Coastal Redwoods

What an amazing time we spent in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park.  The trees are unfathomably tall here – so tall that most of the time we couldn’t see the top! 

The Stout Tree

They are much more secretive about where the tallest tree in the forest is – it is about 380 feet tall, but we never figured out if we saw it or not.  We did find the Stout tree – which is like the 23^rd tallest in the world – so that will have to do.  It’s 360ish feet to the top – worked great for us.

 

I am sure lots of people know that Return of the Jedi was filmed in this area – I didn’t, but I do now!  We had the movie with us and had to cue up a part for the girls to watch.  It looks exactly like Endor.  It’s a temperate rainforest and its gorgeous.  The only thing we found disconcerting was that the sun barely made it though the canopy, so it was dark all the time.  It was like twilight all the time unless we went out to the beach!  Then it was like coming out of a daze – blinking the sunlight back!

The kids took some time to play in the Smith River – it’s the only river in California that has never been dammed.  The water is cold, but its refreshing!

We also thought the banana slugs were awesome! 

In our campsite.  Totally cool to sleep in under the canopy of a Redwood.

MacKerricher State Park

We finally made it to MacKerricher State Park.  Our tire was replaced because it couldn’t be patched (a razor blade got into it and sliced through three rows of tread!) and off we went. 

MacKerricher is a beautiful park with tide pools, super loud surf, black sand pebbly beaches alternating with regular brown sand, and this time of year – harbor seals and their pups.











We parked the RV and went straight to the beach to see the seals.  They were beautiful – Michael thinks they have the perfect life.  Bask in the sun all day, move only when necessary, repeat again tomorrow.  We dug out the binoculars and got some great seal watching in.  We all loved it.

The seal in the middle was staring right at the camera!  So fun!

 They have the skeletons of both a Humpback Whale and a Gray Whale at the entrance to the campground.  They had a sign up that said that they no longer have a complete skeleton due to theft.  How sad is that….

 We took the kids tidepooling and saw a gazillion tiny hermit crabs, two anemones, a jelly fish, and a purple sea urchin.

These are the moments that we take vacations for!

The views from the boardwalk were amazing!  The waves are SO LOUD - Michael and I had to yell on the beach to hear each other.  They sounded so fierce, they freaked Gabi out pretty badly - we only got her to approach the water to see the seals and rinse the sand off her hands.  Otherwise she wasn’t having it.

We loved it here!

Ukiah.....

The Golden Gate Bridge "Fogged In"

Michael was so excited to cross it!

Well, every vacation has at least one hiccup.  We had one with our reservation for the RV park in San Fran, and today we got another one.






Today we traveled through downtown San Francisco, and then much to our delight, had the glorious opportunity to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.

We were running low on lots of food, so we planned a stop in Ukiah, California at a Walmart. It is just 60 miles or so from our next destination, so it seemed like a good place to stop.  When we got there I walked around the RV and heard a hissing sound - Oh NO!  We went into Walmart, shopped, and came back out and it was still hissing.  Michael popped off the wheel cover and checked the tire pressure, and the inner passenger tire on the back dually was down to 20 lbs of pressure instead of 70.  YIKES!

Once again we had tire problems on a Sunday - and nothing was open or able to fix the tire. Impossible that this happened two years in a row! Michael went over to the local farm and ranch store, borrowed a phone book, and called every tire place in town, just to be sure we couldn't fix it, and then gave up.  Then there were calls to the campground to tell them what was going on and I then went on a very hot (102 degrees!) walk trying to find a hotel that had a room and would take the dog.  That took a while.  I finally found a Comfort Inn that was within a few blocks that had a pet room available.  I was happy to just hand over my VISA at that point.  Back I went and drove the RV very slowly to the hotel and dragged the kids, the husband, and the dog in.  After finally cooling down we headed across the parking lot to use every Starbucks card anyone ever gave us to buy enough food for dinner.  Pannis galore.  Michael and I each got a lemonade to symbolize our lemon of a day.  Then a dip in the pool, a couple movies on cable - pretty sure that the kids will think this was the best day of the vacation.

Stressed out parents, but happy children!

Cable TV.....  Oooooo......

It is quite pretty, really.  We are in the middle of wine country.
For some of my friends, breaking down here would be fabulous.

Piedmont

Today we headed into Piedmont to visit the Coen Family.  I have known Dede Brodeur Coen since I was a little girl, but this was the first time that we visited the family at home.  We have always seen them at Grandma Chris and Grandpa Don's house in NJ or at Great Gran's former home in Phoenix!

My girls loved playing with a high schooler- what fun that was!

To get there, we caught a bus to get a BART train - our kids LOVE using public transportation when we get the chance since we seldom do it at home - so that was fun in itself.

Dede picked us up at Rockridge Station and we were whisked away to their house for a day of food and fun.  Dede's husband, Michael, has a phenomenal train collection - and Luke was able to run the train in the basement.  He LOVED that.  Their kids, Elizabeth and Patrick, were so kind to our toy deprived children!

All the kids in one spot.

The girls discovered a gigantic box of My Little Pony figures and they were ready to move in with the family.  Its always a good day when you spend it with friends.

I left my heart....In San Francisco....

Independence Day!  Happy 4^th of July!  Today we rode a shuttle from our campground down to downtown San Francisco.  There was so much to see, so we walked.  A lot.  We did manage to take a cable car ride down to Fisherman’s Warf – that was exciting.  Here we are heading down hill.  We had the good fortune to ride with our particular gripman who is the only woman currently serving in that post, and only the second woman to serve in all the time the cable cars have been in operation.  Isa said that was good girl power.

We headed over to the pier and of course we had to take a picture with Alcatraz in the background.  It was chilly and the kids were freezing!  Those kids have such a bum for a mom – when they asked me if they should wear a hoodie or something I said – Nah, it’s July.  Big mistake.

On Pier 39 we found this fabulous 2 story carousel – and the four of us had to ride on the second story – who doesn’t want that crazy experience?  Michael stayed down to take the pictures – if you look really hard you can just make out Luke up there.

Of course, no trip to San Fran is complete without clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl!  Yum!  All of us chowed down on Chowder – except Luke who had a seafood combo sandwich.  He spent all morning eyeing the perfect place to eat.  Of course, he was in the mood to eat a whole Dungeness Crab and a Ribeye– but he settled for the more modest sandwich (Who taught this kid how to eat?  Geesh!)

Michael went off to try and haggle for some warmer clothes for the kids and they did this impromptu pyramid thing so I could take their picture.  They crack me up.

Off we went to Ghirardelli Square – we bought a big, delightful bag of chocolate and watched the chocolate making automation – it smelled really good in there…..

Isa decided she needed to pose with the naked mermaid.  Perhaps I should feel lucky that she kept her own clothes on!

One of the last things we did before we headed back to Chinatown was to walk up Lombard street.  Crookedest street in America, they claim.  Can’t think of one to rival it, so I would guess that they are right.  Really, really steep too.  We of course, climbed up from bottom to top.  The poor residents – they have to put up with a whole lot of tourists every single day.  Didn’t stop us from going up it though.

We enjoyed our tour of San Fran by foot - and we are all totally worn out.  We headed back to the RV long before it was time for fireworks – but lucky us we are near a state recreation area where people have been shooting of fireworks for HOURS now.  I am pretty sure San Francisco didn’t have three hours of non-stop fireworks, so we ended up with the better deal!

We have an easy day tomorrow with a visit with friends, some laundry, and some chilling out before we head off to our next destination on Sunday.

Monterey and San Jose

Yesterday we drove from Pfeiffer Big Sur to Monterey to see the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The kids were so excited once we got inside – especially Luke, who was just about bouncing out of his skin.

This exhibit was called the splash zone, and it roared water over the glass every few seconds.  Really cool.  It simulated a tidal environment, I think.

I love the wonder in her face!

We were all fascinated by all the different life in the sea.  We were especially fond of the jellyfish, octopus, and all the touch tanks.

Jellies!

More Jellies!

Gabi insisted I take a picture of these tiny jellyfish.  They were so small.

Learning about the deep sea.

Octopus! 

Beautiful Monterey.

After the aquarium we headed to San Jose for a long overdue visit with Michael’s college roommate, Mike Moody.  We met his wonderful wife, Jennie, and their son, Sean.  Our reunion was very graciously hosted by Moody’s mom, Amy, whom we knew from our college days too.  Reuniting with these friends was great fun, and they treated us to a fabulous barbecue!  We even had a chance to have San Jose’s famous Burnt Almond Cake.  Oh my goodness – that cake is on my “I have to learn to make that” list now.  It is divine.

Michael and Moody

Big Sur - by Gabi

This is a picture of our campsite.

We went to the Pacific Ocean. 

  It was very, very cold. 

Our campsite from the back - look at how close we were to the ocean!

We had a lot of fog.  We had fun anyway.  

We went to Sand Dollar Beach.  There was barely anybody there.  

This is Luke jumping into the ocean because he was so excited.

We found lots of sand dollars.  

We were building a sand castle.

We played in the sand and built a sand castle.

While we were there another dog came along and he looked like our dog, Sophie!  His name was Grommet.  Sophie and Grommet played and played.  It was adorable.

Sophie and Grommet

The ocean looked pretty where it hit the rocks. 

The rocks in the ocean were really big.

Isa found a green rock.  That is her favorite color.

Look no one is on the beach with us!  So nice.

The next day we went hiking to Pfieffer Falls in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.  I didn’t like the hike so much because we had to go from rock to rock and climb and slip, but dad bought us ice cream when we were done.  I liked that part.

We had fun in Big Sur.  

PS - what Gabi didn't mention, but we don't want to forget, is that we saw a whale and a dolphin at different times while we were in Big Sur.  The whale was unforgettable - we were in our campsite talking to our site neighbors and watching all the combined kids run around and all of a sudden there was a the loud blast of a whale spout - and we were all staring at the ocean watching a gray whale swim by.  The dolphin we saw while we were at Sand Dollar beach.