Trip to Oregon Part 1

We had the most fantastic time on our trip. The reason for the trip was to see my oldest nephew, my sister Katie's oldest son, Parker, get baptized. She called everyone in the family and invited us to his baptisms on Parkers 7th birthday. So this trip has been a year in planning. So by the time we left we were well ready to be on our way. I am very grateful for cameras, especially digital cameras. Documenting the trip this way, has been a lot of fun. We left the house about 8:00 AM on Wednesday, June 10th. We traveled to Sacramento that night. Our friends, Jeff and Alethea, made us so paranoid about traveling through Nevada, that we did not dare go anything over the limit. I was glad for the warning, because we saw so many people get pulled over. Apparantly, they have a Nevada State Trooper training school, and they practice along I-80. So even though, there was a ton of construction and we stayed at 55 MPH most of the way through Nevada, I am glad we did it. To add to that frustration the kids were AWFUL!! They would not stop fighting from the moment we left the house. "Don't touch me," "I want one," "Why?" Audrey who is done toilet training, had to use the restroom every hour. We eventually gave up on finding a gas station and just pulled off the side of the freeway and held her. Needless to say we were completely exhausted when we arrived at our destination. Our old friends hooked us up to stay with some friends of theirs who are now our friends as well. They had a nice dinner prepared for us and set us up with very comfortable accomodations. It was a good evening. The next morning we got on our way, stopped by a grocery store to get some lunch meat. We had all our lunches prepared and it was the best thing we could have done. Not only did it save us some money, but sometimes we were in a place where there was nothing to eat. Our destination that night was Arcata, California. But along the way, we were going to explore the Redwood Forest. And this is where the pictures begin. We stopped in Leggett, CA to see the "Chandelier Tree" or "Drive Thru Tree" That was really fun to do. Chris drove through it first. Then Chris, and Jack got out to take pictures of when I drove through. So all the pictures it is me driving. It was just a small, but beautiful park, but it had this tree that had fallen and naturally hollowed itself out. When that happens to a redwood, its called a "goose pen." The other pictures are of all of us playing in and around this tree. After we had our fill of the Chandelier Tree, we continued our journey up the Pacific Coast Highway, or HWY 101. The beauty of this trip was that we were not on anyones schedule but our own. As we were traveling we saw this road side attraction that looked fun. It had a big, "Shoe" to play in. Which we let the kids to for a while, then we went inside and did the train ride up the mountain. It was really fun, along the way the conductor would stop and give us tidbits of information about redwoods, how they grow, their root system, and other stuff. After the train ride, they had a simple park with swings and stuff to play on, which we did for a while. Next, item planned was to drive through the "Avenue of the Giants" We did not make it to the "Founders Tree" which is one of the main sights, but we explored and saw the redwood forest all on our own. Chris found this side, dirt row, and we drove down it, and stopped and explored. It was FANTASTIC!!!! There was this tree that had fallen over and we climbed on top of it and played. The part where the tree had snapped was about 20 feet off the ground. I got curious as to how tall this tree was and counted my paces from the part it broke to the very tip. I counted 109 paces, that is not including the base that was still standing. So adding the base and a two foot pace to make up for some baby steps that I had to take that tree was 238 feet tall. Isn't that amazing. The ground we were walking on, was so thick with duff, that is was squishy and bouncy to step on. I kept thinking, "Wow, we should camp here, you wouldn't need a bed mat." We found this tree that had naturally develped two of the goose pens I mentioned earlier. They actually opened up to each other, so it was like having a front door and a back door. Audrey had a bit of a rough time with it all. She scratched her leg on a branch and wasn't too forgiving after that. But Jack could have explored all day long. Him and Chris are such a good match. There were a couple of times I think Chris reverted back to being 10 years old, playing with his brother and not his son. Further on in our journey we passed through a small town I don't remember the name of, and I noticed a tie dye shop off the side of the road. I got so excited and Chris pulled off for me. I fell in love with everything I saw. Jack picked out a shirt that isn't tie dye at all, but a black shirt with a silver lion with green eyes on it. Audrey picked out a purple shirt with a pink heart, tie dye. I had a hard decision to make. I finally chose a shirt that made me feel like I was 17 again. Orange, Yellow, and Green tie dye Grateful Dead shirt. I swear that shirt lifted me back to high school. Chris never was one for tie dye, so he didn't get anything. After that we continued our trip into Arcata for the night, we were absolutely starving when we arrived and just went to a local family style restaurant for dinner. But of course we couldn't end the day so serenely could we? A while ago, my dad told me a story about how he stayed in a motel that had bed bugs, and woke up with bites all over his body. I have been absolutely horrified of staying in a motel since I heard that story. This night, was the first night I have done so. I could not get this story out of my head. I was paranoid going to sleep that night. Every little tickle I felt on my skin I swatted at. But then, there was this tickle that kept crawling down my arm. I swatted at it, then I caught it between my fingers. The whole room had settled for the night, so I did try to be quiet. I kept whatever it was between my fingers and headed for the bathroom, so I didn't disturb everyone else. I turned on the bathroom light, and looked at what it was. It was a TICK. Can you believe it? I totally freaked out. The funny part was, is I thought it was a bed bug at first, not a tick. I brought it out to Chris and showed him. He was like, "Sheila, thats a tick, you wouldn't be able to see, let along capture a bed bug." Whatever!! It doesn't make it any better. So, I stripped down and jumped in the shower. Chris came in and checked me further to see if I had any other stray ticks on me. Thankfully I was clear, but it sure freaked me out. After that we finally settled down and had a good night sleep. All in all it was a fabulous day!!

Audrey sitting on the 109 paces long tree.
Mom and Audrey in the "Goose Pen" of a redwood tree
(Sideways) Jack in the Goose pen
Photo Op, this is the place we went on the train ride. Left-Audrey; Center Left-Chris; Center Right - empty; Right - Jack
At the Confusion Hill playground, Audrey on her swing
Jack monkeyin' around. This was pretty good, I thought, no hands!
Me at Confusion Hill
Audrey on the train ride
Jack on the train ride
The family on the train ride
The wooden shoe. Jack as high as he could climb, and Audrey our little supermodel. She actually posed like this, I didn't tell her to do it.
A fallen tree at the "Chandelier Tree" park

The family at the opening of the chandelier tree or drive thru tree

That's our car, we haven't entered the tree quite yet.
Half way through, Jack tried to climb back in, but it was too tight and he wasn't able to do so.
Just pulling out the other side.
As you can tell we had plenty of clearance on top, but on the side we only had inches on either side of the wing mirrors.