn't go in) and walked around the ocean.  You could walk out on the rocks and see the crabs and star fish and the rocks were covered with mussels.  After that we walked down the pier and watched the birds and just purused.  Life gets so busy that it's nice to just do that sometimes.  We definetly don't do enough of that at our house. 

Then on Friday we drove home...ALL THE WAY HOME.  We got home I think about 11 that night.  It was a long drive.  Charlie puked 3 times cause we went the "scenic," quicker route.  Note to self...NO SCENIC ROUTES WITH KIDS!!!  You would think we'd learned our lesson when we took the round-a-bout way to Yellowstone.  Poor Charlie.  It was such a great trip and I am trying to figure out how we can convince Brandt's family we need to go with them.